Society, Administration And Identities In Latin Greece 133
The first category was to be found in Crete, while an example of a more
complex type is noted in the town of Nicosia on the island of Cyprus. In Crete,
one of Venice’s older and more long-lasting possessions (1204–1669), commu-
nal councils existed in the capital of the island, Candia, but also in Rethymnon
and Canea, capitals of the homonymous administrative districts. These coun-
cils comprised of members of both the Venetian and Cretan nobility (nobili
Veneti, nobili Cretesi).
This social configuration took shape by degrees. Thus, in the earliest period
of Venetian rule it was the feudatories who made up the upper social rank,
these comprising exclusively Venetian colonists who settled on Crete during
the successive colonisations of the 13th century. As mentioned above, the old
Greek-Orthodox landowning families of Byzantine extraction were initially
excluded from the new system. However, at the end of the great revolution-
ary movements of the 13th and 14th centuries, social privileges and fiefs were
also granted to Greeks in exchange for their capitulation to Venice. During this
period, the councils of feudatories, mainly Latins but also Greeks, belonging
to the three Cretan towns of Candia, Rethymnon and Canea, constituted the
dominant collective bodies. In addition, there functioned in Candia a collec-
tive organ of urban character, i.e. the Great Council (Consilium Maius, Maggior
Consiglio), participation in which depended on strict conditions: high repute,
legitimate issue and non-exertion of any manual craft.
Angeliki Tzavara and Despina Vlassi (Venice, 2009), pp. 483–95; Panaghiota Tzivara,
Βενετοκρατούμενη Ζάκυνθος, 1588–1594: Η νομή και η διαχείριση της εξουσίας από το Συμβούλιο
των 150 [Venetian Zakynthos, 1588–1594: The Acquisition and Exercise of Power by the
Council of 150] (Αthens, 2009). Concerning Cephalonia, among their copious articles, see
Νikos G. Μoschonas, “Πρακτικά Συμβουλίου Κοινότητας Κεφαλονιάς. Βιβλίο 1 (19 Μαρτίου–
19 Απριλίου 1593)” [“Minutes from the Council of the Community of Cephalonia. Book 1
(19 March–19 April 1593)”], Σύμμεικτα 3 (1979), 265–350; Despina Er. Vlassi, “Ένταξη νέων
μελών στο Συμβούλιο της Κεφαλονιάς από το γενικό προβλεπτή της Θάλασσας Francesco
Grimani (1760)” [“The Introduction of New Members into the Council of Cephalonia by
the Proveditor General da Mar Francesco Grimani (1760)”], Κεφαλληνιακά Χρονικά 5 (1986),
74–127; see also Stamatoula S. Zapandi, Κεφαλονιά, 1500–1571: Η συγκρότηση της κοινωνίας
του νησιού [Cephalonia, 1500–1571: The Formation of the Island’s Society] (Thessalonica,
1999), pp. 244–63. Concerning the Peloponnese, see Konstantinos Dokos, “Οι αστικές
κοινότητες και οι αγγαρείες του Δημοσίου στη βενετοκρατούμενη Πελοπόννησο” [“The Civic
Communities and the Corvée Due to the State in the Venetian Peloponnese”], Εώα και
Εσπέρια 4 (1999–2000), 243–81; Αlexis Malliaris, Η Πάτρα κατά τη βενετική περίοδο, 1687–1715:
γη, πληθυσμοί, κοινωνία στη Β.Δ. Πελοπόννησο [Patras during the Venetian Period, 1687–1715:
Land, Populations and Society in the North-Western Peloponnese] (Venice, 2008), mainly
pp. 247–64.