Land and Landowners in the Greek Territories 99
had been born on the island.31 The feudal class of Crete, therefore, comprised
of both Latins and Greeks. The latter formed a group with certain particular
traits and belonged mostly to the lower and middle tiers of the feudatory class.
Nevertheless, the ownership of land and the responsibilities that issued from
this formed a link between the tiers of the feudal class and between Latin and
Greek feudatories, that led to common interests. This resulted in the formation
of a class that was consolidated and shared common features.
The Registers of Fiefs and the Control of Public Land
The fact that the Venetian state remained at all times the direct owner of all
the land of Crete led the authorities to establish a mechanism for the super-
vision of landed property. This was done by creating official registers, which
would record the land and its owners as well as any subsequent changes in
ownership that might occur.32 In the Byzantine Empire such registers already
existed and were used for the collection of land taxes.
The Venetians adopted the Greek term catasticum (or catastico), which
they found in use amongst the locals (vulgariter) and invested it with a simi-
lar meaning. It referred to a book which recorded the lands granted as fiefs
(feuda) to the new landowners, that is the feudatories (feudatarii). Through
this land register the Venetians kept records of the names of the feudatories
and oversaw the developments in landownership but also determined the
responsibilities of the feudatories. These responsibilities depended on the
size of the land and not on the revenues generated, so no information is con-
tained in the registers about the way the land was exploited and the incomes
it produced. Instead, they record the components of each fief, the changes
in ownership and the subdivisions which occurred. The registers contain an
entry for each fief which lists all of its characteristics, in its original form: the
name of its owner, its size (based on the units of serventaria and cavallaria),
the manner in which its military service was discharged and the names of the
villages, lands and villeins that were contained within the territory of the fief.
Subsequently, each entry recorded all changes in the ownership of the whole
31 On the relations between Latins and Greeks and the identities of the two groups, as well
as their bearing on the social and economic life of Crete, see Sally McKee, Uncommon
Dominion: Venetian Crete and the Myth of Ethnic Purity (Philadelphia, 2000).
32 The same procedures were adopted by the Venetian authorities of Modon and Coron,
who also created such registers, at least as early as the beginning of the 14th century. See
Jacoby, “From Byzantium to Latin Romania: Continuity and Change”, p. 11.