THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES d'*^^ ^3/r 1 V6ts >- 1"^ DALMATIA THE QUAEiSrEEO A^D ISTEIA JACKSON VOL. I. HENRY FROWDE Oxford University Press Warehouse Amen Corner, E.C. DALMATIA THE QUARNEKO AND ISTRIA CETTIGNE IN MONTENEGEO AND THE ISLAND OF GEADO BT T. G. JACKSON, M.A., F.S.A. HONORARY FELLOW OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD ARCHITECT AUTHOR OF 'modern GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE' IN THREE VOLUMES VOLUME I Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1887 \^All rights reserved'] Art Library TO MY WIFE THRICE MY COMPANION ON THE FARTHER SHORES OF ADRIA I DEDICATE THIS RESULT OF OUR TRAVELS 129S'07'7 PREFACE. It is not only now when Europe waits to know whether the war-cloud that threatens her will first burst in thunder on the Rhine or on the Danube, nor only in modern times since the Eastern question has arisen to vex politicians, that the attention of Englishmen has been engaged by the Balkan penin- sula and the eastern sea-board of the Adriatic. English travellers were the first to make these countries and the monuments of art which they con- tain known to western Europeans. George Wheler visited Spalato in 1675, and has left us the earliest description of the ruins of Diocletian's palace ; Robert Adam's account of that building, published in 1 764, is still the best ; the antiquities of Pola were explored by Stuart in 1750, and splendidly illustrated in the fourth volume of the great work that goes by his name ; Sir Gardner Wilkinson in 1 848 published an excellent general account of Dal- matia Montenegro and part of Herzegovina ; Mr. Paton's book followed ; more recently Professor viii Preface. Freeman has published some brief sketches of the earlier architecture of some of the maritime towns ; while the well-known researches of Mr. Arthur Evans in the interior of Bosnia and Herzegovina have introduced us to a part of Europe till then im- known. Even foreigners who have written on these lands have found more readers in our country than their own, and Professor Eitelberger of Vienna tells us that the first edition of his book on the mediaeval art of Dalmatia was almost entirely bought up in England ^ Of all these South Slavonic countries none in the estimation of the artist and the historian can compare with Dalmatia, the narrow strip of rock and moorland between the mountains and the sea which fenced out the Turk from the Adriatic, and stayed the tide of Moslem conquest in the south. In Dalmatia arts and letters flourished and commerce sprang up with all her civilizing influences, while the Slavonic kingdoms of the interior remained in semi-barbarism, wasting their strength in inter- necine struggles, and paving the way for the west- ward progress of the Turkish hordes. This superiority of Dalmatia is due partly to her maritime position * He says, * Dalmatien tvar den Engldndern seit jeher ein inter- essantes Land, den meisten Oesterreichern hlieb es eine " Terra incog- nita." ' Kunstdenkmale Dalmatiens, Preface to 2nd edition, 1884. Preface. ix which brought her mto contact with Italy and the West, but still more to the survival along her coast of certain ancient Roman municipalities, which in the midst of a flood of barbarian colonization kept alive the traditions of civil order, settled law, and an ancient cultm-e. Throughout the middle ages they jealously maintained the civic liberties they in- herited from the Roman empire ; and while outside their boundaries all the world spoke Illyric, the citizens still used the language of their Roman fore- fathers till it passed into its modern form of Italian. To this day they cling to their ' coltiiva Latina ' with passionate affection ; and though the Croats, backed by the Austrian government, are fighting hard to Slavonize the cities and reduce them to the same rule as the rural districts, the issue of the struggle is still doubtful. The survival of these waifs and strays of the Roman emph-e is unique ; it is an historical phenomenon of almost unparalleled interest ; and one cannot contemplate without regret the possibility of its disappearance. The Roman antiquities of Dalmatia and Istria have been weU described and illustrated, but the rich stores of mediaeval art in which those countries abound have hitherto been but little noticed and have remained generally unknown. The only work of importance on this subject is that of Professor X Preface. Eitelberger, who describes with considerable minute- ness the Romanesque and Gothic architecture at Arbe Zara Trail Spalato and Ragusa, and in his second edition has added some brief notes on Sebenico and the valley of the Kerka. In another work he has described the churches of Parenzo and Grado. His premature death in 1885 prevented the visit he had proposed making to Cattaro in the company of Professor Gelcich of Ragusa. His work stops short of the renaissance, and leaves untouched not only Cattaro but all the islands, which are scarcely in- ferior in interest to the mainland. In the following pages I have endeavoured to give a tolerably complete description of all the archi- tectural monuments of importance on the mainland of Dalmatia, the islajids, the Croatian shore of the Quarnero, and the Litorale of Istria from Pola to Aquileja. To this I have added an account of the island of Grado, which though never like Aquileja part of Istria, is so intimately connected with Dalmatia as the metropolitan see of the Vene- tian dominion that it naturally belongs to my sub- ject. Grado is I believe unknown to English art students except by report, and many of the places I shall describe wiU be I am sure unknown to them even by report. Few persons have any idea of the beauty and extent of the art-treasures of Preface. xi these countries, which indeed so far as I know- have never before been explored from end to end by a professional student of architecture. The book is fully illustrated with plates and cuts. The illustrations are not confined to architectural subjects, but include several examples of church plate and silversmiths' work, in which Dalmatia is unusually rich, and also several general views of the towns which will give an idea of Dalmatian scenery. A few illustrations, chiefly plans of build- ings, are taken from other works, and these are in all cases acknowledged ; the rest are from original drawings of my own. The brief sketches of the history of Dalmatia and that of Istria which will be found in the first and last volumes are gathered from a variety of sources, some of which are not easily accessible, and they will therefore it is hoped have a certain value. I have also prefixed to each place a short sketch of the local history, derived in many cases from unpub- lished records. The materials for Dalmatian history can be collected only in the country ; the works of the local historians, of whom there are many, often exist only in MS., and even when printed are seldom found beyond the province. Many of them have been prepared with great care, and most of them contain valuable extracts from original docu- xii Preface. ments ; but the reader has to be on his guard how he accejDts the conclusions of a Latin or a Croat writer in a country where poHtics of creed and race run so high. Travelhng in Dahnatia is simple enough for those who are satisfied with the glimpse at the four or five principal towns which may be had by travelling down the coast in the Austrian Lloyd's steamers. To do more than this is not so easy, as may be gathered from several incidents of our travels recorded in the following pages, and ordinary tourists would do well to keep to the beaten track. But there are no difficulties to deter those who are strong and well, and enjoy exposure and exercise, and can put up with rustic fare and homely quarters, and speak the Italian language. In all my three visits to Dalmatia, in 1882, 1884, and 1885, my wife was with me, and we agreed that we had often fared worse nearer home. The trifling discomforts we encountered were more than compensated by the pleasure of explora- tion ; the keen delight of sailing away perhaps in early morning from some little mainland port to the unknown wonders of some island, ignorant what there might be to see there, no guide-book having robbed us of our discovery, but never except once failing to find beauties of art and nature exceeding our expectations. Preface. xiii My task has been a laborious one, and has occu- pied more time than I could well spare from my art : it would have been impossible but for the ready help afforded me on all occasions by the local authorities, and the antiquaries and others in the country interested in my work. To name all to whom I am indebted would be difficult ; but I must in particular express my obligations to the arch- bishop of Zara for leave to enter the Benedictine nunnery ; to Monsignor Bianchi, Professors Brunelli and Smirich, and Signor Artale, of Zara ; to Mon- signor Fosco, bishop of Sebenico, and Dr. Galvani of the same city ; to Professor Bulic of Spalato ; to Conte Fanfogna-Garagnin, podesta of Trail, and his sons Conte Gian Domenico and Conte Gian Luca ; to Canonico Don Andrea Alibranti and Professor Vid Vuletic Vukasovic of Curzola ; to the bishop of Pagusa for access to the treasury and the statuette of S. Biagio ; to Professor Giuseppe Gelcich of Pagusa, who accompanied me to Cattaro, his native place ; to Signor Hortis, the civic librarian of Trieste ; to Dr. Carlo Gregorutti of Fiumicello near Aquileja ; and to many others, from whom I have not only received much valuable information and help, but in many cases copies of their own publications, from which I have derived material assistance. I have also been indebted to Mr. Richard xiv Preface. Greenham and the late Mr. Grant Greenham of Trieste, and to Signer Simeone Salghetti-Drioli of Zara, for much hospitable attention and many useful introductions. I cannot say enough of the kindness and hospitality with which we were received every- where on our travels by those to whom we brought introductions, and not unfrequently by others to whom our only introduction was that we were strangers. The modern Dalmatians deserve to in- herit the character given by an ancient geographer to their predecessors the Illyrians of old : — Oeoae^ei^ S' avrovs ayav Koi aCpoSpa SiKatov^, (paal, Kai (piXo^evovs. T. G. J. II, Nottingham Place: March 4, 1887. IISTDEX TO THE ILLUSTEATIOl^S. Map of Dalmatia, Istria and Croatia at beginning of Vol. I. Almissa. View of town and castle Mirabella Aquileja. Duomo. Interior view Do. Capital in crypt Do. Patriarchal tlirone . . . Do. Ascent to choir Akbe. Palazzo Nimira Seal of Marc' Antonio de Dominis Campanile Do. Inscription on spire Duomo. Inscription in south wall Do. Capital in nave Do. Ciborio Do. Reliquary of S. Cristoforo S. Giovanni Battista, Plan. . . . Do. View of the apse Do. Inscription belonging now in S. Giustina View of the city BURNUM. Roman arches. Suplja Crkva Castelnuovo. General view ... Convent of Savina. Crosses treasury ... Do. Silver plate in do. Vol and ume page. Plate. ... ii. i68 ... iii. 396 LXIV. ... iii. 397 ... iii. 400 . . . iii. 402 LXV ... iii. 208 . .. iii. 210 ... iii. 210 LVII. ... iii. 212 ... iii. 216 i. 214 i. Fig. 5. . .. iii. 218 liVIII. ... iii. 221 . .. iii. 226 ... iii. fn 226 LIX. . .. iii. 233 . .. iii. 237 ... ii. 194 . .. iii. in 19 ... iii. 24 Iii. ... iii. 28 lill. Cut. 52 122 123 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 lOI 55 73 XVI Index to the Illustrations. C'attaro. Details of the duomo and other buildings The Duomo. Sacristy doorway Do. Inscrij)tion over sacristy doorway Do. Epitaph of Andreascio and Maiia Saracenis Do. Ciborio Do. Inscription to Bishop Deodati Plans of La Collegiata and S. Lnca ... Cettigne. View of convent and old tower Cherso. Street view ... CURZOLA. Seal of the Comune ... General view of town Duomo. "West front Do. Interior view Do. Capital in south nave arcade Do. Sacristy doorway in north aisle Do. Mason's marks on the apses Knocker on door of Palazzo Arneri ... Cloister of the Badia ... Epitaph in church of the Badia Dernis. Turkish minaret Capital of Turkish workmanship FlUME. Roman arch ... Epitaph in church of Tersatto GrRADO. View of the city from the lagune Duomo. Ground-plan Do. Inscription in mosaic floor... Do. Capital in nave Volume md page. Plate. iii. 38 LIII. iii. 43 iii. 43 iii. 44 iii. 45 iii. 47 iii. 50 iii. 60 iii. 115 ii. 237 li. 248 xxxin. ii. 250 XXXIV, ii. 252 XXXV. ii. 254 XXXVI. ii. 256 ii. 265 ii. 268 ii. 274 XXXVII. ii. 276 ii. 180 ii. 181 iii. 165 iii. 170 iii. 409 iii. 413 iii. 415 iii. 417 Index to the Illnstrations. XVI 1 N and lume page. Plate. Cut. Duomo. Pierced window slab iii. 420 128 Do. Part of mosaic pavement, iu colour iii. 422 LXVI. Do. Patriarchal throne ... iii. 427 129 Do. Details of do. iii 428 130 Do. Pulpit iii. 430 131 ISTEIA. Group of Istrian peasants Jak {in Hungar])). East end of church and various details iii. 249 102 of its architecture ii. 154 XXV. AVest doorway of do. . . . ii. 156 XXVI. Lesina. View of the city with the tower of S. Marco ii. 218 XXVII. Porta Maggiore and Palazzo Eai- mondi ii. 220 XXVIII. The Loggia and Forte Spagnuolo The Duomo. Ambo and choir stalls... ii. ii. 222 224 XXIX. XXX. Do. Pastorale of Bp. Patrizio ii. 226 XXXI. S.Francesco. Nave window... ii. 229 56 Do. "West doorway Mezzo. ii. 230 XXXII. Chalice Window in chiesa matrice ii. ii. 388 L. 71 Tower of S. Domenico ii. 394 72 Diagram of paintings in reredos of Franciscan church MUGGIA VECCHIA. ii. 396 ... 72a Ground- plan of church iii. 372 120 Interior view ... Nona. iii. 373 121 Views and plans of S. Croce and S. Nicolo Doorhead fi-om S. Croce 342 214 XI. I. Fig. 2. S. Marcella. Capital from ... S. Ambrogio. Exterior view Do. Detail of window in do.... 214 349 349 I. Fig. 4. 18 19 VOL. I. XV! 11 Index to the Illustrations. Volume and page. NOVIGEAD, View of the castle Sculptured panel OSSEEO. General view ... Nave capital ... Ostensorio in treasury of duomo Episcopal throne Sketch-plan of ancient basilica Paeenzo. Duomo. Ground-plan Do. Inscription of Euphrasius on mosaics of apse , . . Do. Do. Do. on ciborio Do. The Atrium Do. Monogram of Bishop Eu- phrasius ... Nave capitals, &c. ... Interior of the apse Mosaic floor in chapel B ... Do. do. C ... Stalls in a side chapel View of front Window ... Inscription Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Canonica Do. Do. POLA. Inscription of Bp. Handegis on the duomo S. Michele in Monte. Ground-plan . . . S. Maria di Canneto. Fragment Rag USA. Old doorway on hill near the duomo... Panel from S. Stefano... Palace. View of the Piazza, with the Rector's i)alace, Dogana and Torre dell' Orologio Do. Geometrical details of the palace Do. ^sculapius capital ... 1. 327 i. 214 iii. 100 iii. loi iii. 102 iii. 104 iii. 106 iii. 311 iii. 312 iii- 313 iii. 316 iii. 317 iii. 318 iii. 320 iii. 3; iii. 326 iii. 328 iii. 330 iii. 331 iii. 332 111. 295 iii. 298 iii. 301 ii. 327 i. 214 11- 332 ii- 333 ii- 334 Plate. I. Fii LX. LXI. LXII. LXIII. I. Fig. I. XXXVIII. XXXIX. XL. Cut. 16 82 83 84 106 Fig. Fi_^. I06b. 108 109 IIO III 112 103 104 105 62 Index to the lUnstrations. XIX Ragusa {continued). Palace. Capital with amorini Do. Capital (B) and capital with judgment of Solomon Do. Cortile of Palace and that of the Sponza Do. Console with the figui'e of Justice Do, Capital with the Rector ad- ministering justice The reliquary of S. Biagio in the duomo The Sponza Dominican convent. The cloister Do. Trij)le arch at west end of church Franciscan convent. The cloister . , . do. Capitals in cloister do. do. do. do. Epitaph of Mag. Mycha Do. of Gino di Alexio . . . Do. of Mag. Kadun Silver statuette of the Saint Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. S. Biagio Salona. Map of the city Basilica. Ground-plan Amphitheatre... S. LOKENZO IN PaSENATICO. Duomo. Ground-plan and section ... Do. Details of columns of do. . . . Do. Pierced stone window in do. Sebenico. View of town from the landing-place Duomo. Exterior, from the piazza ... Do. Ground-plan Do. The Lion doorway ... Do. Interior Do. Capital of north-west pier of lantern b2 Volume and page. Plate. "• 335 ii- 336 XLI. ii. 342 XLII. ii- 344 ii- 344 XLIII. ii- 350 XXIV. ii- 358 XLV. ii. 364 XLVI. ii. 366 XLVII. ii. 370 XL VIII. ii. 370 ii. 371 ii. 372 ... ii- 373 ... ii- 373 ... ii- 373 ... ii- 374 XLIX. ii. 87 ii. 89 ii. 98 iii. 336 iii- 337 ... iii- 338 i. 376 i-378 XII. i. 382 i-384 XIII. i.386 i. 388 XIV. Cut. 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 42 43 44 "3 114 "5 21 22a XX Index to the Illustrations. Sebenico {continued). Duomo. Stringcourse over nave ar- cades Do. View of west end and cam- panile Do. Apse window Doorway of house belonging to Giorgio Orsini Costume of peasants ... Segxa. Castle of Nehaj Spalato. Plan of Diocletian's palace . . . Porta Aurea. Elevation and plan Temple of Jupiter {the duomo). Ground- plan Do. Section Interior Finial on roof... The pulpit Capital of pulj)it Panels of great doors ... ii. The choir stalls Elevation, plans and Do. The Duomo. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. The Campanile, details Do. Escutcheon on do. Treasur}". Cyjiher on a chalice The Baptistery {TemjiJe o/jEscidapius). Plan and section Do. Figure sculpture on font Epitaph of archbishop John ofEavenna Epitaph of archbishop Laurentius Epitaph of princesses Catharine and Margaret SS. Trinitk. Plan, section and ele- vation Staircase in cortile of a private house Trau General view from the sea Volume and page. Plate. i. 390 i. 392 XV. i. 399 i. 406 i. 408 iii. 193 ii. 22 ii. 28 ii. 33 ii. 33 ii. 34 XVI. ii. 39 ii. 44 XVII. ii. 45 ii. 48 XVIII. ii. 50 XIX. ii. 54 XX. ii. 56 ii. 60 ii. 65 ii. 69 ii. 70 ii. 70 ii. 71 ii. 73 ii. 82 ii. 106 Index to the Illustrations, XXI Ground-plan Capital of northern nave do. of southern apse lIonoe:ram of Cireneus Teau {continued). Duomo. Ground-plan Do. West doorway Do. Inscription on lintel of do, Do. Detail of sculpture on do. Do. East end, exterior view Do. Nave capital Do. Silver brocca in treasury Do. Inscription on campanile The Loggia. Capital of Do. View ... Tbieste. Duomo, Do. Do. Do. Ugliano. Ploughs used by Dalmatian peasantry Veglia. Duomo. Capital in nave ... Do. Capital in nave Do. Inscription on a column of nave Do. Interior. Nave column and ambo Do. Pala of silver gilt Do. Do. one of the figures in do. ... S. Quirino. East end S. Maria. Capital from Inscription on Torre dei Frangipani . View from the sea Vbana. View of castle Zaka. Duomo and S. Donato. Plans of S. Donato. Doorway of Do. Interior of S. Pietro Vecchio. Plan of . . . S. Lorenzo. Interior and plan of . Volume and page. Plate. ii. no ii. 112 XXI. ii. 113 ii. 118 XXII. ii. 120 XXIII. ii. 123 ii. 126 ii. 138 ii. 141 ii. 142 XXIV. iii- 354 iii. 358 iii- 359 iii. 361 i- 337 iii. 141 i. 214 I. Fig. 9. iii. 143 iii. 144 iii. 148 LV. iii. 148 iii. 152 LVI. i. 214 I. Fig. 7. iii- 153 iii. 154 i. 360 i. 251 i- 253 i. 256 u. i. 262 i. 264 in. Cut. 46 47 48 49 50 51 116 117 118 119 17 86 87 87a 88 89 90 XXll Index to the Illustrations. Zaka {continued). Volume and page. Plate. Cut. S. Lorenzo. Capital ... i. 214 I. Fig. 6. S. Ox'sola Plan of i. 266 4 Duomo. Stringcourse over nave ar- cades i. 271 5 Do. Interior of choir ... i. 272 IV. Do. Inscription on ciborio i. 274 6 Do. Choir stalls i. 275 7 Do. West front ... i. 278 V. Do. Pastorale of archbishop Vala- resso i. 282 VI. S. Gri&ogono. Ground-plan ... i. 289 8 Do. Eastern apses. Ex- terior i. 290 VII. S. Maria. Campanile i. 300 VIII. Do. Plans and sections of Sala Capitolare i. 302 9 Do. Stringcourse in do. i- 303 10 Do. Tomb of the abbess Ve- kenega i. 304 II Do. Inscription on do. i- 305 12 Do. Capitals in chapel vindei tower ... i- 307 13 S. Francesco. Choir stalls ... i. 311 14 Da Chalices i. 312 IX. Do. Old capital lying at . . . i. 214 I. Fig. 8. S. Simeone. One end of the silvei ark ... i. 318 X. "Window and balcony ... i. 320 15 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THOSE INSCRIPTIONS WHICH ARE GIVEN IN FACSIMILE i. c. 530-540. Parenzo. lloman cbaractei's . . . 571-580. Grado. Do, do. 680. Spalato. c. 800-820. Cattaro. 857. Pola. 1099. Spalato. liii. Zara. 1 190. Veglia. Do. c. 1200 1 Arbe. Do. 1240. Trail. Lombarc 1242. Spalato. Do. I25I. Parenzo. Do. 1254. Cattaro. Do. 1287. Arbe. Do. c. 1317? Eagusa. Do. 1332- Zara. Do. 1363- Eagusa. Do. 1422. Trail. Do. 1428. Eagusa. Do. 1430. Curzola. Do. c. 1439? Tersatto. Eoman viated 1454- Arbe. Eoman Irregular Eoman, Square Os Fanciful Eoman. Square Os Do, do. Square Cs Eoman approaching Lom- bardics ... Do, do. do. much abbreviated do. do. do. do. fancifull}' abbre- Vol. Page. ]II. 312. III. 415, Plate LXVI, 422 II. 70, Fig. 37 III. 43. 44- III. 295- II. 70, Fig. 38. I. 305- III. 143-153- III. 212. II. 113. II. 71- III. 332. IIT. 47- III. 216. 11. 373, Fig. 68 I. 274. II. 373, Fig. 69 II. 138. II. 373, Fig- 70 II. 276. III. 170. III. 233- ^ This series gives the history of the character used from the sixth century to the renaissance. It will be observed that the Gothic or ' black letter' is absent. I can recall no instances of it in Dalmatia except those noted in vol. i. pp. 318, 393, 397' ^^^^ even in those cases it is mixed with Lombardic or Roman letteriu',-. CO^TE^TS OF VOLUME I. CHAPTER I. PAGE The History of Dai-matia ...... i First Period, Dalmatia under the Eomans, pp. i-io. Second Period, Dalmatia under the Byzantine empire, down to the ari'ival of the Hungarians, pp. 10-35. Third Period, Dalmatia contested by Venice and Hungary, pp. 36-141. Fourth Period, Dalmatia under Venice, pp. 141-164. Social condition under Venice, pp. 168- 181. Mudern condition of Dalmatia, pp. 1 81-192. Table of Kings of Hungary, p. 193. CHAPTER II. Dalmatia .......... 195 The country and the people, pp. 195-203. Sketch of the history of architecture in Dalmatia, pp. 203-226. List of principal buildings, with their dates, p. 226. CHAPTER III. Zara 230 Description of the city, p. 230. History, p. 243. Roman remains, p. 246. CHAPTER IV. Zara 249 S. Donato, p. 249. Other churches, pp. 261-267. The duomo, p. 267. Grisogono, p. 288. S. Maria, p. 296. S. Francesco, p. 309. S. Simeone, p. 312. Domestic architecture, p. 321. xxvi Contents. CHAPTER V. PACK NOVIGEAD 322 CHAPTER VI. S. MicHELE d' Ugliano 332 CHAPTER VII. Nona 338 CHAPTER VIII. Veana 353 CHAPTER IX. Sebenico 368 History, p. 368. The city, p. 376. The duomo, p. 378. Other churches, p. 405. House of Giorgio Orsiui, p. 406. Costume, p. 407. The river Kerka, p, 409. Scardona, 411. The falls of the Kerka, p. 414. APPENDIX. Contract of Giorgio Orsini, Architect of the duomo of Sebenico 416 EEEATA TO VOLUME I. P. 27, line 2, for them rtad the Narentines. P. 29, line 1 9, for Belgrade read, Belgrad. P. 33, line 9, and p. 153, line 25, for Illyrian read Ulyric. P. 39, line 27, for or Vranjica read of Vranjica. P. 41, line 2, for Tartar read Scythian. Pp, 43, 77, 229, 297, /or Ursini read Orsini. P. 61, line 2, for Mega Juppanus read Megajupanus, P. 178, line 9, for Titian read Tintoret. P. 195, for Diolcea read Dioclea. P. 196, note, line i, for Primorje read Prim one. P. 274, line 19, for Littorale read Litorale. P. 281, line 2-), for C'assione read S. Casaiano. !*• 325, add references to notes. P. 416, heading to Appendix, for p. 98 read p. 389. NOSA CHAPTER I. HiSTOEY OF DaLMATIA. First Period. — Dalmatia under the Eomans, and down to the fall of the Western empire, a.d, 476. Second. Period. — Dalmatia under the Byzantine empire, down to the arrival of the Hungarians, a.d. i 102. Third Period.- — Dalmatia contested by Hungary and Venice, down to the final Venetian occupation, a.d. 1409-1420. Fourth Period. — Dalmatia under the Venetians, down to the fall of the Republic, a.d. 1797. Review of the social condition of Dalmatia under Venetian rule from a.d. i 409-1 797. Present condition of the province. Chronological table of the Kings of Hungary down to 1526. FIRST PERIOD. Dalmatia under tJte Bomans. The early history of lUyria, like that of other Early in- - -J- habitants. countries, is lost in myths and legends. Its name is variously derived from Illyrius a son of the Cyclops Polyphemus and Galatea ^ or from Hyllus a son of Hercules who conquered it and founded a kingdom there ; the Argonauts find their way thither by ascending the Ister from the Euxine sea, and descending a mythical branch into the Adriatic near the peninsula which they name Istria in memory of their route ; and the Briseides insulae in the Quarnero are renamed after Ab- ^ Appian. VOL. I. B 2 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. T. syrtus, the brother of Medea, who there met his unhappy fate. After the Trojan war Idomeneus and Diomede and other roving Homeric heroes wander to the shores of Dahnatia, and the Li- burni, expelled from Asia, conquer the country, and settle there. When the page of veritable history opens we find the Liburni occupying the country as far south as the Titius or Kerka, a race of hardy mariners who afterwards played their part in the Celtic triumphs of the Roman navy. But in the seventh tion. century before Christ a Celtic element was infused into the population by the irruption of the Galli Senones who founded Senogallia in Italy, Tedastum (Modrussa) and Senia (Segna) in w^iat is now Croatia, and established a kingdom of lllyria, extending over Istria, Camia and the northern part of Macedonia, with Scodra or Scutari in Albania as its capital \ The Greeks, ever seeking to plant fresh colonies on the shores of the Mediterranean, did not overlook the natural ad- vantages of a coast so sheltered by islands and Greek indented by natural havens. A colony of Sicilian B.c°4o6! Greeks from Syracuse was settled by Dionysius ^ Dr. Cubich traces some peculiarities of the dialect of the island of Veglia to a Celtic source (Notizie storiche sull' isola di Veglia). Frauceschi (L'Istria, ch. 4) gives a list of proper names of places and families in Istria which have a Celtic origin. Mr. Evans (Bosnia and Herzegovina) compai'es Arauso (Vrana) with Arausio (Orange), Andetrium (Clissa) with Anderida (Pevensey), Narbona or Narona with Narbonne. Corinium (Karin) is our English Cirencester. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 3 on the island of Issa (Lissa), and one from the b.c. 385. island of Paros in the Aegean built a new Pares or Pharos on the island of Lesina ; DpThachium or Epidamnus, Epidaurus, where Eagusa Yecchia now stands, and Tragurium (Trail) were Greek colonies on the mainland, the last named being peopled by Syracusans from Issa, and inscriptions found on the island of Curzola prove that there were Greek settlements there also. In the third century before Christ Illyria was iiiyrian united under the powerful rule of Agron son ofofAgron. Pleuratus, and his widow Teuta, regent during the minority of her stepson Pineus, came into collision with the Romans, who now for the first time carried their arms across the Adriatic. The islanders of Lissa, unable to protect themselves against the attempts of the IlljTians on their liberties, appealed to the Pomans for protection, b.c. 232. It was the interval of twenty-two years between the first and second Punic wars ; the Pomans had leisure to listen to the appeal, and they had already received other complamts from Italian merchantmen of the frequent piracies of the Illyrians. Three ambassadors were sent to Queen Teuta to command her to desist from injuring the friends of the Republic, but the queen put two of the envoys to death and imprisoned the third \ ' The murdered ambassadors were honoured with statues at Eome. ' Hoc a Romano populo tribui solebat injuria caesis, sicut et P. Junio, et Tito Coruncano qui ab Teuca Illyrioioira regina interfecti erant.' Plin. Nat. Hist, xxxiv. 6. B 2 4 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. t. First The Romans at once sent into lUyria both consuls Cn. Fulvius Centumalus and L. Postumius Albinus war. B.C. 229 with 20,000 infantry and 2000 cavalry. As usual they found allies in the enemies' ranks. Demetrius, a Greek who held Corcyra (Corfii) for Queen Teuta together with Pharos (Lesina) his native place, surrendered them both to Fulvius, and the queen was driven from one stronghold to another and finally shut up in Rhizon (Risano) in the Bocche di Cattaro, and compelled to sue for peace. Demetrius was rewarded with his native island Pharos and a share of the queen's dominions, and Teuta was compelled to pay tribute to Rome for the fourth part of her territory, which was all that was left to her. Second Dometrius however was faithless to his new Illyrian war. masters ; on the death of Teuta he married Tri- B.C. 219. teuta the mother of Pineus and repudiated wife of Agron, and making himself guardian of Pineus, who was still a minor, took advantage of the second Punic war to throw off his allegiance to the Romans. L. Aemilius Paullus was sent to chastise him, his stronghold Pharos was razed to the ground, and he himself driven to take refuge at the court of Macedon, where he continued for some time his intrigues against the Romans. istriare- The Illyrian kingdom began to fall to pieces volts from ,.. . iiiyria. after this time. The Istnans revolted and formed themselves into an independent state which main- tained its liberties till B.C. 178, when it fell under the power of Rome. The Dalmatians who first Ch. I.] History of Dahnatia. 5 begin to be heard of in the second century B.C. are The Dai- said to have been Illyrians of the country between become in- the Narenta and the Cettina (Narona and Tilurus) bSTso." " who revolted against Gentius the last king of Illyria, and following the example of the Istrians, established an independent republic around the city of Dalmium or Delminium, in the interior, which though sometimes tributary to Rome con- tinued to exist for 200 years till finally absorbed into the Empire. Their territory was afterwards extended to the river Titius (Kerka) which thence- forward divided Dahnatia and Liburnia. The Illyrian kingdom itself came to an end in End of B.C. 168 when Gentius was involved m the rum of kingdom. Perseus, and Macedonia and Illyria were made provinces of Rome. The interference of the Dal- First Dai- •"■ _ niatian matians w^ith Roman allies brousrht upon them the war. . B.C. 156. chastisement of the Republic, and in the second second do. Dalmatian war Delminium was destroyed by Publ. ^'^^ ^^^' Scipio Nasica, after which the Dalmatians fixed their capital at Salona \ Salona was taken by L. ^ Appian describes Delminium as ' egregie muuitum, et operum machinarumque labor propter altitudinem moenium inutilis videbatur,' de bell. Illyr. The site of Delminium has been much disputed and was long thought undiscoverable. Thomas Archid. (i 200-1 268) says ' sed ubi haec civitas Delmis in Dalmatiae partibus fuerit non satis patet,' ch. i, but he else- where mentions some old walls ' in superioribus partibus ' which were said to represent it. Modern antiquaries believe they have found Delminium at Dumno or Duvno, a village in the interior near Sign, though some with Mommsen place it at Gardun near Trilj in the same district ; vid. Bulletino di Storia Dalmata (Spalato, Mai-ch, 1885). 6 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. Eoman CaGcilius Metellus ill 117, by surprise it is said, and was made a Roman colony, and in B.C. 78 a colony was planted at Jadera (Zara), a town already in alliance with Rome. Fifth Dal- Tlio Dalniatiaiis continually molested the Roman war. colonies and towns, and takmg advantage of the Sixth do ^^^ wars of Caesar and Pompey, for a time defied B.C. 48. ^^ power of Rome. One army sent by Caesar was destroyed, a second was driven back to Salona, and his lieutenant Vatinius, who was sent there in B.C. 45, held his ground with difficulty. Vatinius writes to Cicero from Narona that he had stormed six Dalmatian towns, and among them Narona the largest and strongest of them all, but had been unfairly obliged by the snow, cold and rain of a Dalmatian December to abandon his con- quests. Cicero replies ' may the Gods plague the Dalmatians for giving you so much trouble,' and adds that the conquest of so warlike a people would add lustre to his achievements ^ Vatinius however was not destined to reap any laurels Seventh do. there, for after the death of Caesar the Dalmatians ' ' ^ ' attacked him and drove him with loss to Epi- damnus (Durazzo). Eighth do. Octavianus in person led an army against the '^' ''^' Dalmatians, B.C. 34, and recovered Promona, but he was wounded and did not subdue their resistance till his return in the following spring. In B.C. 29 he celebrated his Dalmatian triumph, and it is ^ Ep. Lib. V. 10. It was Cicero's policy just then to be civil to Vatinius. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 7 said that one of the two figures on the shield of the famous statue of Augustus in the Capitol represents a vanquished Dalmatian. The final struggle of the Dalmatians for freedom Tenth was made a.d, 6, under Bato a Dalmatian general war. of courage and exjDerience, and another Bato who was a Pannonian. They defeated a Roman army imder Caecina and Tiberius, but were conquered by Germanicus, Tiberius, and Postumius ; their last stronghold Andetrium (Clissa) surrendered, Dalmatia Bato was carried prisoner to Rome, and Dalmatia subdued. became finally part of the province of Illyricum. " ' ^' Under the Roman Empire the maritime district of Dalmatia seems to have had a propraetor or legate of its own, and the whole province was divided into dioeceses or conventus each with a central city to which the inhabitants of the con- ventus resorted for public or private business, there being three such conventus in maritime Dalmatia, those of Scardona, Salona and Narona. Salona in time came to be looked upon as the capital of the province of Dalmatia and became a great and populous city, though Constantine Por- phyrogenitus exaggerated its dimensions grossly when he described it as having been half as large as Constantinople. Under the Empire Dalmatia probably flourished as it has never done since, though even then it seems to have met with something of the neglect that has at all times been its portion. Pliny apologises for detaining his readers with any 8 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. mention of the people, or puzzling them with the uncouth names of their towns. And yet in every part of the province remains of Roman splendour are to be seen, affording evidence of wealth, culture, and considerable population in places that are now miserable villages like Nona Ossero Stobrez and Besca, or barren and unmhabited wildernesses like those where stand the two solitary arches of Bumum or the few shattered walls of vanished Promona \ A.p. 305. In A.D. 305 the Emperor Diocletian, a native of abdicates. Dioclca, near the lake of Scutari, abdicated and retired to a villa he had built for himself at Aspalathus near Salona, where he lived till 313, one year after the victory of Constantine at the Milvian bridge. A.D. 454. In the fifth century Marcellinus a general under Mar- attached to Actius escapcd after the murder of his patron by Valentinian III, and on the death of Majorian established himself in Dalmatia as an independent prince. Marcellinus adhered to the religion of ancient Rome in an age when the Empire generally had become Christian. During his reign occurred the great irruption into lUyria of Goths Alans Vandals and Huns, and the Suevi A.D. 461. succeeded in penetrating as far as Dalmatia but met with a vigorous resistance and were compelled A.D. 468. to retire. Marcellinus bequeathed his sovereignty Julius ^Q }-^jg nephew Julius Nepos who had married a ^epos. ^ -i ^ EvBo^oTtpov TQiv aWav icnrepicov defxaTcov to toiovtov dtfia eTvyxnvei/. Const. Porphyr. de adm. Imp. c. xxx. p. 141, ed. Bonn. Ch. L] History of Dalmatia. g niece of the Empress, and who succeeded his uncle ill 468, but was persuaded in 472 to ex- a.d. 472. change the security of his hereditary kingdom for the perils of the Imperial throne. Before however he was able to establish himself firmly in his new dignity, his authority was disputed by a rival ; Gundobald the Burgundian, who had succeeded to the influence of his uncle the Patrician Ricimer, invested an obscure soldier, Glycerins, with the Giycenus. purple ; but Glycerins was unsupported by any considerable party, and was allowed to resign his claims and exchange the Empire for the bishopric of Salona. Julius Nepos did not long survive his triumph, a.d. 475. The barbarian soldiery at Rome broke out into insurrection and under their leader Orestes marched upon Ravenna. The trembling Emperor did not await their approach, but shamefully abdicating his authority fled to the security of his Dalmatian principality. Here he lived for some five years ' in a very ambiguous state between an Emperor and an exile,' until he was murdered at Salona in Murder of JullU8 480 by his former rival Glycerins, who according Nepos. to one account was rewarded for his crime by translation to the Archbishopric of Milan. There seems, however, to be some doubt about the identity of the ex-Emperor and the Archbishop \ The Patrician Orestes, a Pannonian by birth, declined the Empire for himself, and conferred it on his son Augustulus in whom the line of ^ Vid. Gibbon, ch. xxxvi. lO History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. End of Emperors of the western part of the E-oman world Western ^ . . ^ . Empire, was exthiguished by the victory of Odoacer. A.D. 481. After the murder of JuHus Nepos Dahnatia had Gothic remained for a year under the rule of Odiva one kingdom of ^ Dalmatia. of his murderers, but in 481 Odoacer attacked him and put him to death, and added Dalmatia to AD. 493- the kingdom of Italy, with which it passed a few years later to Theodoric. SECOND PERIOD. Dalmatia under the Byzantine Empire, a.d. ^'^^-1102. The province had already begun to feel the effects of barbarian inroads and to sink into poverty and desolation. Dalmatia and Pannonia ' no longer exhibited the rich prospect of populous cities, well cultivated fields and convenient high- ways ; the reign of barbarism and desolation was restored,' and the Latin or provincial subjects of Kome were displaced by hordes of Bulgarians Gepidae Sarmatians and Slavonians. Of the latter race, and near the modern Sophia, was born in 482 Justinian, who was destined to recover Italy for the Empire by the genius and valour of another Slav Belisarius, who according to Procopius was born somewhere in Bosnia or Herzegovina ^ ^ "SlpfjLrjTo Se 6 BeXto-apioy eK TepyLavlas, ij Qpancou re Ka\ iWvpimv fiera^v Kflrai. Procop. Vandal. Lib. i.e. 11, quoted by Gibbon, ch. xli, who declares himself unable to find any mention of a Thracian Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 1 1 Dalmatia and Pannonia were taken from the a.d. 535. Goths m 535; but while Theodatus the weak ^.e^overed Gothic king was parleying with Justinian about Empire. the terms of his surrender, two Eoman generals who had advanced into Dalmatia were defeated and slain by Gothic troops. The feeble Theodatus was inspired to fresh resistance ; Belisarius led an army to the conquest of Rome, and in 539 Ravenna fell, and Vitiges, whom the Goths had raised to the throne in place of the unmanly Theodatus, was taken prisoner and sent to Constantinople. In the same year a dreadful inroad of Huns a.d. 539. Bulgarians and Slavonians swept over the whole ii^oad"^^ Balkan peninsula, and other visitations of the same kind in succeeding years, marked with every circumstance of cruelty and rapine, reduced those provinces to the extremity of misery. Durina: the Second Gothic war after the re- Second vival of the Gothic kingdom by Totila, Salona war. was the port from which Belisarius sailed for Italy. But he was ill-supported by his govern- ment, and finally recalled. Rome was retaken by the Goths, who crossed the Adriatic and carried the war into Dalmatia, where, however, they were defeated, and Narses, the new commander-in- chief, sailed from Salona to the re-conquest of Germania in the civil oi* ecclesiastical lists of the provinces and cities. The name of Justinian is a Latin translation of Upranda, upright ; his fatlier Istock and his mother Biglenzia were classicized into Sebatius and Vigilautia. Belisarius is said to be the Slavonic ' Velicar.' Vid. Gibbon, ch. xl ; also Introd. to Evans's ' Through Bosnia,' &c. 12 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. AD- 552. Italy and final overthrow of the Gothic king- dom. A.D. 554- Dalmatia formed part of the exarchate of E,a- Dalmatia ^ ^ ^ under the vonna; but it is supposed that when the exarch Exarchate. , Longmus, who succeeded Narses, created the Italian duchies of Home, Venice, and Naples, he also created one of Dalmatia, subject like the others to the supremacy of the exarch, but pos- sessing a certain measure of administrative in- dependence. It was about this time that the Avars first came on the scene, a race akin to the Huns, who were driven forward from Central Asia by the The Avars growing power of the Turks. Justinian, dis- and Slavs. , . . , . semblmg his indignation at the arrogant tone assumed by their ambassadors, employed them to attack the Bulgarians and Slavonians in Po- land and Germany, whom they reduced to vassal- ^■^- 559- age. But in the following year a Bulgarian and Slavonian horde under Zabergan crossed the frozen Danube, invaded Macedonia and Thrace, and advanced to within twenty miles of Constan- tinople, which was saved by the last victory of Belisarius. A.D. 566. On the accession of Justin another embassy of the Avars approached him, but, daunted by his firmness, returned to their chagan with a report that induced him to turn his arms against the Franks rather than against the Empire. Un- successful against this new enemy, the Avars found fresh employment for their arms in an Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 13 alliance with Alboin King of the Lombards, with whom they joined in the overthrow of the Ge- a.d. 566. pidae, a tribe which since the invasion of Attila had been settled in Transylvania and was at this time in the pay of the Empire. The Lombards advanced to the conquest of Italy by way of Friuli and Aquileja, leaving the territory of the Gepidae to be occupied by the Avars. The Avars, thus reheved by the departure of a.d. 570. the Lombards and the ruin of the Gepidae, rapidly extended their conquests from the Alps to the Euxine, threatened Constantinople, and overran the provinces. But the Roman provincials were not the only sufferers by the ciTielties of the Avars; their vassal subjects were scarcely less op- pressed. The Slavonians were not only governed tyrannically at home, but in battle they were exposed to the first assault, 'and the swords of the enemy were blunted before they en- countered the native valour of the Avars \' The ^d- 624. Slavonians resolved to attempt their freedom ; their the Slavs Bohemian brethren seconded their resolution ; aws. ^ Samo, a Frank, put himself at the head of their insurrection ; the Avars were defeated, and the Slavonians once more became a free people. Heraclius at once offered them his support, a.d. 634. and invited the tribe of the ^p^^aroi, Chorvati segues the or Chorvates, Croats from Southern Poland and ^aimaSa, Gallicia, to drive the Avars out of Illyria and ^'^' occupy that province as vassals of the Empire. ^ Gibbon, ch. xlvi. 14 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. They accepted the invitation, and, advancing into Dahnatia, succeeded after a war of about five years in reducing the Avars to subjection. In the struggle that desolated the province the old Roman towns of the sea-coast did not escape. Driven from the country by the constant irruptions of one barbarian horde after another the old jDro- A. D. 639. vincials of the Empire had been collected within tion*or' ^^ walls of the cities ; and most, if not all, of Roman thesc now fell before the separate or united forces towns in J. Dalmatia q£ ^j^q Slavs or Avars, who were contending l)y Avars ' '-' and Slavs, foj- the mastcry of Dalmatian Salona was taken after scarcely any defence and entirely destroyed, the wretched inhabitants flying to the islands, where they lived in huts and wigwams, enduring every privation, and reduced to extremities by scarcity of water. Scardona, Narona, and most probably Jadera (Zara) shared the fate of Salona, as well as Epidaurus, the oldest Greek colony in Illyria, whose site is now occupied by the modern Kagusa Vecchia. About the same time the Serbs, or Servians, another Slavonic tribe, obtained leave from Heraclius to settle to the east of the Croats and in Southern Dalmatia, and the whole province ^ Salona and Epidaurus are said to have been destroyed by Avars, but the early writers are very careless of ethnological distinctions. Constantine Porphyrogenitus says Epidaurus was destroyed irapa rSyv "EKXa^cov, but in another place he calls the Avars Slavs, and Attila ^acnXevs twu 'A^dpcov. Thomas Archidia- conus says that the destroyei's of Salona were called indifferently Goths or Slavs, and were the same as the Croatians. Most pi'obably the invading hordes were composed of Goths and Slavs as well as Avars. Ch. I.] History of Dahiatia. 15 became thus peopled by Slavonians, the Croats occupying what we know as Hungarian and Turkish Croatia, and Northern Dalmatia as far as the River Cettina which falls into the sea at Almissa, while the Serbs occupied nearly the whole of modern Servia Bosnia Herzegovina and Montenegro, with the northern part of Albania, and the coast from the Cettina to Durazzo. The old Latin, or Roman, population, however Recovery sadly it was crushed and weakened by this irrup- Roman tion, did not disappear, nor did it lose its identity paiitios. and become merged in the ranks of the con- querors. When the first shock was over, the Romans either returned to their old towns or founded new ones, where they managed to live in a state between independence and vassalage till they became strong enough in time to take care of themselves. Zara soon rose again from its iTiin, the fugitives from Epidaurus settled on an isolated rock not far from their ancient home and founded the city of Ragusa, and the unhappy Salonitans, not daring to return as yet to the ruins of their old capital, crept back to the main- land in reduced numbers, and found a refuge within the impregnable walls of the deserted villa of Diocletian, which has grown into the modem Spalato. The fate of Trail on the main- land and of the island towns of Arbe Veglia and Ossero in the Quamero during this general catastrophe is obscure, but we find them in the tenth century still peopled by Roman citizens and i6 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. living under their old E-oman institutions ; and if they fell at first under the onslaught of the im- migrant Slavs, they at all events recovered them- selves like Zara and escaped being Slavonized like the rest of the province. It is, however, possible that their insular position saved them from injury by a people who had no maritime resources. These seven towns were the sole sur- vivors of the ancient Roman civilization in Dal- matia. A few old Roman cities like Aenona, Corinium and Scardona were inhabited by the conquering Slavs, but for the most part the ancient sites were abandoned and the buildings either destroyed or allowed to fall into ruin. The islands of Northern Dalmatia, except those above named, were uninhabited and their towns deserted even as late as the tenth century. But the larger islands of Southern Dalmatia — Lesina, Curzola, Meleda — were colonized by the Serbs of the Narenta, and in time Croatian immigrants oc- cupied the rural districts of those in the northern sea, for the Slavs of the sea- coast soon adapted themselves to their maritime position and became as formidable by water as they had been by land^ ^ Constantine Porphyrogenitus de administrando Imperio, ch. xxix-xxxi. His account was written in the year 949, as he tells us in ch. xxix : Oi fie \onTOi 'Pafiavoi els TO. TTJs TrapaKias Kaa-rpa 8ie(ra>dr](Tav, Koi p-exP'- '''^^ ^^^ Kparovaiv avra' arivd elai rdde KciiTTpa, TO 'Paovaiv, to 'AcnraXadov, to Terpayyovpiv, to. Aidbcopa, 17 "Ap^r), f] Be/cXa, Koi Ta"Oyj/apa' cov tivwu koi olKTjTOpts p^^XP'- ''"'^ "^^ °' 'Pw/iSvot KuKovvTat. p. 128, ed. Bonn. Ta be \oiTrd KaaTpa Ta ovra fls TTjV ^rjpav Tov BifxaTOS Kai KpaTrjdepra ivapa Ta>v elprjpevav 2/fXa^coj/ do'iKrjTa Ka\ €prjp.a laravTai, firjdeuos KaToiKoiivTos ivaiiTols. ibid. p. 1 40. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 1 7 The communal family organization of the Slavs Organiza- was not favourable to the formation of a compact siavs. and formidable nation. Each tribe or village ex- isted as a separate republic, and in the absence of any tendency to cohere and assert their general and national independence, they settled down readily as vassals or provincials of the Empire. Both Serbs and Croats acknowledged the do- minion of the Byzantine Court and at first sub- mitted to a Praetor from Constantinople, who collected tribute from them and sent it to the capital ; and it was not till the ninth or tenth century, when the decline of the Empire loosened its hold on the distant provinces, that the Dal- matian Slavs shook ofP the yoke which had long ceased to be more than nominal. This he to some extent contradicts afterwards, v. infra. Of the islands except Be/cXa (Veglia)/'Ap^r;, "Oyj/^apa (Ossero) and Aov^^pi- KQTOV (Vergada), the rest elalv doiKrjra, expvra eprjiioKaa-Tpa wu to. ovopara eicrii/ ovra, Karavrpf^fvcb ( '?), HiC^X (Sale), 2eX/3a> (Selve), 2Kep8d (Scherda), 'AXcoj^tt (Nun), iKipdaKia-aa (Pago), TlvpoTipa ( 1), MeXera (MeUda), 'Ecttiovvi]^ (Sestrum), koL erf pa TrafiiroXka S)V to ovopara ov voovvrai, ibid. p. 140. These are all in the Northern waters. Of the Southern islands he says the Serbs of Pagania (i. e. the valley of the Narenta) Kparova-i Koi ravras ras vrjaovs. Nijcro? peyiiXt] rj KovpKpa rjroi to KiKfp (Curzola), fv fj earl kol KiicrTpov. 'Nrjaos erepa peyaXi] to. MeXera (Meleda), ^Voi TO MaXo^eaTot. N^o-os eV/pa peyakrj to ^apa (Lesina), vrja-os €Tepa p,eyaXr] 6 BpaT^rjs (Brazza), ibid. p. 163, 4. Lagosta, t6 Aqoto^ov, and the islands Xoapa and "irjs, though near the Pagani, did not belong to them, ibid. p. 164. He mentions the following towns as in- habited by the jSaTTTiapevoi Xpco^aToi : Ndi'a (Nona), BeX6ypa8ov (Belgrad or Zara Vecchia), BeXirCeiv (Belinal), 2K6p8ova (Scardona), XXejSem (Chlebna), ^toXttov (Stulba), Ttirjv (Knin), Kopi (Kariu), KXa/3a»ca (Klapaz ?), ibid, p. 151. VOL. T. C 1 8 History of Dalmatia. [Ch.i. It is more difficult to say what became of the ancient Dahnatian and Liburnian populations of the province. They probably shared to some extent the fortunes of the Roman colonists, with whom they had doubtless become a good deal intermingled, and it is supposed that their de- scendants may be found in the cities of the coast and on the islands. Lucio sees in the Morlacchi, who retired from the hill country into the plains as the Turks advanced towards the sea-coast in the sixteenth century, and who now form the peasantry of the northern part of continental Dalmatia, the descendants of the old Roman provincials who fled to the mountains and took to a pastoral life when the Slavs occupied the plains ^ Of the provincials themselves, many were already Slavs by descent and ready to be merged in the ranks of their conquerors, for a gradual infiltration of a Slavonic element had been going on among the population of the Balkan peninsula long before the irruption of the seventh century and the settlement of the Croats and Serbs by Heraclius. It is only in this way that the population can have become so tho- roughly Slavonized, for it is impossible to suppose that the whole district was entirely repeopled at the time of the Slavonic conquest. A.D. 752. Such was the condition of Dalmatia when Ra- exarchate. venna fcU beforc the Lombards, the exarchate ^ De Eegno Dalm. et Croat, lib. vi. c. v. de Vlahis. ; vid. also note, page 149 infra. Ch. I.] History of Dalmaiia. 19 was extinguished, and the Imperial prefects of Byzantine 1A1*' 11 1 ii»n dukes of the Adriatic removed themselves and their fleet Daimatia. to Zara, which became the capital of the province and the seat of the dukes of Daimatia. Side by side with their somewhat shadowy authority was the native organization of the Slavs, who were grouped into districts called zupys, each with a Zupan at its head. Over these were grand Zupans, or presidents of the federation, and now and then we read of a Ban, or personage of still more exalted authority. All these ' archons ' acknowledged and condescended to accept digni- ties and titles from the Empire, and, in name at all events, professed obedience to the representative of the Emperor. Side by side again with these organizations were the old Roman municipalities of the maritime towns, speaking the old Roman tongue, governed by the old Roman law, owning allegiance to none but the Roman Emperor and the Prior who represented him in each commu- nity, and looking to Constantinople for protection in their ancient municipal liberties against the Slavs, whose rule began beyond the narrow limits of the territory which each city claimed as its own. This was the begmning of that dual element in Distinction . 1-1 11 11 between Dalmatian history which must be thoroughly ap- Latin and predated before the after history of the country baima- can be understood, which has continued with comparatively little difference to our own days, and which is at this moment the key to the c 2 20 History of Dahnatia, [Ch. I. proper intelligence of Dalmatian politics and the pivot on which they turn. Conversion If Christianity had not made material progress Slavs to among the Slavs before their descent into Dal- Christi- . , . • i i i • anity about matia ^, tlieu^ contact with the population of a province that dated its Christianity from apo- stolic times, and their residence under the sove- reignty of a Christian Empire, resulted in the speedy conversion of the greater part of them from paganism. Before 640 it is supposed that most of the Slavs had accepted Christianity, except the Serbs of Southern Dalmatia, in the district of the Narenta, who clung for a much longer time to their ancient faith. In the tenth century their country was known as Pagania, and is described under that name by Constantine Porphyrogenitus -. On the deserted site of Ro- man Narona the Slavonic conquerors had raised ^ If Thomas Arcliid. ch. vii. may be trusted the conquerors of Saloua ' quamvis pravi essent et feroces, tamen Christian! erant sed rudes valde. Ariana etiam erant tabe infecti.' This would have been true of the Goths among them at all events. The ' Historia Salonitanorum Poutificum atque Spalatensium Thomae Archidiacoui Spalatensis ' will be frequently quoted. Thomas was born in 1200 and died in 1268, and his nai'rative of the events of his own time is of the greatest value. For his own personal history v. inf. chapter xi. ^ Ot Se nayai/ot, ol Kai ttj 'Pcofiaiav diaXeKTO) ' ApfvTavoi KoKovfjifvoi, €is dva^drovs tottovs koi KprjuvaiSeis KureXei^drjaav d^dnTKTTOi' Koi yap Ilayavoi Kara tijv rav S/cXd/Swi' yXaacruv d/SaTrricTTOi epprjVivovTai, Mera Se tovto koL avToi dnoaTeiXavTes fls rbv dolhipov ^acrtkea f$;]Trj- aavro ^anricrdrjvai Koi avToi' koi dwoareiXas i^aTTTicre Koi avrovs. Const. Porphyr. de adm. Imp. ch. xxix. Basil I. the Macedonian reigned from 867 till 886. Farlati gives 872 as the date of the conversion of the Narentines. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 21 a temple to their national god Viddo, whose name survives in the modern village of Vido, and when in the reign of Basil the Macedonian the Naren- tines were baptized into the new faith, Viddo himself shared in their conversion and became the S. Vito, the uneasy Saint Vitus, of the new mythology. As lately, however, as the begin- ning of the nineteenth century, in a visitation that was made of the churches of this district, ancient idols were found still preserved and still receiving the veneration of the people ^ I presume like S. Vito, under names in Christian hagiology most nearly corresponding to their Pagan titles. After Charlemagne had overthrown the king- a.d. 806. dom of the Lombards he extended his conquest con^er?d without difficulty over Istria, Liburnia, and Dal- lemagne' matia, and the dominion of 6 iJieya^ KdpovXo? was admitted, not only by the Slavonic population, but by the Latins, or as they began to call them- selves by distinction, Dalmatians, of the maritime cities, who are even said to have voluntarily thrown themselves on the protection of the new Emperor of the West to escape the tyranny of Nicephorus the reigning Emperor of the East. Whether their surrender was voluntary, or whether it is an invention of the vanity of the Dalmatians and they were conquered by force, it is certain that the cities of the coast were for the moment ^ Vid. Schatzmayer, La Dalmazia. Trieste, 1877. 2 2 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. actually detached from the Eastern Empire and attached to that of the West \ Nicephorus did not submit tamely, but sent a fleet into Dalma- tian waters, which, however, effected nothing ; and had the dispute come to the arbitration of arms the Byzantines would perhaps have made but a poor defence against the destroyer of the Eestora- Avars. It was not, however, the policy of maritime Charlemagne to break up the Empire of Eastern Eastern Rouie, and the maritime cities and islands which mpire. g^g^^ ^^ havo bccn overawed into submission to Nicephorus by a fresh naval demonstration in 809 were allowed to remain subject to the Eastern Empire, while Istria and Croatia remained part of the new Empire of the West "-. These terms were embodied in a treaty, and the biographer of Charlemagne is careful to convey the impression that the concession to his Eastern brother was the effect, not of compulsion, but of generosity ^. ^ Annates Regum Francorum, dcccvi : ' Statim post Natalem domini venerunt Wilharius {Obelerio) et Beatus Duces Veuetiae nee non et Paulus dux Jaderae atque Donatus ejusdem civitatis episcopus legati Dalmatarum ad praesentiam imperatoris cum magnis donis ; et facta est ibi ordiuatio ab imperatore de ducibus et populis tarn Venetiae quam Dalmatiae.' '^ ' De Dalmatia autem sicuti eam partem, quam Croati cum Liburnia occupaverant, simul cum reliqua Croatia Carolum subegisse censendum est, ita ilia excejjtio Civitatum marinarum de civitatibus coutineutis Dalmatiae, scilicet ladra, Tragurio, et Spalato Croatis conterminis quae cum insulis Dalmatiae nomen retinebant intelligenda est.' Lucio, de Eegn, Dalm. lib. I. XV. To these he aftei'wards adds Ragusa and Capodistria, ibid. ch. xvi. ^' 'Exceptis maritimis civitatibus, quas ob amicitiam et junctum Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 23 The Frank dominion in Dalmatia, however, was End of a mere episode in its history, and lasted too short dominion. a time to make any lasting impression. The truth seems to have been that the Byzantines, as masters of the sea, were able to retain their hold on the maritime towns, and that the Franks, being stronger by land, imposed their rule, though perhaps not very firmly, on the Slavs of the rest of Dalmatia, and of Istria and Croatia. This yoke was easily shaken off by the Croatian and Dalmatian Slavs after the death of Charlemagne, and the dukes of Croatia, being practically in- indepen- dependent of both Empires, rapidly advanced Croatia. their authority to a position that wanted nothing of royalty but the name. Even the maritime cities were obliged to yield them a qualified sub- jection. The cities were too weak to resist their Slavonic neighbours except with the aid of the Byzantine Empne, and as the Empire found it daily more and more difficult to extend its pro- tection over dependencies at such a distance, Basil the Macedonian advised them to purchase immunity by an annual tribute to the barbarians, reserving a nominal sum for the Empire as an acknowledgment of their continued fidelity ^ cum eo foedus Constantinopolitauo Imperatori habere permisit.' Egiuhart, Vita Carol, Magn. ^ Const. Porphyr. de adm. Imp. ch. xxx. p. 147, ed. Bonn. : 6 ovv doidifios (Kf2vos ^aaiXeis BaaiXetos 7rpo€rpe'\//-aro navra to. Sidofxeva TW aTpaTTjyat 8i8oadai Trap' avrav rois ^KXd^ois koI elprjviKas C^v per avTQ}V, Kai ^paxy n SiBoadai ra arparr^ya Iva povov 8fiKvvTai t] irpos tovs ^aai\els TclJi/'Pco/xaiwj/ /cat Trpos rov (TTpaTr]y6v avriov vnoTayrj Kal^ovXaxns. 24 History of Dalniaiia. [Ch. I. The homage which the dukes of Croatia still professed to yield to the Empire was only ren- dered occasionally and was little more than nominal, till finally it was dropped entirely, and in the eleventh century the duchy became the Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia. The Na- -pj-^g intricate channels amono; the Dalmatian rentmes. ^ islands, and the secret harbours and inland seas that indent the coast, have always disposed the people to piracy in barbarous times, and the Slavs had no sooner established themselves on the sea- board and taken to maritime pursuits than they did as their predecessors had done in the days of Queen Teuta. The still Pagan Narentines were powerful enough to impede the commerce of the Adriatic and harass the cities of the Dal- matian coast, and the Venetians were preparing an armament to check their piracies, when a more Saracen formidable enemy appeared on the scene. The piracies. . ., , a i • • A.D. 829. Saracens from Sicily entered the Adriatic, cap- tured Bari on the Apulian shore, ravaged Cattaro E/Osa and Budua on the Dalmatian side, and laid siege to Bagusa, which they invested for fifteen months. A fleet under the Doge Partecipazio was dispatched to co-operate with that of the Emperor Theophilus, but the cowardice of the Greeks involved the Venetians in a severe defeat off Taranto or Crotona. The siege of Bagusa was raised by the Emperor Basil I, the Macedonian, who sent a fleet of one hundred sail, and the Saracens retired to Bari. 'Their impartial de- Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 25 predations provoked the resentment and con- ciliated the miion of the two Emperors. An offensive aUiance was concluded between Basil the Macedonian, the first of his race, and Lewis the great - grandson of Charlemagne \' Lewis furnished the land forces, and Basil the naval contingent. At his summons the Croats and Serbs and the Latins of the maritime cities, all of whom still formed nominally a part of his Em- pire, flocked to the rendezvous at Bagusa, whence they were transported in Bagiisan vessels to Bari 2. The siege lasted four years and was Siege of conducted by Lewis in person, and the fall of867-S7i. the Saracen citadel and the subsequent death of Lewis were followed by the establishment of the Byzantine theme of Apulia governed by a Cata- pan, with Bari for his capital, which lasted till subverted by the Norman conquest in 1040- 1043. Of all the Dalmatians the Narentines alone had not been invited to join in the campaign against the Saracens, and they profited by the absence and occupation of the Venetian fleet at Bari, to strengthen their forces and prosecute their piracies. A fleet which the Venetians sent Narentine against them under the Doge Pietro Candiano Puntamica. was utterly defeated off Puntamica near Zara, and the Doge was killed. His body was found after the battle by the Croat ians who seem to ' Gibbon, ch. Ivi. 2 Const. Porphyr. ch. xxix. p. 88, ed. Bonn. 26 History of Dahnatia. [Ch. I. have had at that time no sympathy with the Narentines, and was sent to Grade and buried in the atrium of the cathedrals Struggle The time had come when the question of the between Venice and future supremacv of the Adriatic seemed evenly the Naren- r J ^ J tines for balauccd betwoou the Venetians and the Slavs in the of Soutliem Dalmatia. Venice was still in her youth, and only beginning to be formidable, and the Narentines with their allies and dependencies were no unworthy antagonists in point of strength. They occupied the valley of the Narenta, the sea-coast from that river to the Cettina at Almissa, with the towns of Makarska, BeruUa, Ostrog, and Labinetza on the shore, other places in the interior, and the large islands of Curzola, Meleda, Lesma, and Brazza^. Envy and fear of the growing naval strength of Venice procured them the favour of the neighbouring powers ; their attacks on Venetian commerce were secretly or openly supported by the dukes of Croatia and by the Ragusans, some of whom even took service with the Narentine prince Muiis, and they were regarded not unfavourably even by the Byzantine Empire. In estimating the character of the Narentine pretensions it must be remembered that we have ^ ' Croatos ergo tunc temporis ab infestatione maris se absti- nentes cum Venetis et Dalmatis Concordes navigasse, et sequuta inter Venetos et Narentanos prope suum promontorium pugna navali, amici occisi Ducis cadaver derelictum inventum Gradum ad sepeliendum tulisse dicendum est.' Luc. de Regn. ii. p. 65. ^ Const. Porphyr.de adm. Imp. ch.xxx-xxxvi. v, sup. p. 17, note. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 27 only the one-sided account of the Venetian his- torians, who represent them as simple corsairs levying black mail on the commerce of the Adriatic, and harassing the maritime towns of Dalmatia. It seems likely that they were not merely sea-robbers but had developed a con- siderable legitimate commerce with Italy, whither we hear that their merchants used to go to transact business. The narrative of a Narentine historian might have given a diflPerent aspect to the struggle, and shown it to have been not a mere crushing of a nest of pirates as the Venetian historians describe it, but rather a contest for supremacy between two young and growing naval powers, both of whom aspired to the mastery of the sea. At first the Narentines had decidedly the best Pietro ^ , Orseolo II, of it : for a hundred and fifty years the Venetians Doge, A.n. ., p 991-1008. had been compelled to pay them tribute lor liberty to navigate the Adriatic ; and it was not till the time of their great Doge Pietro Orseolo II that they felt themselves strong enough to refuse it themselves, and to forbid its payment by others. The cities of Dalmatia, afflicted by the constant attacks of both Croatians and Narentines, eagerly welcomed the prospect of a deliverer, and offered their allegiance to the Doge and his successors if he would relieve them from the oppression of the Slavs. As the Croatian dukes or kings had originally received their authority from the Eastern Empire permission was sought from the 28 History of Dalmaiia. [Ch. I. EmjDerors Basil II. and Constantine IX. before the Republic acceded to the request of the suppliants, Conquest and assuHied the dominion of Dalmatia^. Per- of the Na- . . i i • i • i i f« rentines. mission was granted, and m the eighth year oi his dukedom, Pietro Orseolo set sail from Venice with a formidable fleet. At Grade he was met by the Patriarch Vitale at the head of the people and clergy ; at Parenzo, at the bishop's request, he visited the Euphrasian basilica, entering the city surrounded with a large military force ; at A.D. 998. S. Andrea, an island near Pola, he received the homage of the bishop and citizens of that place : sailing thence to Ossero he was welcomed not only by the citizens, but by the people from the neighbouring towns ' both Ronian and Slavonic^ who swore allegiance to him, and at the feast of Pentecost, which occurred during his stay, cele- brated him in the public ' lauds ^.' At Zara he ^ ' Qua de causa Veneti ab illis evocati, cum permissione Basilii et Constantini Imperatorum Constantinopol. a quibus reges illi sceptrum antiquitus recognoverant, dominium Dal- matiae primitus acceperunt.' Dandolo, lib. ix. c. i. pars 15. ^ Lucio devotes a chapter (lib. ii. cli. vi. de Laudibus) to an account of the ' Lauds,' sung in Dalmatian churches down even to his day. They were unknown except in the old Roman or 'Dalmatian' cities. ' Hae autem laudes nunc canuntur in histan- tum civitatibus quae olim Romanorum vel Dalmatarum nomen retinuere, ut dictum est, quae Imperiales etiam dictae fuere ad differentiam Croaticarum quae Regales, suntque Ragusium, Spalatum, Tragurium, ladra, Arbum, Viglia. Sola Absarus ex Dalmaticis iis caret, quae cum jDene deserta sit civibus et magistratibus nunc Chersum habitantibus ob id forsan omissae fuere. Curzolae et Phari uti Narentanorum, Sibenici et Nonae uti Ci'oatorum neque olim cantatas ulla memoria reperitur neque Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 29 was met by the prior, or representative of the a.d. Emperor, with the bishop of the city, and also by the priors and bishops of Vegha and Arbe, who all swore allegiance on the gospels and engaged that on festivals the name of the Doge should be celebrated in the public lauds after that of the Byzantme Emperor. An ambassador from the king of Croatia was received coldly, and his overtures were rejected ; the resources of the Narentines were carefully ascertained, and mea- sures were taken at once to put them to the proof A squadron of ten ships was sent to intercept forty Narentine nobles on their way home from Apulia, where they had been on affairs of business, who were captured at the island of Chaza, between Issa and Lagosta, and carried to Trail. The Doge was already moving southwards towards the same place, receiving on his way the submission of Belgrade, and the island Leni- grad which Lucio identifies either with Zuri or Morter. At Trati he found his victorious vanguard with their prisoners, and received the homage of the bishop and people, and also that of Surigna the brother and unsuccessful rival of Mucimir king or duke of Croatia, to whose son the Doge gave his daughter Hicela in marriage. By this alliance Lucio supposes the Doge ratified a treaty with the Croat ians which bound them to abstain from molesting the Dalmatians, and detached nunc canuntur.' Nor at Cattaro which for some time was sub- ject to Servia. They were sung also at Capodistria. 30 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. them from the Narentines^ The Narentines thus left alone face to face with a superior force were glad enough to come to terms. The Doge had advanced to Spalato, and his fleet augmented by contingents from his new Dalmatian subjects was far more than a match for his opponents. Submis- Six of the Narentine captives were retained as Karen- hostages, and the rest were restored to liberty, and the Narentine prince in return bound himself tines. Venetian Dukedom ^q exact uo tolls in future on the commerce of the of Dal- matia. Adriatic, and not to molest any Venetian travellers. The islanders of Curzola and Lagosta- alone offered any resistance. The former were easily conquered, but the latter, relying on their impregnable cliffs and walls, made a stubborn fight, and were with difficulty overcome. As the Lagostans had been the worst corsairs in those seas, their city was destroyed. The Doge returned to the church of S. Maximus, which, with no doubt a convent attached to it, was situated on an islet near Curzola, and there received the bishop and clergy of E-agusa who came to tender their submission, after which he returned in triumph to Venice, revisiting on his way the several Dalmatian cities, and assuming with the general consent the title of Duke of Dalmatia. ^ Luc. de Eegn. lib. ii. ch. iv. ^ Danclolo calls the island Ladestina, and it has sometimes been mistaken for Lesina. Lucio, with more probability, identi- fies it with Lagosta. Yet Constantine Porphyrog. says that Lastobon (Lagosta) did not belong to the Narentines or Pagani, Yid. sup. note, p. 17. Ch. T.J Histoiy of Dalviatia. 31 Cresimir II, king of Croatia, who harassed Zara a.d. 1018. and the maritime cities, was defeated by Doge Ottone Orseolo, to whom afterwards the priors and bishops of Vegha, Arbe, Albona, and Ossero renewed their oaths of fidehty, agreeing to pay an annual acknowledgment. That paid by the island of Arbe was ten pounds of silk, an inter- esting fact in connection with the introduction of silk into western Europe^. Once more in this century the power of the a.d. 1019. Byzantine Empire was re\T.ved in Dalmatia. Bylantine Basil II, ' Bulgaroktonos,' the destroyer of the ^^^''"^'="- Bulgarians, after crushing Samuel the successor of their great Czar Simeon in 10 14, is said to have subdued all Bosnia, Bascia, and Dalmatia, and to have established Governors, Protospathars and generals throughout these provinces ^ ; and till 1076 the Croatian king held his crown as a dependent of the Emf)ire. The Venetians had always nominally respected the sovereignty of the Empire, and at this time were too much occupied by intestine disturbances to interfere, and the title of Duke of Dalmatia seems to have been dropped after the time of Orseolo till it w^as resumed by Yitale Faliero in 1084. The history ' Luc. de Eegn. ii. ch. viii. See below, chap, xxviii, on history of Arbe. ^ Luc. ii-ix. quotes in confirmation of this several documents in the archives of S. Grisogono at Zara, e. g. ' 1036. Indictione quarta die 13 Feb. Eomani imperii dignitatem Gubernante Serenissimo Michaele, Gregorio Protospatario et Stratico universae Dalmatiae.' 32 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. of this time is, however, extremely obscure. In 1067 we find amicably attending the court of Peter Cresimir king of Croatia and Dalmatia at Nona an imperial officer with the title of Pro- tospathar and Catipan of all Dalmatia, and the name of the reigning Emperor is prefixed to the royal acts^ Lucio conjectures that the Empire being too weak to restrain the Croatians by land, allowed their king to call himself King of Dalmatia, while he, having no navy to match that of the Empire, allowed the imperial rule to linger on in the maritime cities subject to such a tribute as they had paid with the consent of Basil I. The Byzantine Empire was daily losing ground. The Normans had robbed it of the theme of Apulia, and founded in its place a new kingdom of their own, and were preparing to cross the Adriatic and follow up their victory on its Eastern The Nor- side. Their fleets searched the Dalmatian coast, Dafmatia. and molcstcd the cities, but were driven off* by the Venetians, who were jealous of the inter- ference of a new power in the Adriatic. From the expression of Dandolo that the Venetians ^ * A.D. 1067. Regnante D. Constantino Duce magno Impera- tore, Prioratum vero ladrae retinente D. Leone Imperiali Prothospatario et totius Dalmatiae Catipano . . . ego Cresimir, qui alio nomine vocor Petrus Croatorum Piex Dalmatinorumque " &c. Document cited by Luc. de Regn. lib. ii. c. viii. Thorn. Archid, says of the Kings of Croatia at this time, ' recipiebant enim dignitatis insignia ab Imperatoribus Con- stantinopolitanis et dicebantur eorum Eparchi sive Patritii.' ch. xiii. A.D. 1073. mans m Dalmati A.D. 107.;;. Ch. L] History of Dalmatia. 33 exacted fresh oaths of allegiance from the Dal- matians, together with a promise that they would not invite the Normans into Dalmatian it appears that the coming of the Normans was not a mere raid, but had been solicited by some of the cities. The whole mcident is extremely obscure. In the middle of this century occurred the Synod of synod at Spalato, which prohibited the use of 1059. the lUyrian Hturgy, and prescribed the use of only Greek or Latm m the church services. The s}Tiod was attended by bishops from the whole of Dalmatia and Croatia, but none even of the Slav bishops protested except Gregory the bishop of Nona. The Slav priests were struck with dismay, their churches were shut and the services inter- rupted. A delegacy to the Pope failed to obtain relief, and the delegate of the Croatian appellants was on his return degraded, beaten, branded, and imprisoned for twelve years, while Cededa, a Slavonic bishop ignorant of the Latm language, whom the recusant party had intruded into the see of Veglia, was ejected and excommunicated -. The acts of this synod illustrate the religious Eeiigious differences which accentuated those of race which between divided the Latin from the Slav. Throughout the siavs. middle ages the Latin cities were the strongholds of Koman orthodoxy, while the Slavonic kingdoms of the interior were more or less inclined to the ^ Dandolo, lib. ix. c. viii. ^ Thorn. Archid. c. xvi; vid. infra. History of Spalato, chap, x, and that of Yeglia, chap. xxvi. VOL. I. D 34 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. doctrines of the Patarenes or to those of the Greek Church. A.D. 1087. On the death of Demetrius or Zuonimir the Croatian last regular king, whose wife was sister to Ladis- mg om. j^^^ ^ ^^ Hungary, the succession to the crown of Croatia was disputed, and Ladislaus was invited to contest it with Stephen II, who had been elected by one part of the nobility. Ladislaus Hungarian descended into Croatia with an army, but was of Croatia, recalled by an invasion of Tartars before he could establish himself firmly in his conquest ; and he recrossed the mountains, leaving his nephew Almus ^ as duke of Croatia to govern in his name. The Hungarians do not seem at this first in- cursion to have reached Dalmatia, but only to have annexed Croatia^, a country then divided by faction and easily conquered in detail. Venetians j^ jg j-^q^ without siOTiificancc that this was the revive their ^ claims to momcnt when the Venetians revived their dor- Dalmatia. mant claim to Dalmatia. The Byzantine Empire was at this time in the throes of its struggle with ^ It seems doubtful which brother of Ladislaus, Geiza or Lampertus, was father to Almus. Otto Frising., Vita Herbordi, lib. i, and de Gest. Frid. lib. vii, calls Almus brother to Coloman who was son to Geiza, but he is corrected by his annotator (ed. Pertz), who says Almus was son to Lampertus. Vid. Table of Kings of Hungary, infra. ^ Thorn. Archid. c. xvii : ' Ergo Vladislaus . . . transivit Alpes et coepit impugnare munitiones et castra, multaque proelia committere cum gentibus Croatiae, sed cum alter alteri non ferret auxilium essentque divisi ab invicem facilem victo- riam Eex potuit obtinere ; nee tamen usque ad maritimas regiones pervenit,' &c. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 35 the Norman Robert Guiscard, and in the disast- rous campaign of Durazzo the Venetian fleet had rendered good service to the Emperor Alexius. The Emperor was alarmed by the disposition the Dalmatians had shown to appeal to the Normans, alarmed also at the progress of Hungary towards the sea-coast, and irritated because Zuonmiir the last king had sought investiture from the Pope and not from Constantinople ^. To prevent Dal- matia falling into the hands of either Hungarian or Norman, Alexius seems to have resorted to the expedient of conferring afresh on the Doge of Venice the title of Duke of Dalmatia, which had fallen into abeyance since the time of Pietro Orseolo II. Accordingly we find Vitale Faliero^ assuming the title ' Dalmatiae Dux,' at the very time when the Hungarians began to meditate the conquest of that country ; and thus began the struggle for the possession of Dalmatia which with varying fortune raged between these two powers for the next three hundred years, till Hungary, broken by Turkish conquest, was com- pelled to retire from the contest and leave Venice mistress of the field. ^ Luc. ii. X. p. 85. 2 Luc. de Regno, lib. iii. c. ii. Vitale Faliero was Doge from 1085 till 1096. D 2 36 Histo7'y of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. THIRD PERIOD. Contest of Venice and Hungary for the possession of Dalmatia, A.D. T 102-1420. Condition The coiiditioii of the country and the various of Dal- ... . matia at races that inhabited it at the opening of this new this time. . . , . chapter m its history may be gathered obscurely I. The from various sources. The Croatians had Q-radually Croatians. ^ '' become consolidated from a loose aggregate of semi-independent zupanies into a nation and a kingdom. Contact with and subjection to the courts of the two Empires had taught them to imitate the imperial offices and establishments of Constantinople and Aquisgranum. The zupans were latinized into counts, we find chamber- lains palatines chaplains and judges in attend- ance on the king in the various places where he held his court, and Latin was the official language in state documents, at least as far back as ^z^'^. There was no settled capital ; royal acts and privileges are dated from Bihac Knin Novigrad Belgrad (Zara Vecchia), sometimes ' a nostro cenaculo * at Nona, frequently from Sebenico, and often from some river or fountain or church in the open country. Nona seems to have been the principal seat of the court, and the bishop of that place had all Croatia for his diocese. The bishop of Knin was scarcely less favoured ; his see was ^ Lucio, lib. ii. c. ii. p. 61, cites a privilege in Latin of Tirpi- mirus Dux Croatoruru in that year. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 37 founded at the instance of the kings of Croatia, The who wished ' specialem habere pontificem,' and the bishop was the royal bishop and followed the royal court, of which he was one of the magnates ^. All the Croatian bishops were subject to the Metropolitan of Spalato, whose province extended as far as the borders of Istria and the shores of the Danube. The Croat ians remained, as to some extent they still remain, lovers of the open country and haters of towns, like our own Saxon forefathers. Their towns were few and small, and the scattered population was distributed in hamlets of a few houses clustered round a humble church on the shore of some stream or beside some spring. A glimpse of the condition of the people is given by William of Tyre in his account of the march of Raymond of Thoulouse on his way to the first a.d. 1095- crusade through Lombardy Aquileja Istria and Dalmatia. He distinguishes the civilized Latin inhabitants of the maritime cities from the Croa- tians, who, he says, are a most ferocious people, accustomed to robbery and murder, clad like barbarians, living by their flocks and herds, and little given to agriculture ^. ' The weather was ^ Thorn. Archid. c. xv. For extent of kingdom of Croatia vid. his c. xiii. ^ William of Tj're, lib. ii. c. 17: ' Exceptis paucis qui in oris maritimis habitant, qui ab aliis et moribus et lingua dissimiles Latinorum habent idioma, reliquis Sclavonico sermone utentibus et habitu Barbarorum.' He names Zara Spalato Antivari and Eagusa as the four ' Metropoles.' ;^S History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. a perpetual fog, the land was mountainous and desolate, the natives were either fugitive or hos- tile : loose in their religion and government, they refused to furnish provisions and guides, murdered the stragglers, and exercised day and night the vigilance of the Count, who derived more security from the punishment of some captive robbers than from his interview with the prince of Scodra^.' 2. State of Qj-^ ^j^g coast and some of the islands were the the Latins of Dal- q1(J Roman or, as they began to be called, Dalma- tian as distinct from Croatian towns ^, subject in name to the Empire of Eastern Rome, tributary in fact to the kings of Croatia, but in other resjDects independent, governing themselves by their own laws, talking their old Latin tongue, which was already in some phase of transition towards its modern Italian form, and maintaining something of the old Latin civilization in the midst of a semi-barbarous people ; ' moribus et lingua dissi- miles.' No charter of privileges from a Croatian king to a Dalmatian city is known, though there are many granted to churches and convents within the city walls ^, and it is probable that ^ Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. Iviii. '^ ' Croatos in Dalmatia maiitima a Cetina flumine usque ad Istriam omnia occupasse praeter oppida maritima ladi'a, Tragn- rium et Spalato quae cum Insulis Dalmatarum vel Romanorum nomen retinuerunt, ut Porph. tradit, et quamvis eosdem aliquas etiam Insulas occupasse constet, tamen Croatos maris usum Dalmatis et Venetis invitis habere non potuisse ex supradictis apparet.' Luc. de regn. lib. ii. c. xiii. p. 89. ^ Luc. ii, c. XV. p. 96. Ch. I.] History of Dabnatia. 39 the king was satisfied with his tribute and The Latins exacted no further submission from the citizens, matians. They began to thrive commercially ; their con- tingent to the fleet of Pietro Orseolo had con- tributed in great measure to the downfall of the Narentines, and some of the island towns were quite able to protect themselves against the attacks of their semi-barbarous neighbours. Arts began to rise from the prostrate condition in which the barbarian conquests had left them, and if the buildings that have come dowm to us from the ages preceding the advent of the Hungarians are rude and for the most part humble, still they show the germs of future life ; and one among them, the church of S. Donato at Zara, is con- ceived on a scale and in a style that is not easily to be matched among the contemporary works of other countries. The three Dalmatian towns on the mainland within the kingdom of Croatia, Zara Trali and Spalato, had each a narrow territory attached to it, that of Zara bounded by the territories of the Croatian cities of Nona and Belgrad, that of Trail consisting only of the small plain to the north of the city with the hillsides enclosing it, and that of Spalato ceasing short of Salona and the pen- insula or Vraniica or ' Piccola Venezia^' The a.d. 1195- ^ . 1 196. Romans of Ossero Arbe and Veglia, though the rural districts of their islands were peojDled by Croats, were more completely masters of the ^ Luc. (le regn. lib. ii. c. xiii. p. 89. 40 History of Dahnatia. [Ch. T. soil, for the Croatian king had no maritime re- sources and less power of interference with them than with their brethren on the mainland. g- '^^^'^^ ^^ The southern limit of the Croatian kinD;dom Southeni o Daimatia. ^yg^g \}^q river Cettiua which runs into the sea at Almissa. Beyond this lay the Serbs, the southern branch of the Slavonic family, among whom the ancient Latin culture was kept alive in the cities of Ragusa and Cattaro. Ragusa enjoyed a dubious independence, being under the nominal rule of the Eastern Empire which seldom inter- fered, and since the expedition of Orseolo under the more or less actively exercised influence of Venice. Cattaro was more directly exposed to Servian aggTession, and when the Empire was no longer in a condition to protect her in her ancient allegiance, she placed herself voluntarily under A.D. 1043. the protectorate of the Servian king, stipulating however that she should be allowed still to govern herself according to her ancient laws and customs. The remaining islands of the Dalmatian archi- pelago, Brazza Curzola Lesina Lagosta Meleda and the rest, were either deserted, or had become thoroughly Slavonized. 4. The Such was the condition of Daimatia at the time Hun- garians when the Hungarians first made their appearance described. r\[' ^ on the scene. Of these new-comers and their degree of civilization we may form some notion from the account given of them by a contem- porary writer about half a century later ^ Their ' Otto Frisingensis was a son of (Saint) Leopold, Marquis of Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 41 low stature, dusky complexion, and sunken eyes The Hun- spoke of their Tartar descent, their manners were fierce, and their speech to German ears bar- barous. In summer-time they hved chiefly in tents, in winter in huts of reeds, among which were a few houses of wood, and a very few buildings of stone. They rivalled the Greeks in the length of their deliberations and the caution with which they approached any new enterprize of importance. Their obedience to their king was absolute ; and the nobles who came to attend the court, each bringing with him his own seat, were careful never to offend the royal ears by express- ing or even whispering anything in contradiction to the royal will. So completely was the king's authority recognised throughout the seventy counties of the realm that at the word of the meanest messenger from the royal court the highest noble would be seized in the midst of his own satellites, loaded with chains, and sub- jected to the severest tortures. The whole popu- lation was liable to military service, a few husbandmen only being left to till the ground. The king took the field encircled by the ' hospites ' Austria, and born about 1 1 1 1 or 1 1 14. He was made bishop of Frisinga in 1 137-8, and published his Gesta Friderici, &c. about 1 1 56-8. The monasteries near Freising had been ravaged by- Hungarians, so that Otto had some personal exjoerience of them, and he evidently did not love them ; ' ut jure foiiuna culpanda, vel potius divina patientia admiranda sit, quae, ne dicam hominibus, sed talibus hominum monstiis tarn delectabilem exposuit terram.' Vid. Pertz, Mon. Germ. Hist. Script, vol. xx. 42 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. l. or princes of his court who formed his bodyguard, and who imitated as well as they could the arms and accoutrements of the neighbouring Germans, while the rest of the soldiers were squalid in person and sordid in their equipment^. Before this formidable and compacted nation of warriors the disorganized Croats could make little stand. Though Ladislaus was unable to return to complete his conquest, Coloman, his nephew and successor, was so far master of Croatia that in 1097 we find him at the Croatian city of Belgrad (Zara Vecchia), where he received his bride Busita, the daughter of Roger the Norman Count of Sicily. The simplicity of the times is illustrated by the celebration of the nuptial festi- vities in tents and huts of green boughs, there being but scanty accommodation within the city 2. Coloman Xhc Croats rose once more in arms to recover conquers Dalmatia, their independence, but were finally crushed by a fresh invasion of the Hungarians, and in 1102 Coloman was formally crowned at Belgrad king of Dalmatia and Croatia. His ambition extended to the conquest of the maritime towns which were then subject to Venice, but the moment was inopportune for a rupture with that power. The Venetian alliance was necessary to him in the ^ Otto Fi isingensip, De Gestis Friderici I, lib. i. in vol. xx. of Peitz's collection. Thom. Arcbid. cb. xxiv. tells a story curiously- illustrative of tbe extraordinary veneiation of tbe Hungarians for tbe royal person in tbe time of Emeric, 11 96-1 204. 2 Gaufridus Malaterra, lib. 4. c. 25, in Luc, p. iii. 1102-5 Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 43 attack he meditated on the Normans of Apuha ; the Doge ^Yas assured of his friendship, and the neutrahty of the Venetians during his struggle with the rebeUious Croatians was secured by his promise to respect the rights of the Repubhc over the maritime towns. A joint armament of Venetians and Hungarians sailed to invade Apulia ; Brindisi and Monopoli were occupied, and the Normans were compelled to engage no lono-er to continue their incursions in the Adriatic \ o In the year 1 105 however, when the Venetians Coioman under their Doge Ordelafo Faliero were engaged the Dai- in the Holy Land, and the Dalmatian cities were dtie?. reduced in strength by the contingents they had furnished to the expedition, Coioman seized the opportunity to complete his scheme of conquest. Advancing into Dalmatia he laid siege to Zara, the principal city of the province, and assaulted it vigorously with a battering tram. The Zaratini were aided in their resistance by Giovanni Ursini bishop of Trail, whose skill as an engineer gained him the credit of having miraculously destroyed the Hungarian engines, and to whose diplomacy the Zaratini were indebted for the favourable terms they succeeded in obtaining when further a.d.i 104. resistance became hopeless. From Zara Coioman advanced to receive the submission of the other Dalmatian cities -. The Spalatini, according to ^ Dandolo, lib. ix. c. x. pars 11. ^ Thomas, c. xvii, says Coioman attacked Spalato first, then Trail, and lastly Zara. Lucio points out that he is mis- 44 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. T. Thomas Archdiaconus, astonished at the appear- ance of an enemy of unknown race, were disposed to resist, but finding ' iJiat the men were Christians and that the king 2vas disposed to deal liherally ivith them,' they surrendered on condition that their ancient privileges should be confirmed ; and Trail afterwards submitted on the same terms. The tower of Sta. Maria at Zara, which was built by the orders of Coloman after his triumphal entry, remains as a monument of his piety and of his desire to ingratiate himself with his new Privileges subjects. Their ancient privileges were confirmed, of the . . . , 'Daima- fresli chartors were granted, and their municipal /ia»' cities. . - ^^ ^^ i ■ liberties were, nominally at all events, secured to them. The Dalmatian cities were to pay no tribute, they were to choose their own count and bishop whom the king would confirm, and to pre- serve their own Roman law and appoint their own judge ; dues on foreign imports were ap- portioned between the king, the bishop, the count, and the municipality; no Hungarian or foreigner was to live within their walls against their will, and any one disliking Hungarian rule was free to depart with wife children servants and chattels \ Not always That thcsc charters should not always have respected. ^ ^ *^ been respected is natural, and Archidiaconus tells us how the Hungarian archbishop Manasses taken ; De regn. iii. iv. Dandolo also takes Colomau first to Spalato. ' Vid. Statute of Trail; Luc. de regn. lib. iii. c. iv. p. 117; also vi. c. ii. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 45 and the Hungarian garrison which Coloman had estabhshed at Spalato — itself an infringement of the privilege — tried to make themselves masters of the city, and were defeated by the promptness of the citizens and their count. But notwith- Vaiue of • 1 • p • IT *^® privi- standmg occasional mfringement here and else- leges. where the charters remained as the foundation of civil liberty, to which appeal could always be made, and which could always be put forward when the political situation made the alliance of the cities valuable to the sovereign and conces- sions were more readily obtained. The success of the Hungarians had been unop- Causes of . , . Hungarian posed by the Venetians, who were at that time, success. as has been already said, engaged in the first Crusade, where the Doge Ordelafo Faliero was present in person. The Venetians however ac- Eecovery cused Coloman of bad faith, and after his death matia by in I II 4 the Doge Ordelafo Faliero invaded Dal- Faiiero. matia, and not only recovered the principal cities^' ' "^* but took the Croatian towns of Belgrad Sebenico Nona and Novigrad which had never been Venetian before \ Arbe welcomed his arrival and volunteered her submission, Zara was taken except the castle, and Belgrad was occupied and garrisoned. In the following year, with the aid a.d. 1116. ^ Luc. iii. c. V. p. 122. It is a significant fact that before engaging in this expedition the Venetians aj)pealecl to the Emperor Alexius, thus recognizing his nominal supremacy in Dalmatia, which the Hungarians ignored ; their conquest being in fact the final severance of the tie that bound that province to Constantinople. Vid. Dandolo. 46 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. of Alexius and the Emperor Henry V, the Doge renewed the contest, defeated the Hungarian Ban, took the castle at Zara, captured and destroyed the Hmpregnahle stronghold of Sebenico, received the submission of Spalato and Trail, and returned A.D. II 17. in triumph to Venice. In the following year how- Ordeiafo cver he was slain in battle against a fresh in- * ^^^°' vasion of Hungarians, and a truce was agreed to for some years. While the Doge Domenico Michieli was engaged in the Holy Land and in hostilities with the Byzantine Empire, no longer friendly to Venice after the death of Alexius, Stephen II. recovered A.D. 1 1 27. Spalato and Trail ^; but on his return the Doge tionor' expelled the Hungarians from both cities, took Domenl? Belgrad, and entered Zara in triumph. Belgrad, Michieh. ^jjgj-Q Coloman had been crowned, which had been a favourite seat of the Croatians, and which the Hungarians had endeavoured to make a rival to Zara, had awakened the jealousy of the Vene- tians, who took this opportunity of wreaking their vengeance on it. Belgrad was utterly destroyed, the seat of the bishopric was removed to Scardona, Sebenico and many of the inhabitants settled at Sebenico, city. which, increased in population and wealth, and favoured by its natural advantages, began to grow in importance, and by the charter of Stephen HI. in 1 167 was placed on an equality with the ^ Trail had been sacked and nearly destroyed in 11 23 by a Saracen fleet, and was in no condition to resist any as- sailant. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 47 Dalmatian municipalities, and was thenceforth reckoned among the 'Dalmatian^ cities ^ During the succeeding reign of Bela II, ' the Hun- blmd^,' the Hungarians made no attempt on Dal- recover matia, but under that of his son Geiza II, whoA!D.n4i; conquered Bosnia and made it tributary to Hun- gary, Spalato and Trati voluntarily gave themselves ^^^ Trau, to the Hungarians and received from Geiza a confirmation of their privileges, while Sebenico, as ^-^^ "67. has been above mentioned, was raised by his son Stephen III. to the rank of a privileged and chartered town. It was at this time that the see of Zara was a.d. 1145. raised to metropolitan rank. Hitherto it had bisLpric been suffragan to the ancient see of Salona or founded. Spalato, but Spalato was now Hungarian, and it became of consequence to teach the Zaratini to look to Venice as the seat of sph-itual no less than secular jurisdiction. In 1145 Lampridio, who had been elected bishop of Zara by the influence of the Venetian count Petrana, obtained the pallium from Pope Anastasius, and the new archie- piscopal see was subjected to the Venetian primate, the Patriarch of Grade. The suffragan bishops of the new metropolitan were those of Ossero Veglia and Arbe, and an attempt was made to include the new see which was at this time founded ^ Luc. iii. ch. viii. p. 127. ^ Otto Frising. Vita Herbordi, lib. i : ' Bela qui a patvuo suo Colomanuo rege cum patre suo Almo duce diebus adolescentiae lumiuibus privatus/ &c. Almus however was not blinded by a brother s hand; vid. note above, page 34. 48 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. at Lesina \ But the archbishop of Spalato suc- ceeded in maintaining his jurisdiction over that island. A.D. II 71. ^\\Q vast designs of the Emperor Manuel, who of the dreamed of chasing the German Emperor beyond Manuel, the Alps, and uniting the Roman world once more under a single sceptre, brought the Byzantines again, and for the last time, into Dalmatia. Milan was encouraged in her splendid resistance to Frederick by Greek gold, which enabled her to restore her demolished walls ; and Ancona was laden with benefits in order to secure so convenient an entrance into Italy. These favours to the Anconitans, whom they regarded as rivals, and of whose prosperity they were extremely jealous, offended the Venetians^, who sent a fleet and captured five galleys of Ancona. Reviving the obsolete claims of the Empire over Dalmatia Manuel sent a powerful fleet into the Adriatic, which overawed the resistance of the Venetians and received the submission of Spalato Trail and His con- Raffusa. Trail, still half in ruins from the Saracen quests m "-• Dalmatia. assault and capture, was in no condition to resist a siege and was speedily recovered by the Venetian fleet. Spalato remained subject to the Empire till the death of Manuel in 1 1 80. Ragusa, ^ Thorn. Archid. c. xx. ^ ' Quod Anconitani Graecum imperium nimio diligerent . . . Veueti special! odio Auconam oderint.' Vid. Gibbon, ch. Ivi. ' Hoc tempore Anconitaui Emanuelis obedientes im- perio Venetos ut sibi aemulos coeperuut habere.' Dandolo, ix. XV. 17. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 49 according to the Venetian historians, was recovered by the Venetian fleet, and the imperial standards of Manuel were thrown down to make way for the banner of the republic. The wonted oaths of fidelity were exacted anew, a Venetian count was appointed, and the archbishop was compelled to accept the metropolitan of Grado as his spuitual superior \ But the Kagusan historians, jealous of theu" free traditions, dispute the accuracy of this account, as they do that of the submission to Pietro Orseolo. ' The war was terminated by an Peace agreement inglorious to the Empu-e, insufficient Venice and for the republic ; and a complete vengeance of ^^"^ " these and of fresh injuries was reserved for the succeeding generation^.' The security afforded them by the maritime Prosperity supremacy of Venice in the Adriatic on the one Dalmatian hand, and the overthrow of the Croatian kingdom by the Hungarians on the other, had been of service to the Dahnatian cities and enabled them to develop their resources without impediment. Zara in particular had been a gainer by these revolutions ; she stood foremost in wealth and population, she had emancipated herself from the ecclesiastical control of Spalato, and her territory had been increased since the destruction of Belgrad by a grant from the Venetians of the islands for- merly dependent on that city ^. ^ Dandolo, 1. ix. c. xv. pars 24. ^ Gibbon, vii. ch. Ivi. ^ Thomas Ax'claicliaconus describes the Zaratini as ' divitiis VOL. I. E A.D. II' 50 History of Dahiatia. [Ch. i. In 1 1 7 1 , in the time of Doge Vitale Michieli II, atZara^ ^ sedition occurred at Zara, about which there are ^^^ ^ ■ several conflicting accounts. Lucio conjectures that it was connected with the election of the count, the privilege most jealously prized and guarded by a Dalmatian city. The Venetian count, Domenico Morosini, son of the preceding Doge, was expelled, and the countship conferred on Lampridio the archbishop, a native Zaratine. The disturbance was easily quelled and Morosini restored, but on the death of Lampridio fresh dis- sensions arose about the subjection of the arch- A.D. 1 1 78. bishopric to the patriarchate of Grado. The new submit archbishop was forbidden by the citizens to bishopric ackuowledgc the patriarchal authority, and an archateof appeal was made to Home ; but Alexander was '^^ '^' under obligations to Venice, and the appeal of the Zaratini was rejected. ' It is ours to teach the j^eople, not to obey them,' said the Pontiff in language that has the true ecclesiastical ring ; and the rebellious archbishoj) was enjoined to submit, and punished by deprivation of the pallium and of the right to consecrate his suffragans. The A.D. 1 1 80- Zaratini however forbad their prelate to obey this Firstrevoit sontence, threw off their allegiance to Venice, and the kun- offered it to Bela III. of Hungary, who placed a garrison within the walls and strengthened the affluentes . . . superbia tuinidi, potentia elati, de injuriis glori- autes, de malitiis exultantes, deiidebant inferiores, contemne- baut superiores, nullos sibi fore pares credebant.' This speaks for the prosperity of the Zaratini, and as to the rest it should be remembered that Thomas was a Spalatine. garians. Ch. 1,] History of Dahnatia. 5 1 fortifications in anticipation of a Venetian attack. Eevoit of Spalato had already submitted to Hungary ; Trati cities. and the islands of Brazza and Lesina successively followed its example ; and the Venetians, crippled by their recent war with Manuel, were at first unable to take any serious steps to reassert their authority. Trail was for a short time occupied by ^.d. 1183. the Doge Orio Mastropiero, but on his deiDartinre the city returned again to the Hungarians. The eastern half of the island of Pago, which had in some manner passed from the possession of Nona to that of Zara, was occupied and made the seat of a Venetian count ; but an attempt on the city of Zara failed; the city was strong in its own resources and supported by the Hungarian alliance, and the Venetians were obliged to content themselves with holding the islands and impeding the commerce on which the prosperity of Zara depended. But Zara was regarded by the Venetians as the key to theh^ maritime supremacy in the Adriatic, and they never lost sight of the necessity of re- covering it. An opportunity at last occurred in the time of the Doge Emico Dandolo. After the death of Bela III. in 1 1 96 the kingdom of Hungary was torn by the struggle between his sons Emeric and Andrew 1, and Emeric after having success- fully overcome the opposition to his government was indisposed by illness for an active policy. At a.d. 1201. this juncture the fourth Crusade was proclaimed crusade! by Innocent III, and a deputation from the levies ^ Thorn. Archid. c. xxiv. E 2 52 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. l in France and Flanders, in which countries alone the enterprise had been warmly undertaken, arrived in Venice to arrange for the transport of the cru- saders to the Holy Land by sea. The Venetians listened to the exhortations of their blind and aged Doge, who with the ardour of a hero urged the conclusion of an ao-reement with the crusaders and the participation of the republic in the holy war. Venice was fixed as the rendezvous of the allies in the following year, the republic undertook to transport the entire force of 4500 knights and 20,000 foot, to provision them for nine months, and to join the expedition with 50 galleys of their own ; while in return the pilgrims were to pay before their departure 85,000 marks of silver, and to engage that all conquests should be equally divided between the confederates. A.D. 1202. ^t the appointed time everything was ready Rendez- i f> i r> • r» vousof except the 85,000 marks of the foreigners, of Om S3; clears at Venice, which 34,ooo Were still wanting ; and while the French deplored the apparent fruitlessness of the toil and expense they had already incurred, the Venetians had to fear the loss of their extensive preparations and the spoiling of the provisions they Eeduction had storcd up. In this conjuncture the policy proposed, of the Doge proposed, and the necessities of the French accepted, as a way out of the difficulty, that the united forces should recover for the Venetians then- revolted city of Zara, and that the services of the French in this enterprise should be taken as an equivalent to the deficient 34,000 marks. Ch. L] History of Dalmatia. 53 On Oct. 2, 1202, the allies set sail from Venice, a.d. 1202. A detachment touched at Trieste and alarmed that larabnhe city into an agreement to pay tribute to the Crusaders. republic, and the whole force then proceeded to Zara, which they reached on Nov. 10. The French troops were landed, the Venetian galleys burst the chain that closed the entrance of the harbour, and the Zaratini, finding no help was forthcoming from the Hungarians or Croatians, sent ambassa- dors to the Doge and offered to surrender on condition their lives were spared. The Doge did not think it proper to act without consulting his allies, but when, after obtaining their consent, he returned to his tent he found the ambassadors gone. During his absence some of the French who were unfavourable to the enter- prise had advised the envoys to withdraw their offer, and assured them that the pilgrims would not assault a Christian city. The envoys had ac- cordingly returned to then- countrymen and per- suaded them to continue their resistance ; and when the Doge called on his allies to aid him in taking Zara by force, the abbot of Vaux rose and forbad the soldiers of the cross to attack a Chris- tian city, and several of the barons refused to fulfil their engagement. The more politic counsels of those French leaders however prevailed who saw the necessity of carrying out their agreement with the Venetians, and a general assault on the city followed, the French attacking it by land and the Venetians by 54 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. A.D. 1202. sea. After a resistance of five days, one of the Capture of ^^^ygj-g being: undermined by the Venetians, the Zara by the o •/ Crusaders, ga^-j-igon found themselves unable to make any further resistance, and surrendered on condition that their Hves should be spared. The Venetians destroyed the town walls and towers, and accord- ing to Thomas Archidiaconus levelled all the houses, leaving nothing standing but the churches \ This however is not confirmed by other writers, and is inconsistent with the fact that both Vene- tians and French wintered at Zara, and did not sail thence to the conquest of Constantinople till AD. 1203. the 7th of April in the following year. The destruction of the buildings may have been only partial, but the town was desolated, and the in- habitants mistrusting the clemency of the Doge fled in numbers to the Hungarian territory. Disputes broke out between the allies, in which the Venetians being numerically the weaker party sufiered most, and peace was restored with diffi- culty by the leaders. Universal disapproval fell on the crusaders who had sacked a Christian city. Among the French themselves as we have seen some acted against their inclination, and one of the most illustrious among them, Simon de Montfort, departed from the camp before the assault was given. Innocent III. showered his reproofs and excommunications on the ofienders, but though the French submitted and were ^ Thom. Arcliid. c. xxv ; Villehardouin, ch. xlix. Vid. below, Chapter iii. on Zara. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 55 absolved, the Venetians refused to acknowledge the riofht of a churchman to interfere in their temporal concerns. It was at Zara that the final treaty was made Treaty of .the Cru- with Alexius the fugitive prince from Constanti- saderswith , • 1 1 • Alexius. nople, and the enterprise of restonng him and his father to the imperial throne was due principally to the arguments of the Venetians, anxious to complete the imperfect satisfaction that had been made them for the injuries received from Manuel, and eager to embrace the opportunity of the presence of such powerful auxiliaries^. On April a.d. 1203. - . , 1 J •! 1 • Departure 7, 1203, the united armament set sail, leaving of the Zara overwdielmed with a ruin scarcely less com- constanti- plete than that wdiich had for her sake been in- ^"^ ^' flicted on Belgrad some seventy-five years before. The exiled Zaratini lost no opportunity of revenging themselves on Venetian traders after the fleet and army had sailed, and to check their depredations the Venetians built a castle on an island opposite Zara, which was taken and destroyed by the Zaratini with the aid of ten galleys of Gaieta which were induced by the arch- bishop of Spalato to take the part of the exiles. The fugitive population began to return to then- Return of desolate city, to restore and inhabit the rumed tives to houses, and to repair their shattered walls, but submission to Venice, ^ 'ExindeVeneti sperantesrefectionem daninorum abEnianuele olim promissam sed riondum solutam Francorum auxilio se confecturos simulque inopiae militum suppletum hi,' &c. Luc. 1. iv. c. i. p. 155. 56 History of Dabnatia. [Ch. I. hearing that a fleet was being equipped at Venice, and would be upon them before their defences were comjDlete, they finally resolved to make their submission. The Venetians had enough on their hands elsewhere, and were willing to come to terms. Domaldus the Hungarian count was dis- missed and a Venetian j)ut in his place, the Zaratini were bound to serve against the enemies of the republic, their possessions in the islands were restored to them in return for an annual tribute of 3000 rabbit skins, and it was agreed that their archbishop should acknowledge the patriarch of Grado for his spiritual superior, A.D. 1217. Andrew II, brother and successor of Emeric, ' took the cross and gathered a powerful armament for the transport of which he was obliged to have recourse to the navies of Venice, Ancona, Zara, and other towns on the shores of the Adriatic, and in recompense for the friendly offices of the Venetians he ceded to them all claims the crown of Hungary might have on Zara^ The rendezvous was at Spalato, Avhither so vast a multitude assembled that they could not be collected within the city, but encamjDed in the surrounding country. The king was lodged ' sumptuously ' in a house called ' Mata,' outside the north gate, the Porta aurea of Diocletian's palace ; ten thousand knights formed his immediate following and constituted the flower of the army, and the multitude of ^ ' Ut jura quae Rex in Jadra se asserit habere in Veuetos transferrentur.' Dandolo, lib. x. c. iv. pars. 26. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 57 infantry and followers appeared to the eyes of Thomas the Archdeacon innumerable. Ships could not be found sufficient to transport them all, and some had to return home and others to wait tni the following year\ Before departing from Spalato the grateful king offered the citizens the fortress of Clissa and the countship of the neighbouring islands ; and finding the Spalatines deficient in that public spirit which should have inspired them to accept at all events the fortress which stood in such dangerous proximity and commanded the passes to the interior^, he did the best he could for the interests of the city by entrusting Clissa not to one of his nobles but to the grand master of the Templars in Hungary, with a charge to change periodically the members of the brotherhood who garrisoned it. At this time while the Hungarians were occu- Aimissan ^ ^ piracies. pied by troubles at home, and the Venetians en- gaged at Constantinople, the Almissans come first into notice as inheritors of the piratical traditions of the South Dalmatian Serbs. Their ranks were a.d. 1221. swelled by outlaws and political refugees from the cities, and by ruffians who wanted employment for their arms. Their attacks on Venetian com- ^ Thorn. Ai'cliid. c. xxvi. Andrew was summoned home by disturbances in his kingdom of Hungary, which he reached after a series of romantic adventures. He had been offered the throne of Constantinople by the Latins, but declined it in favour of Peter of Courtenay. Yid. Gibbon, ch. Ixi. "^ ' Spalatenses suo more ad publica nimis tardi ad privata commoda singuli intendebant.' Thom. Arch. xxvi. 58 History of Dalmatia. [Ch, I. merce were at first commanded or encouraged by the kings of Hungary, incapacitated at the time from taking any other revenge for the loss of Zara, but after the Hungarians and Venetians had come to terms by the treaty of Andrew II. in 1 2 1 7, the pirates continued their operations on their own account. Almissa at the mouth of the river Cetina, was protected towards the sea by the intricacy of the navigation, and towards the land by an impassable barrier of mountains ; and issuing from this secret lair the Almissans preyed indiscriminately on the commerce of the Adriatic, and even stopped and Mii?sion of pillaged pilgrims on their way to Palestine. So the legate, insccurc did the navigation of those seas become that Pope Honorius III. wrote to the Spalatini urging them to unite with the other Dalmatians in a crusade against the Almissans, and he sent a legate, the Subdeacon Aconcio, to ensure atten- tion to his mandates \ Spalato Trail Clissa and Aimissan Scbeuico United in a league against the corsairs ; a repressed, naval and equestrian force was collected, and the Almissans, finding themselves attacked both by land and sea and unable to sustain the contest, made their submission, burned their boats, and swore to keep the peace for the future. The Bogo- But the missiou of Aconcio was not only directed against the secular enormities of the Almissans : the taint of heresy which had long ^ See Luc. de rcgn. lib. iv. c. iv. p. 162 for the letter of Honorius. Ch, I.] History of Dalmatia. 59 infected the Serbs Croatians and Bulgarians of the interior had extended to the cities of the coast and caused serious alarm to the Papal court. The history of the Bogomiles^ or Paterenes among the Southern Slavs is extremely obscure and has yet to be explored and written. The accounts of Eoman Catholic historians are natur- ally coloured by prejudice, and even at the present day, though in Bosnia and Herzegovina there are thousands of Bogomiles who adhere with fidelity to the creed their forefathers have pro- fessed from time immemorial, and to which they have clung through trials of exile fire and blood not inferior to those of their noble brethren in the valleys of Piedmont, it is difficult to get any trustworthy account of their habits and opinions from their neighbours 2. Like the Vaudois they are poor and illiterate, and unlike them they have not been so fortunate as to obtain defenders and excite interest in Protestant countries. They have had no Milton to implore vengeance for their slaughtered saints, and no Cromwell to stay the hand of the oppressor in their extremity, and now that they are no longer persecuted their ^ The ■word ' Bog ' in the Illjrian language means ' God.' * In Dalmatia I found current even among men of cultiva- tion stories about the Bogomiles of the same scandalous character as those that were spread about the Albigenses or Paulicians, and no doubt equally untrue. In the native ' Protestantism ' of these countries a wide and interesting subject awaits the industry of some one who has mastered the Servian language, and can be trusted to write without prejudice. 6o History of Dalinatia. [Ch. I. very existence is almost forgotten. And yet at one time it seemed probable that their doctrines would have prevailed over those of Rome through- out the Balkan peninsula wherever the Slavs held rule, and at one time the Paterene bishop was on at least an equal footing with the Latin and Greek prelates at the courts of Servia and Bosnia. Early his- The historv of these two countries before the tory of "^ Bosnia. advent of the Hungarians is very obscured Their inhabitants belonged to the Serb branch of the Slavonic settlers whom Heraclius brought in to dispossess the Avars, and being more removed from the superior civilization of the coast and less brought into contact with the countries of western Europe than the Croatians, they were more backward in their national de- velopment. Bosnia at all events seems to have remained in a kind of dependence on the dukes and kings of Croatia till that kingdom was itself absorbed by Hungary in 1102, after which it enjoyed a brief independence till conquered by Geiza H. in 1141, when the Ban became a vassal of the Hungarian crown. Early his- Scrvia was better able to preserve her inde- tory of ■"■ Servia. pendcuce under her own princes of the Nemagna dynasty of whom the first was Dessan, duke of Chelmo or Chulm, who obtained the throne about 1 1 50 after a series of bloody revolu- ^ A sketch of Bosnian history will be found in Mr. Evans's ' Through Bosnia and Herzegovina.' Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 6i tions ^ Stephen Nemagiia, Lord of Servia or Rascia, about 1 2 1 7 exchanged his title of ' Mega Juppa- nus ' for that of King, with the consent of Pope Honorius III. who sent his legate to crowTi hini the first kmg of Servia -. At the courts both of Bosnia and Servia the Spread of Bogomil- Boscomile doctrmes were resrarded favourably, ism in the Not only did Culin the great Ban of Bosnia openly century. espouse them and protect those who professed them as his father Boric had done before him, but Daniel the Bosnian bishop declared himself an adherent, and Bosnia became the refuge of those whom persecution had driven out of other countries. The thunders of the Vatican rolled harmlessly over then' heads, and the commands of the King of Hungary were unheeded ; for Culin felt himself strong enough to resist any forcible interference, and the arguments of ^ The duchy of Chulmia or Chelmo included the maritime district known as the Craina, between the Xarenta and the Cetina, together with some of the neighbouring islands. Luc. lib. iv. c. iv. p. 1 60 explains ' Slavo vocabulo Craiuam id est finitimam regiouem dictam.' He identifies Chelmo with the Zachlumia of Porphyrogenitus. ^ He is generally distinguished by the historians as ' II primo coronato.' Yid. Thorn. Archid. c. xxvi. The Servian crown was however nominally dependent on that of Hungary. BelalV. in 1243 styles himself ' BelaD.G. Hungariae, Dalmatiae, Croatiae, Ramae, Serviae, Galiciae, Lodomeriaeque Rex.' Luc. p. 165. Lewis the Great in 1345 uses the same titles. Vid. Obsid. ladr. lib. ii. c. iii. Rama included Bosnia. The King of Servia called himself King of Rascia, one part of Servia, to avoid the title used by the King of Hungary. Vid. Luc. de regn. v. iii. p. 256. 62 History of Dalniatia. [Ch. i. Aconcio during his mission into Bosnia produced little effect. The doctrines spread down to the coast ; they were generally embraced in the territory of Cattaro ; two successive counts of Spalato are described by the orthodox archdeacon as tainted with heresy ^ and the crowning sin for which he conceives Zara to have been visited with destruction in 1202 is her defection from the Catholic faith and her inclination to heretical opinions^. For there was according to him scarcely any man of importance at Zara who did Persecn- not ' rcccive heretics and cherish them,' After Bogoniiies. Culin's death a Catholic Ban Zibisclave was ap- pointed, but his influence was insufficient, and at last fire and sword were called to the aid of orthodoxy in Bosnia as they had been in Pro- vence. For centuries Bosnian history is filled with annals of persecution and bloodshed, but Bogomilism has never been extirpated, and the number of its adherents at the present day is probably far greater than is generally sujDposed; ^ ' Buisenus . . . licet esset vir nobilis dives et potens, fautor tamen haereticorum erat.' ' Erat autem idem Petrus vir potens et bellicosus, sed non sine infamia haereticae foeditatis.' Thorn. Arcbid. c. xxix. "^ ' Hoc eniin ad nequitiae suae cumulum addiderunt, ut Catliolicae fidei normam spernerent, et haeretica se permitterent tabe respergi. Nam pene omnes qui nobiliores et majores ladrae censebantur libenter recipiebant baereticos et fovebant.' Thorn. Arcbid. c. xxv. Yet if this were so one may be sur- prised at the abstention of Simon de Montfort, and the indigna- tion of Innocent III ; the head that planned and the band that executed the massacre of the unhappy Albigenses need not have been so scrupulous in this case. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 6 a for it is said that during the insurrection of 1876 there were among the refugees at Ragusa more than 2000 Bogomiles from the single district of Popovo in Herzegovina \ That the persecuted ' Protestants ' should oc- casionally have retaliated by deeds of violence is not to be wondered at, and we are told of three brothers who were killed for then* adher- ence to the Catholic faith near Cattaro-. But the tolerance of the ' heretical ' Servian kings contrasts favourably with the bigotry of the other party : we read of a Patarene bishop at- tending by order of Ourosh II. to witness the restoration of a relic by a Patarene who had stolen it, and at the court of Ourosh III. we find amicably seated at the same council table the bishops of the three rites, Greek, Patarene, and Latin ^. The piracies of the Almissans had only ceased for Renewed piracy of a tmie and they soon broke out agam, encouraged Almissans. by the loose government of the Hungarians, and the factious strife of the citizens of the Dalma- tian towns. Spalato, at last, tired of civil discord and disgusted with her Croatian counts, resolved, on the advice of Thomas the Archdeacon, ^ Vid. Introduction to Mr. Evans's ' Through Bosnia and Herzegovina,' p. xliv. "^ Vid. History of Cattaro, infra, c. xxii. ' Memorie storiche sulle bocche di Cattaro. G. Gelcich. 64 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. our historian of these times, to choose a ' Latin ' podesta and to govern the city on the Latin or Italian model. Thomas himself and Micha Madii, were deputed to visit Ancona and ask that city to send one of her citizens to govern them for a A.D. 1239. year. The choice fell on Gargano degli Arsacidi, Podestir ^'^^ liis term of office, which was extended to a ofSpaiato. gg(3Qjj(j 2ccA third year, was marked by firm and judicious administration. In his second year of office he undertook to punish and repress the Almissans. Twelve hundred armed men repre- sented the military force of Spalato, to whom the Trallrini added reluctantly a small contingent, and with this force Gargano began the campaign by seizing the island of Brazza which with that of Lesina was held by Osor and Pribislav sons of Malduco, count of Almissa. Osor the count of Brazza was nearly surprised and captured, but ' like a slimy eel ' he managed to slip through the fingers of his pursuers, and raising a large force of Almissans so harassed the Spalatines A.D 1240. that Gargano could with difficulty induce them theAi-'*^ to continue the war. Osor ravaged the island of Solta, violating churches, breaking the altars like a Pagan, scattering the relics, and throwing to the ground with daring hand the very Eucharist. But in a second foray on the island of Brazza the Almissans were surprised and worsted, Osor himself captured, and his whole force either slain or taken. The ca^Dtives lay in prison at Spalato for ten months before the missans. Ch. I ] History of Dalmatia. 65 Almissans could be brought to surrender their fleet and swear to abstain from pii'acy^. The Dahnatians were no sooner rid of the a.d. 1241. Ahnissan piracies than a fresh and more frightful v^sio^n of" visitation befel them. The earlier part of the ^^"^^^^ thirteenth century was marked by the great out- burst of the Moguls or Tartars. Between 12 10 and 1258 China, Persia, and the Caliphate fell before the arms of Zinghis and his sons. Be- tween 1235 and 1245 Baton, nephew of Octal and gTandson of Zinghis, overran Russia, burning Kieff and Moscow, and in 124 1 after penetrating into Poland as far as Lignitz, he invaded Hun- gary. Bela IV, son and successor of Andrew II, who had married Maria daughter of the Emperor Theodore Lascaris, was unpopular, and neither he nor his ministers seem to have made any serious preparations to resist the invasion which had for so many years been imminent. The Hungarians it is said had declined from their ancient martial character and become luxurious 2, and it was with some difficulty that an army was assembled to meet the invaders on the frontier. A disastrous Defeat of Bela IV. ^ Thorn. Archid. c. xxxvi. His account of the affair is written with spirit. His heroes make orations to their troops in true classic style. ^ ' Terra Ung. omnibus bonis locuples et faecunda causam praestabat suis filiis ex rerum copia immoderatis delitiis delectari. Quod enim aliud erat juvenilis aetatis studium nisi polire caesariem, cutem mundare, virilem habitum in muliebrem cultum mutare. Tota dies exquisitis conviviis aut moUibus expendebatur locis, nocturnes sopores vix bora diei tertia ter- minabat,' &c. Thom. Archid. c. xxxvii. VOL I F 66 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. defeat in the first battle laid Hungary prostrate, and the victorious Tartars overran the whole country slaying and burning, their women and children vying with the men in cruelty and blood- shed. The country north of the Danube was lost in a single day. The cities were laid in ruins, the churches defiled and thrown down,, the Danube itself ran with blood, and the corpses were col- lected in ghastly heaps along its banks to terrify the fugitive and native Hungarians on the other side whose fate it was to be devoured next. The Hungarians of a later age now expiated the atrocities of their forefathers, and as in 924 the cry had gone up from the churches of Italy ' Oh save and deliver us from the arrows of the Hun- garians,' so now arose the doleful litany ' From the fury of the Tartars, good Lord, deliver us\' Advance Bela had sent his wife his childi'en and his of Tartars into Dal- troasurcs to the inaccessible rock of Clissa near matia. Spalato. He himself escaped from the battle into Austria, and thence to Zagabria (Agram) where he assembled around him the remains of his A.D. 1242. shattered forces. The hard frosts of January Bela IV. enabled the enemy to cross the Danube. Buda was burned, and Strigonium (Gran) shared the same fate, but Alba Kegalis (Stuhlweissenburg) was saved by her impassable marshes, and by the haste of the Tartar leader Caydan to overtake the king. The arrival of the invading hordes at ^ Vid. Gibbon, chapters Iv. and Ixiv. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 67 the Drave was the signal for the further flight of the Hungarians. Abandoning Zagabria to its fate Bela retreated with the flower of his army and numerous magnates and bishops of the reahn, and took refuge within the walls of Spalato, where he was hospitably received by the podesta Gargano and the archbishop and people. But even the stout walls of Diocletian behind which he had sheltered himself failed to give the trem- bling king any feeling of security : he urged the Spalatines to prepare him a galley for escape by sea, upbraided them for their slo\^aiess in com- pletmg it\ and hastily embarking with his wife and his treasures fled to Trait ; nor did he venture to rest even there, but hid himself in a neighbouring islet, still known as Kraglievab, tlie Icings abode, ofl" the end of the island of Bua. Meanwhile the Tartars were in hot pursuit. Tartar in- vasion of After a general massacre of their prisoners Daimatia. A.D. 1242. they descended into Croatia and appeared before the walls of Spalato. The inhabitants taking the first body of them to be Slavs, such as they were in the habit of encountering, prepared to go out and attack them, but when undeceived by the Hungarian refugees who had had experience of Tartars, a panic fell on the city. ^ 'Fecerunt autem Spalat. omnia ad Regis placitum, hoc excepto quod ei quandam galeam minime potuere tarn celeriter preparare quantum Eex declinans Tartarorum rabiem expetebat. Quod factum non satis aequanimiter tulit Eegius animus.' Thorn. Archid. c. xxxix. F 2 68 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. Taitarin- Oiily a few, however, of the Tartars turned A.D. 1242. aside to Spalato ; the king was the object of their pursuit, and after an ineffectual attack on Chssa, finding he was not there, they followed him to Trail. It was March, the weather was severe, and there was no grass for the horses ; and Caydan was only able to bring a part of his army with him. Unable to ford the deep muddy channel which isolates Trati from the mainland, and unprovided with boats for passing it, he challenged the citizens by a messenger in the Slavonic tongue to surrender the king, and not to involve themselves in the fate of one who was only a foreigner amongst them. The Traurini, however, stood firm, and the Tartars were obliged to give up the pursuit ^ During March they appeared five or six tunes before the cities, and then passed on through Bosnia and Servia to Upper Dalmatia. On Ragusa they could make no impression, but they burned Cattaro and sacked Suacia and Drivosto, putting the entire ^ The channel is now a mere ditch, but was in ancient times much wider. Still it could not have been that which finally checked the Tartars, for we ai'e toldbyThomashimself (ch.xxxviii.) of their practice of making boats of osiers and skins when they came to rivers too deep to ford. The explanation of their retreat is probably to be found in their want of apparatus for a regular siege, and still more in the difficulty alluded to by Thom. Archid. of finding fodder for their horses ; their force consisted of cavalry, and there is but little pasturage in Dalma- tia. The narrative of the Tartar invasion by Thomas who was an eye-witness is extremely interesting. Vid. his chapters xxxvii. to xl. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 69 population to the sword. Returning through Eetreat Servia and Bulgaria they massacred their re- Tartars. maining captives, and finally crossing the Danube ' ' ^ ' returned to the Volga and reheved Europe of then' frightful presence. Famine followed their steps, for the husbandmen had been unable to sow their crops, and it is estimated that the Tartars destroyed as many by the want and pestilence which they left behind them as they had actually slain in battle or in cold blood. It is no wonder that the world of those days read in this awfal visitation one of the signs premonitory of the advent of Antichrist. Bela, assured of his safety, emerged from his Retum of Bela IV. to hiding-place, and leaving his queen and his youth- Hungary. ful son Stephen at Clissa prepared to return to his capital. His two daughters Catharine and Margaret had died during the horrors of the invasion and were buried in a stone coffin over the door of the duomo of Spalato, and William, son of the Emperor Baldwin, who was betrothed to Margaret, died at the same time at Trail where he lies buried in the Ca- thedral. Bela arrived at the island of Yeglia, then governed by the Frangipani as feudatories of the Venetian republic. Policy and compassion both induced Bartolommeo the reigning count to help the Hungarian cause, and it is said the force which he raised at his own expense encountered and defeated a Tartar army on the plain of Grob- 70 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. nico near Fiume^ However this may have been, it appears that the count raised 25,000 marks in coin and collected an amount of plate and other precious things which he bestowed on his royal guest, who in return granted to the counts Fede- rigo and Bartolommeo Frangipani in 1255 the feud of Segna in Croatia. Their acceptance of this gift brought upon them the suspicion of the Venetians, who deprived them of their feud of Veglia in consequence, and did not readmit them till 1260. A.D. 1242. Either iust before or at the time of the Tartar Second . , "^ . i i n i tt • revolt of invasion Zara again revolted from the Venetians, Zara from . ._, ^ . . __ Venetians, instigated by the Jiimperor Frederick ii, against whom the Venetians had allied themselves with the Pope. The Count Giov. Michieli was ex- pelled, the aid of the Hungarians implored, the Venetian residents imprisoned and their property seized, though both were afterwards released and restored. The Venetians assaulted the city with a powerful fleet from both sides having burst the chain that guarded the port, but the Zaratini held out till the Ban Dionysius whom Bela had sent to command them was wounded and left ^ Vid. Cubich, Notizie natural! e storiche suU' Tsola di Veglia, part ii. p. 75, but he does not give his authority, and no mention of this battle or of the inci'edible slaughter of 65,000 Tartars occurs in Thorn. Archid. or in Lucio. Bela's deed of gift in 1255 mentions the 25,000 marks and other presents but says nothing of the victory. Vid. inf History of Veglia, ch. xxvi. There is another Grobnica or Grobnico near Zara which, according to some, was the scene of this battle. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 71 the city, when the whole population was seized with panic, and the Hungarians first, and then the citizens, made for the gates in order to escape. The Venetians, landing their troops, allowed the Zara re- fugitives to pass with impunity, and the city was a.d. 7243, recovered with scarcely any loss of life\ To en- sure the fidelity of Zara in the future the Vene- tians planted a colony of their own citizens in the half-deserted city, and for their protection against the expatriated Zaratini, who had taken refuge in Nona and other towns subject to the Hungarians, a defensive league was formed be- tween the new citizens and the islands of Arbe Cherso and Veglia, which were then feudatory counties held under the republic by the families of Morosini and Frangi^Dani. The expatriated Zara- tini, after for some time endeavouring to revenge themselves by reprisals on Venetian merchantmen, at last submitted themselves to the good pleasure of the Doge and were readmitted on liberal terms. The Venetians had enough to occupy themselves in the daily increasing perils and sinking fortunes of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, and the Pope, anxious to unite Europe for a fresh crusade, used his best endeavours to reconcile Venice and the King of Hungary. Peace was agreed to on a.d. 1344. the terms that the Hungarians should leave grrifted"^ Venice in undisturbed possession of Zara and the zLratlni, ^ Thorn. Arcliid. says ' Tota civitas capta est ferme absque ulla strage alterutrius partis,' ch. xliii. Dandolo says ' absque notabili caede.' 72 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. Division of neighbouring islands, and that the maritime be^treen^ to\\Tis bcjond the Kerka — Sebenico Trail and Hungary! Spalato — should remain subject to the Hungarian crown. An amnesty was granted to the fugitive Zaratini and they were allowed to return, but from being allies of the Bepublic they were re- duced to the condition of subjects. The liberty of electing their own count, enjoyed by all the other privileged towns of Dalmatia, was not re- stored to the rebellious citizens, but they were required to accept a count appointed by the Venetians, whose term of office was to be fixed by the pleasure of the Doge, and who was to be accompanied by two councillors, also appointed by the sovereign city\ A garrison was placed in the castle under a Venetian castellan, and the Zaratini were forbidden to rebuild their walls without the express permission of the Doge. They were to give hostages for five years, and to contribute a contingent of one man for each house to the Venetian armament in case of a levy of more than thirty galleys for service beyond Hagusa, and to pay a life pension of two hundred Venetian lire to the count Zuanne Michieli whom they had expelled. Relative By the terms of this settlement and by the of Venice effoct of previous circumstances Venice had now gary. obtained all, or nearly all, that she cared to have. A.D. 1244. rpj^^ possession of Zara and the islands was the ^ The conditions are cited at length by Luc. lib. iv. c. vi. p. 168. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 73 main object of her policy in Dalmatia, as the a.d. 1244. means to that dominion of the Adriatic which was necessary to her commercial and national greatness. For the security of her commerce she required the islands, for in those days of slow navigation by short stages her shipping required stations and arsenals at short distances, and it was indispensable that these should be in her own and not in foreign and possibly hostile hands. Her maritime supremacy to be sure placed the islands at all times within her grasp, but if Zara were in the possession of an enemy she was liable to lose them at any moment, whereas if Zara were hers it was of less importance who occupied the other maritime towns, and of little or no consequence to whom the country behind belonged ^. Zara with its narrow territory on the Venetian posses- mainland was now hers by the treaty of i244;8ions. the island of Ossero had always been Venetian since the days of Pietro Orseolo, and was now under the hereditary government of the Moro- sini as feudatories of the Republic ; the island of Veglia was held for her in the same [way by the Frangipani; Arbe had persisted in her loyalty since the reconquest of the island by Ordelafo ■^ ' ladra enim ex situs opportunitate occidentalia Dalmatiae praecipua existebat, quam dum in potestate habuerunt Veneti, omnes quoque ejusdem partis Insulas ex consequenti facile retinuerunt, et sicuti Insulas terrestribus Ungarorum viribus destitutas facile acquirere poterant, ita earundem acquisitio absque ladra neque tuta neque diuturna esse poterat.' Luc. iii. V. p. 122. 74 History of Dahnatia. [Ch. I. A.D. 1 244. Faliero in 1 1 1 7 and was governed by elective counts, chiefly of the families of Morosini and Michieli ; Lesina was to be sure still subject to the counts of Almissa, but she voluntarily sought the protection of the Republic a few years later ^, and Curzola was held as a Venetian fief by the family of Zorzi, who recovered it from the Hun- garians in 1 1 29, and whose authority had recently been confirmed. On the mainland the Venetian Hungarian territory ended at the Kerka, which falls into the posses- '' sions. sea at Sebenico, and that city, with Trail Spalato and the coast southwards, remained subject to Hungary ; but at Kagusa Venetian influence was Eagusa de- suprcmc, and whatever Hassan patriotism may pendent on ^ . . Venice, havc to Say for the previous independence of the republic of S. Biagio, there can be no doubt that from 1 22 1 till the time of Lewis the Great Ragusa was under the government of Venetian counts regularly appointed by the republic of S. Mark. Beyond the territory of Bagusa neither Hungary nor Venice had at present any matter Cattaro de- for disputc, for Cattaro and the Bocche acknow- pendent on '- Servia. Icdgcd the suprcmacy and lived under the protec- tion of the kings of Servia. Review of jf -^^g tum to Consider the internal condition state 01 Daimatia. of Dalmatia at this period and compare it with c. 1250. ^ ^ that at the time of the first coming of the Hungarians, we find that during the century * In 1278. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 75 and a half that divides the two eras the relative positions of the Latins and Croatians had been reversed. With the extinction of the kingdom of Croatia the Croats sank into the position of mere provincials of the Hungarian crown, and the maritime towns, from being then- tributaries, became their fellow-subjects, on equal or rather superior terms, for they retained their autonomy under Hungarian protection. Left in possession of their municipal liberties, and re- lieved from the jDiracies which hindered their commercial development before the Venetians made the seas safe, the maritime cities rapidly grew in wealth and consequence. They had no Military longer anything to fear from the Slavs of the the towns. neighbourhood, whom they were able to meet on equal terms, not only on sea, but on land, for they had now an organized militia well armed and disciplined, and we have seen that the Spala- tines under their podest^ Gargano were able to vanquish the Almissans and put an end to then- piracies without any aid from either Venetian or Hungarian. Among the other cities Zara was pre-eminent in wealth and power, and the his- torian of Spalato envies while he affects to deride the military ambition of the rival city and the forts and townships which she planted in her territory ^. ^ ' Cum enim inter caeteros comprovinciales suos terra marique forent potentia et divitiis subliraati fastidio habere coeperunt nauticis lucris incumbere voluerunt militiae pompas inaniter '^(i History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. State of Concurrently with their civil development the Dalmatia. aits had flourishod within the walls of the Dal- ° ■ matian cities, while among the Slavs without little or no progress was made in this respect. The architecture of the thirteenth century at Zara Trail and Spalato will bear compari- son in point both of design and execution with the contemporary work in Italy by which it was principally inspired, though, as we shall see hereafter when considering it more at length, it possesses also a distinctively national character. At Zara the new Duomo was approaching com- pletion, the beautiful basilican church of S. Griso- gono had been erected and adorned with precious mosaics, and the convent of Santa Maria had been constructed, of which the fine tower and chapter-house still remain to us ; at Trail the main fabric of the Duomo was well advanced and the two doorways were completed of which the western one is unsurpassed by any Romanesque portal in Europe ; at Spalato the cathedral in the temple or tomb-house of Diocletian was en- riched by the magnificent carved and gilded doors of Magister Guvina with their twenty-eight re- liefs of subjects from the life and passion of our Lord, by the curious semi - oriental stall -work, probably from the same hand, that still adorns the choir, and above all by the exquisite pulpit of carved and inlaid marble. Ragusa during the experiri. Constructis nempe villis et oppidis gaudebant militari equitatu volare.' Thorn. Arcliid. c. xliii. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 77 same period had built her cathedral, with the state of the arts in gilts, perhaps, 01 our English King Kichard, a Dalmatia. building which, to judge from the description of those who saw it ^ must have been among the most interesting on the shores of the Adriatic, but of which the disastrous earthquake of 1667 has left us only the memory. The minor arts were studied with equal care, and Lorenzo, a Dalmatian born, who ruled the church of Spalato from 1059 to 1099, was at the pains to send a servant of his to Antioch in order to perfect him- self in the goldsmiths' and silversmiths' art, who on his return was employed to make several candelabra, ewers, and chalices, a pastoral staff and cross, and other things in the style of the art of Antioch, which was probably the same as that of Byzantium. Nor was literature dis- state of regarded : in the time of the same Lorenzo c. 1250. a scholar of Paris, on his way to study Greek at Athens, was employed by the archbishop to translate the uncouth legends of S. Domnus into polished verse, and to compose several hymns in honour of the saint ; Giovanni Ursini, Bishop of Trail, was famous for bis literary and scientific acquirements, and Thomas the Archdeacon of Spalato has left us the earliest history of his country, written in a style of considerable liveli- ness and, in spite of the author's frequent pre- judices, with some historical power. ^ Vid.Philippi de Diversis de Quartigianis Situa aedificiorum, &c. Kagusii. Ed. Brunelli. Zara, 1882. 78 History of Dahnatia. [Ch. i. Temporary Y^Q Tartar iiivasioii and the temporary dis- independ- ■■■ *^ ence of orP'aiiization of the kin2:dom of Hungary threw Trail, Spa- => _ . ^ . . lato, and the maritime towns of Dahnatia on their own Sebenico, oi i • A.D. 1242. resources, and Trail Sebenico and Spalato for some time enjoyed complete independence as free repubhcs. Unfortunately one of the first results of their liberty was a petty war between the neighbouring cities of Trail and Spalato about a disputed territory that lay between them \ War be- Composcd at first by the influence of the Fran- tween Trail ■"■ '' and Spa- ciscau Ghcrardo, the quarrel broke out ao;ain after lato. . ' ^ & his departure, and a naval combat took place off Trail in which the advantage remained with the Traiirini, who followed it up by allying them- selves with the neighbouring Slavs and ravaging the territory of Spalato. The Spalatini invoked the aid of Ninosclav, Ban of Bosnia, and with his A.D. 1244. aid ravaged in return the lands of Trail ; but the Traiirini appealed to the king Bela IV, who sent Dionysius, Ban of all Slavonia and Dalmatia^, to put an end to the quarrel and punish the Spa- latini and Ninosclav. With the entry of these champions on either side there was of course an end of the short-lived independence of the two republics. Appearing before Spalato the Ban demanded hostages and a large sum of money, and when the citizens pleaded that this was an invasion of their ^ Thorn. Archid. xliv-xlvii. ^ After the peace of 1244 the king united all his Slavonian territory under a single Ban or viceroy. Ch. I.] History of Dalinatia. 79 privileges he attacked the town in concert with the Tralirini, captured and burned the suburb, and compelled the Spalatini to release their prisoners, pay an indemnity, give hostages, and accept a Hungarian archbishop, Hugrinus or Ugolino Cesmen, a gay and mai-tial prelate, whom the king intended to be both pontiff and count of Spalato^ At this time the counts of Bribir of the family a.d. 1247. of Subich became prominent in Dalmatia. Ste- counts of phen Count of Lika and Bribir was created Ban "^^"^^ of all Slavonia and Dalmatia, and his successors under various titles held the same office till 1348. Stephen used his influence to pacify the province, and peace reigned among its various discordant elements as long as he lived. But the succeeding counts endeavoured to oppress the maritime cities, and fostered dissensions among them, and from hostility to Venice encouraged the piracies of the Almissans, which were always ready to break out when the peace of the country was disturbed. ■^ At this period of the history we lose the help of Thomas the archdeacon of Spalato, who died in 1268, as appears by his tombstone still existing in the cloister of the Franciscan church at Spalato. His 'Historia Salonitanorum Pontificum atque Spalatensium ' breaks off abruptly at the year 1266. The ' Historia de gestis Komanorum Imperatorum et summ. Pontificum Pars secundae partis de anno Domini Mccxc' by Micha Madii de Barbazanis of Spalato carries the narrative of events down to the year 1330. Both authors were edited by Giov. Lucio, and their works are appended to the 2nd edition of his 'De regno Dalmatiae et Croatiae/ Amsterdam, 1668. So History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. A.D. 1268. In 1259 Spalato and Trail leagued themselves A^mlssan° against the Polizzani, neighbours and confederates piracies, ^f ^jjg Almissans ; in 1268, the Doge wrote to the commune of Spalato to procure the liberation of a Venetian citizen whom the Almissans had cap- tured ; in 1274 Charles of Anjou, King of Naples, allied himself with Spalato and Sebenico to repress the pirates of Almissa ; and in 1277 the Venetians besieged Almissa, and after some trouble captured and burned the borgo or suburb, liberated one of their captains and other Ve- netians whom the pirates had captured, and received the submission of the islands of Lesina A.D. 1 278. and Brazza, which had hitherto belonged to the counts of Almissa \ Notwithstanding this the piracies continued, for Almissa was difficult of approach, the roads outside the estuary of the Cetina were insecure for ships in winter time. Piracy pro- and the Couuts of Bribir who received a share of Counts of the spoil had no inclination to discourage the lawless enterprises by which they profited, and their natural enemies the Venetians were the principal sufferers 2. In 1287 an Italian podestk from Fermo, whom the Tratirini had elected to govern their city, was captured on his way by the Almissans in spite of the safe-conduct of their own count and him of Bribir, and the resentment of the Dalmatian towns at these and similar outrages ^ Luc. lib. iv. c. ix. pp. 179-183. "^ ' Ex participatione praedae Comites Breberienses fautores habuisse arguunt ea quae ex scripturis eliciuntur.' Luc. Ibid. Bribir. Ch. I] History of Dalmatia. 8i made them listen to the overtures of the Ve- netians. The Republic contracted an offensive Dalmatian and defensive alliance with Trail and Spalato, with Ve- saving the honour of the Doge on one side and against the the King of Hungary on the other, and in 1292 a!^ 1 290. George, count of Bribir, was compelled to sign a.d. 1292. an agreement with the Doge, pledging himself and his subjects and the commune of Almissa to abstain from any hostilities and to make good any damage or injury of which the Venetians might have reason to complain. Ladislaus III, grandson of Bela IV, was mur- dered in 1290, and succeeded by Andrew III, ' the Venetian,' son of Tomasina Morosini, during whose reign nothing was done to disturb the agreement between Hungary and Venice. After his death in 1301 the succession was disputed between Wenceslaus king of Bohemia, Otho duke of Bavaria, and Charles Bobert or Caro- Charles berto, grandson of Charles II, king of Naples, king of and Maria of Hungary, sister of the murdered a.d^isS'. Ladislaus, and it was not till 1308 that Charles Bobert succeeded in establishing himself on the throne to the exclusion of his rivals. The counts of Bribir had contributed to his success, and with his ultimate triumph their own position in Dalmatia was strengthened and their influence in the maritime towns increased. Paul, Count of Bribir and Ban of Croatia, had Discontent succeeded in getting himself elected count of the ratinL maritime towns of Trail Spalato and Sebenico ; VOL. I. G 82 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. Zara alone remained independent of him, and he used his influence to excite the discontent of the citizens and induce them to throw off their al- legiance to Venice. The Zaratini had chafed under the hard terms imposed on them by the Republic in 1244 after their last rebellion, and they listened readily to the Ban's proposals. The moment was propitious, for the Venetians were involved in various domestic and foreign troubles; then- maritime power had received a severe shock by theii' defeat at the hands of the Genoese off Curzola in 1298^; the 'Serrata del gran Consigiio' in 1299 had roused the discontent of the people and provoked the consph^acies of Marino Bocconio and Bajamonte Tiepolo; the state was at war with the Pope about Ferrara; and the Pope, resorting to spiritual arms, had placed the Republic under an interdict, and in 1309 proclaimed a crusade against her m^ hich resulted in the defeat of her fleet and the interruption and ruin of her commerce^. Third The Papal bull releasino- all the subiects of the revolt of . ^ . ° , "^ Zara from Venetians from their allegiance gave the Zaratini Venice, March and the Hungarians the desired opportunity, and 13"- ^ It was in this battle that Marco Polo was made prisoner by the Genoese, and carried off to that captivity to which the woi'ld perhaps owes the account of his travels. The number of captives taken by the Genoese was 5000, among whom was the Venetian admiral Andrea Dandolo, who from shame and remoi'se dashed out his braius against the sides of the galley. ^ '. . . obiuterdictumPaimleperproximascivitatesDalmaticas inquisitio fieret an post jprohibitioneni Domini Papae aliquid Venetis venderetur vel ah eisdem emeretvr.' Luc. iv-xii. p. 201. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 83 in March 1 3 1 1 the city revolted, overpowered the garrison, and threw itself on the protection of Paul count of Bribir and ban of Croatia, whose son Mladin the citizens elected to govern them as their count \ The Venetian count Michele Morosini managed to make his escape m the disguise of a monk, but the two counciQors Zuane Giustiniani and Marco Dandolo were caught by the people and put in prison^. The King of Hungary accepted the proffered allegiance of the Zaratini, reinstated them in the enjoyment of then' ancient privileges, and wrote to warn the Kepublic not to molest them. But Venice had now come to terms with thcA.D. 1313. Pope and been relieved of the interdict, and was zar'k by free to turn her attention to the recovery of her revolted subjects. A fleet dispatched under Be- letto Giustiniani met with a somewhat ludicrous reverse, for under the cover of night and stormy weather the Zarathii managed to surprise the galley of the commander, who was iQ and asleep below deck, and to carry him with his crew to Zara, where he died in prison before the end of the war. The fleet was afterwards reinforced, June, and Dalmasio, a captain of Catalonian mercen- siege of aries, was sent with a thousand horse a thousand Venetian foot and a thousand archers to invest the city by diTry^Dai- land, while the fleet under Vitale Canal blockaded °^*^^°' the port. Dalmasio had scarcely entrenched his ^ For a table of the counts of Bribir vid. Isthuanfy.de reb.Hung. ^ Anonymous Venetian Chronicler cited Lucio, p. 200. G 2 $4 History of Dalniatia. [Ch, t. Daimasio amiy rouiid the city before his camp was threat- besieged ened by Mladin, who had succeeded his father Miadin. Paul and was now Ban of Dalmatia and Slavonian and who with an army of Slavs and German mercenaries took up a position whence he could assault the camp of Daimasio in case the latter drew out his troops to attack the city. The summer was passed in a masterly inactivity by both sides, and the expense of maintaining an army in the field without any result began to press heavily on the Venetians. The three months for which Daimasio had been engaged and paid had elapsed, and the Venetians knowing that he could not retire without their transports, and was therefore in a manner in their power, offered him lower terms than he asked for a renewal of his services. The effect of this was that he began to traffic with the Ban who had learned the state of aifairs, and who was himself anxious to bring the war to an end being threat- ened in the rear by the advance of Ourosh II, king of Servia, then at war with Hungary, ^f nfT ^Iladin had already made proposals to the and Dal- Venetians that they should receive the submission masio. .... of the Zaratini on condition of the restitution of their ancient privileges as a free city, but the pride of the Republic refused to listen to con- ^ ' Tali titulo utebatur Mladinus Croatorum Banus, Comes ladrae, Princeps Dalmatiae, et Secundus Bosnensis Banus! Luc. lib. iv. c. xiii. p. 203. His complete title was 'comes - perpetuus ladrae.' Storia della Dalmazia, Zara 1878. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 85 ditions from her revolted subjects \ Foiled in this attempt, Mladin now turned to Dalmasio and offered him 1000 gold florins, and the post of governor with an annual salary of the same amount if he would himself occupy the city, promising moreover that if he wished to leave the country he and his troops should be conveyed to Apulia at the expense of the Ban. To this Dalmasio agreed, a feigned attack was made on the city, the gates were opened by arrangement, Dalmasio with his forces entered without op- position, and the Venetians in alarm went on board their ships, and, anticipating an immediate attack, put out to sea. But Dalmasio meditated a second act of September, treachery, and having gained the city by be- Venetians traying the Venetians he now resolved to betray zara. the Ban and make terms with the Venetians for the surrender of the city to them. His envoys represented that he had been actuated by care for their interest in acquiring the city by stratagem after force had proved unavailing, and he induced the Zaratini to renew their offer of submission if their ancient privileges and im- munities were restored. This time the Venetians listened, envoys were sent, and terms arranged, but Dalmasio did not reaj) any fruits from his treachery, for finding himself suspected by both ^ ' At Venetorum in Zadrenses Majestas solita cum subditis indignata pacisci nil oblatorum admisit, offensa raagis libertate petita.' Albertinus Mussatus de gest. Italic, lib.ii. ap. Luc. p. 198. 86 History of Dalmatia, [Ch. i. sides, he claimed the promised safe-conduct and convoy of himself and his followers, and escaped to Apulia \ By the terms of the agreement the Zaratini regained the privilege of electing their own count subject to the confirmation of the Doge, the Venetians withdrew then- garrison and dis- mantled the castle, the citizens were allowed to govern themselves by their own laws and customs, and were placed on the footing of allies and not as on the last occasion that of subjects^. Their islands also were restored to them, a matter to which the Zaratini attached the greatest im- portance, their territory on the mainland being closely ch*cumscribed by the Croatians and con- stantly exposed to their invasion. Tyranny of Mladiii was uow all-powcrful in Dalmatia counts of ^ Bribir. Croatia and Bosnia ; the countship of Trail Spa- lato and Sebenico was held by his younger brother George, and the Venetians had been obliged to receive the Zaratini on terms which had been originally dictated by himself His power was exercised tyrannically ; he harassed the Bagusans, interfered even with the neigh- bouring Croatian counts of Corbavia, and op- pressed the maritune cities, fomenting civil discord among them, confiscating then* extramural terri- ^ The whole transaction is obscm-ely told by Albertinus Miissatus. ' Dalmasius omnium vitandarum insidiarum astutia noctu lembum ingressus in Apuliam devectus est.' ^ ' Veluti cum sociis aequo jure convenerunt.' Luc. iv-xii. p. 201. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 87 tory, and ill-treating the citizens ^ His brother a.d. 1315. George moreover openly encouraged the Almissan piracy of corsairs, granting them many immunities and ^i""^^^^- regulating the division of the expenses and spoils of their piracies by a special charter 2. The result of the oppressive government of Trau and . Till 1 • Sebenico the Croatian Ban and his brother was a revulsion revolt to of feeling in favour of Venetian rule. For a a.d. 1322. hundred and sixty years and more the Latin or Dalmatian cities of the coast to the south of the Kerka had been content to acknowledge the supremacy of the King of Hungary while their municipal autonomy and territorial rights had been respected, but no sooner were these uu- perilled than they at once looked round for another protector, and in January 1322 Trail a.d. 1322. and Sebenico invoked the protection of the Ve- netians. Mladin ravaged the lands of both cities but was summoned away to resist a re- bellion against his authority in Bosnia. Allying Defeat and captivity ^ Micha Maclii, ch. xviii. The historian's indignation is °^ ^Hadin. inflamed by his suspicions of Mladin's orthodoxy ; ' Deum coli contemnebas et Eccles. Catholicam, quoniam ordinabas Epi- scopos, Abbates, et Abbatissas . . . solebas frequentare legendo Bibliam, sed non observabas verba Bibliae.' Here as usual the Patarene tendencies of the Slavs are contrasted with the Roman orthodoxy of the cities. '^ 'Item quod quando irent in cursum cum ligno 40 remorum et ultra, lignum sextam partem habeat expensarum et quintam partem lucri, et lignum a 24 remis usque ad 40 sextam partem lucri et sextam partem habeat expensarum, sed lignum x. remis usque ad 24 pro duobus hominibus partem recipiat, a decern autem remis infra de parte unius hominis contentetur.' Charter cited by Lucio, p. 204. 88 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. himself with the Vlachs and PoHzzani he gave battle to the rebels, but was defeated and diiven to hide himself in the fastnesses of Poglizza, whence he escaped to the king Charles Bobert who was then at Knin, He was however ill- received, his loyalty was suspected, and the king carried him away with him a prisoner into Hun- gary \ Profiting by these disturbances among the Croatians, the men of Trali made an expe- dition ao'ainst Almissa, and those of Sebenico Victory of agaiust Scardona ; both were successful, the Sebenic"!)^ offeudiug towus werc spoiled and burned, and their pu-atical boats were carried off by the victors. April, Though Spalato had not offered allegiance to fea?of ^" the Venetians, her forces were united with those pa ato. ^^ Xratl in the capture of Almissa, and she seems to have garrisoned and retained the place. Count George in consequence invaded and ravaged the Spalatine territory, and defeated a force of 1200 Spalatini which encountered him near Clissa with a loss of 150 men. In the following year he as- sembled another army meditating the conquest June, 1 324. of Spalato, and the recovery of Almissa, which Defeat and -, j i • j i i i j. captivity place was necessary to him as the head-quarters ofBribir! of the ylY2^q,j by whicli he profited 2, but he was encountered near Knin, and routed and taken ^ Micha Madii, cli. xvii., xviii., xix. ''■ ' Putabas destiuere Civ. Spal. et auferre Almissum, et habere ad velle vestrum, ubi asset cursus et locus piratarum,' Micha Madius, c. xxiii. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 89 prisoner by Neliptio count of Cetina and Knin, and the voyvode George Mihovilich. In the followmg year the Zaratmi arbitrated between the contending parties, and peace M^as agreed to between the Spalatini and the countess of the imprisoned George, the captive Spalatini at Clissa bemg released on one hand and Almissa March, restored on the other \ The Spalatmi in 1327 resolved to follow the ^d- 1327. example of Trati and placed themselves under the submits to protection of Venice. The event of their late struggle with the Bribir family probably con- vinced them of their powerlessness to stand alone in the midst of so many warring elements, and they made their submission to the Doge on con- dition that their municipal autonomy should be respected, and ' saving the honour of the King of Hungary 2.' In the following year Nona, though a Also Nona, purely Croatian town, which had never before been January. ' subject to the Venetians, found herself obliged by the difficulties of the times, the disturbed state of affau^s and the weakness of the Hungarian go- vernment, to throw herself, like the other Dalma- tian towns, on the protection of the Republic^. ^ Luc. iv. c. xiv. p. 210. "^ Micha Madii, c. xxviii. This appears to mean that his nominal sovereignty should be respected. The name of the king was to be retained on all legal writings, and to stand before that of the Doge. Lucio observes that even under the Venetian rule the King of Hungary confirmed or refused to confirm privileges in the cities. Lib. iv. c. xv. p. 220. * ' Anchor in questo tempo la Citade de Spalato e de Nona li 90 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. Daimatia The tyranny of the family of Bribu' had thus once more Venetian, forced into the arms of the Venetians those cities of the sea coast which were not hers already ; and all maritime Dalmatia, including the islands, was now re-united under the banner of S. Mark for the first time since the days of Ordelafo Faliero. The policy of a commercial power like Venice was always directed towards peace, and her first endeavour was to reconcile the cities with one another and with the neighbouring Croatian counts. Though under her suzerainty — to use a word which modern politics has brought into fashion — the several cities were not her sub- jects, but retained their independence and had to Endea- bc treated with separately. A treaty of alliance was Venice to therefore arranged by the Venetians between the country/ communcs of Spalato Traii and Sebenico, with conditions for mutual defence and assistance in time of war, and for the peaceful adjustment of disputes by arbitration in place of the old system of reprisals. The boundaries of the territories of Trail and Sebenico were settled in this way, and the question between count George of Bribir and the city of Spalato was decided qual iera in estrema e chattiva condition per lo muodo clie de soura e ditto de Sebenico e de Traci vegendo le ditte Cittade sottomesse al Comun de Veniesia de chativa condition esser vegnude in bona condition, e in bi'ieve tempo, desse le do Cittade con le condition e patti delle altre do prenominade, e questo fo in 1327, che si de Spalatini in lo mese di Settembrio e foli mandado per so Conte f. Marco Fuscarini.' Ven. Chron. cited Luc. p. 210. Ch. I,] History of Dalmatia. 91 by the arbitration of the Zaratini as has just been related. The Venetians succeeded also in composing the civil dissensions by which Trail had been torn on the question of surrendering the city to Venice, and which had resulted in the expulsion of the losing party \ The fuorusciti, as the Florentines would have called them, were recalled and reinstated in then- possessions, and the odious partisan distinction of 'ins an d 'outs' was terminated. The discordant state of the Croatians of the Disturbed interior enabled the Venetians to unite some of Dalmatian the feudal counts with the maritune cities on under terms of amity or alliance. During the troubled Robert, reig-n of Charles Eobert the authority of Hungary was but little able to make itself felt m Dalmatia, and the whole country was in disorder. The ambitious designs and oppressive arrogance of the counts of Bribh- had offended the neighbouring Croatian nobles as well as the Dalmatians ; and Mladin had been overthrown by a combination of Croatian counts under the Bosnian Ban Babonig. But Babonig himself next provoked the royal interference, and was defeated by the Great Ban Nicolas, whom the king had sent to pacify the country 2. The counts near the sea coast, in order ^ 'Civibus in partes divisis praesertim Sebenici et Trag. mutuae caecles, familiarum expulsiones, bonorum publicationes, domorum destructiones perpetratae sunt, et extrinsecorum et intrinseco- rum odiosa nomina emersere.' Luc. lib. iv. xiv. p. 205. ^ ^licha Madii, ch. xxii. The barren and inflated chronicle 92 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. Alliance between the cities and Croatian counts. A.n. 1337. A.D. 1343. A.D. 1342, Accession of Lewis the Great. to save themselves from a similar fate, formed an alliance with the maritime towns at the instance of the Venetians, and thus supported were able to command the respect of the next Ban Mihac, who abstained from meddling with them. Among these allied counts Neliptio, count of Knin, was the most important, and in alliance with Spalato Trail and Sebenico, which places furnished a con- tingent of 400 foot-soldiers \ he besieged Mladin III, son of George of Bribir, and now count of Scardona and Clissa, in his stronghold at the latter place. But Neliptio himself was guilty of aggressions on the territory of Sebenico, and the Venetians, profiting by the jealousy excited by his superior power, united Mladin and the counts of Ostrovizza and Corbavia in a league with the maritime towns, and caused Neliptio to pull down the fort he had erected and to sign con- ditions of peace. But a change came over the state of affah^s in Hungary which was speedily felt in Dalmatia. In 1 342 Charles Bobert died and was succeeded by his son Lewis, then a youth only of sixteen years. of this author now fails us. Its value consists in the fact that Micha was an eyewitness of the events he narrates. ^ By the conditions of the alliance in 1332 Neliptio was to defend the cities if attacked, and they were to supply when called upon a contingent of 400 men, 100 from Spalato, 140 from Trail, and 160 from Sebenico. Neliptio was to lead in j)erson, the object was to be approved by the towns, and no hostilities were to be committed against the King of Hungary ou one side, or the subjects of Venice on the other. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 93 who soon gave promise of his future greatness. During his long reign of forty years he raised Hungary to a higher place among European powers than it had ever before occupied ; to his hereditary kingdom he added, in 1370, that of Poland which was settled on him by his maternal uncle Casimir III ; the princes of Moldavia, Wallachia, Bulgaria, and Bosnia were forced to submit to his arms ; the Venetians were driven out of Dalmatia ; and for a short time the king- dom of Naples, which he invaded to punish the murder of his brother Andrew, was at his feet, and governed by his officers. Charles Robert, disappointed by his uncle Alliance of Bobert I. in obtaining the kingdom of Naples for with himself, had married his second son Andrew^ to ^^^^" Giovanna, the grand-daughter of Bobert, and hen-ess to his throne. Bobert died in 1342, a few months after Charles Bobert of Hungary, and the youthful Giovanna succeeded at the age of six- teen, her husband being of the same age as herself. The first object of Lewis, who looked to his connexion with the kingdom of Naples for support in the vast schemes that were already working in his mind, was to obtain from the Pope, Naples being a fief of the church, the coronation and investiture of his brother Andrew not as consort of Giovanna but as heir of Carlo Martello ^ In 1333, July. Vid. Giannone, lib. xxii. c. iii. The prince and pi'incess were both seven years old. 94 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. his grandfather ^ and after long negotiations at the Papal court at Avignon his ambassadors succeeded in their object, though, according to Boccaccio, not without great difficulty. ^ This object had at first occupied the attention of Lewis to the exclusion of the affairs of Dalmatia and Croatia, but his next care was to restore order and reestablish his authority in those pro- vinces. Neli]3tio was dead, but his fortress of Knin was held by his widow Vladislava for her infant son John, whom many of the Croatian counts encouraged to resist and defy the royal A.D. 1345. summons to surrender. Lewis however brought a vances into force iuto Dalmatia which overawed all opposition except on the part of those who were allied with the maritime cities and the Venetians, and with the exception of Paul count of Ostrovizza, and Mladin III count of Scardona and Clissa, all the other counts of Croatia and Dalmatia laid the keys of their castles at the king's feet ^. Having no fleet, Lewis was at present unable to attack ^ Giannone, Historia di Napoli, lib. xxiii. Vid. Table of Kiugs of Hungary, infra. ^ The local historians of the succeeding events are the authors of the ' Suvima Historiarum Tabula a Cutheis de gestis civium Spalatinorum,' &c., and of the ' Ohsidionis ladrensis lihri duo! Both are edited by Lucio and appended to his edition of 1668. Of the latter work he says it is a ' manuscripta historia a religioso quopiam viro qui interfuit conscripta, ut ex genere quo utitur orationis facile intelligi potest.' Its style is exe- crable and its matter often obscure. ^ Obsid. ladr., lib. i. ch. vii. Ch, I.] History of Dalmatia, 95 the cities of the coast or meddle with the Croa- tian counts whom they supported. The situation was one which caused the Vene- Alarm of Venice at tians grave anxiety. The alliance of Hungary and alliance Naples under the rule of two brothers, both Hungary young and ambitious ^ was the last political com- Naples, bination the Venetians would have desu*ed. Hun- gary was powerful, wealthy, and warlike, her land forces were superior to any the Venetians could oppose to them, her strength was shortly to be increased by the union of Poland under the same crown, the patriarch of Aquileja was her ally, and so were the Anconitans, the hated rivals of the Republic. Naples possessed a fleet in the Tyr- rhene sea ; should the two powers combine to attack Dalmatia by land and sea the Venetians could not defend it ; and with both shores of the Adriatic in the possession of her enemies the maritime dominion of Venice would pass into other hands. Everything now depended on the fidelity of the maritime towns, and in par- ticular of Zara, especially since by the terms of her ancient privileges, confirmed by the late com- a.d. 1345. pact, no Venetian garrison could be placed mthin the walls. About Spalato Trail and Sebenico the Venetians felt less anxiety, for they were sur- rounded by the territory of the counts of Bribir, who were still resisting the king and imploring ^ So says Lucio, but in fact, if Giannone may be believed, Andrew had none of the sj^irit of bis elder brother, but was ' dato air ozio.' 96 History of Dalmatia, [Ch. t. A.D. 1345. the aid of the Venetians. But Nona and Zara were enclosed by the territory of the counts of Corbavia and Knin, who had made their submis- sion to Lewis, and they had to be carefully watched. Nona made no objection to receive a garrison, and was strongly fortified and well manned, but experience of the jealous temper of the Zaratini warned the Venetians that any pro- posal to place troops there would be resented as an invasion of the ancient privileges and probably provoke the very mischief that it was intended to avoid. Prosperous It might be thought that interest would have condition i i i • • • • i ^ c of Zara attached the maritune cities to the rule 01 a com- netianruie. lucrcial and highly civilized people speaking the same tongue and living by the same pursuits rather than that of a feudal monarch and an alien people in a lower grade of civilization than them- selves, especially since they had flourished under Venetian protection as they had never done since the days of the Roman emph-e. The Zaratini elected their own count, had the custody of their city without the presence of any foreign garrison, governed themselves by their owai laws and customs, and contracted alliances with the neigh- bouring Croatian counts, like the other maritime cities, with the approval of Venice ; they ex- tended their commerce into the Tyrrhene sea as far as Sardinia and Catalonia, two galleys lay in their arsenal, their harbour was thronged with craft of all sizes, and the numbers and Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 97 wealth of their population were largely on the increase \ But the Zaratini had not forgotten or forgiven Reasons for the loss of the islands of Srimaz Zuri and Jarte of Zaratini which they had snatched from the Sebenzani in Venice. 1323, when that people were at war with Trail, and which in 1324, after Sebenico like themselves had accepted the Venetian dominion, the Vene- tians had compelled them to restore ^. When the Venetians declared war against Neliptio the Za- ratini did the same, but refused to send troops across then* frontier ; when requested by Lewis to send galleys and boats to Segna to convey his mother the elder queen Elizabeth to Apulia, they did so without any previous communication with Venice ; and when he advanced with his army into the country they sent three envoys to meet him, who came back however without effecting their purpose, for one of the envoys was a 'tyrant- hater,' and delayed his companions, and while they were on the road the king departed for Hungary ^. The news of this abortive mission however September, A.D. 1345. ^ Luc. lib. iv. c. XV. p. 217-218. ^ Luc. iv. XV. p. 219. He gives the formal pleadings of the Zaratini when summoned to meet the plaintiffs in the chancery at Venice. They amount to a denial of the juris- diction of the Venetians, ' quod Commune ladrae debet habere unum Comitem qui sit de majori consilio Civitatis Ven. qui cum tribus ludicibus roget et judicet praedictos ladratinos ut in pactis plenius continetur, cujus rei causa ex pactorum forma non possumus nee debemus coram vobis ad judicium citari.' ^ Obsid. ladr. lib. i. c. vii. VOL. I. H 98 Histo7'y of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Fourth decided the Venetians to anticipate the open re- Zara from bellion of the Zaratini ; the port was blockaded A.D. 1345. by a fleet under Pietro di Canal, and the tem- porizing overtures of the citizens were met by a stern demand for unqualified submission. Petitions sent secretly from the citizens to imjDlore the aid of Lewis and that of his brother Andrew king of Naples were favourably entertained by both monarchs. Andrew received the envoys on the 17th September^, and promised his support, and on the 8th of the same month letters arrived from Lewis announcing his approach with an army to their relief The Hun- But it was uot destined that any help should garians at Naples, reach them from Naples, for the day after his interview with their envoys Andrew was assassi- nated, and there was an end of the hopes and fears founded on the alliance of the two kingdoms of Hungary and Naples. When Charles Robert of Hungary had brought his son Andrew, then a child of seven years of age, to Naples to be married to Giovanna, he had left with him as his tutor and governor one Fra Roberto, a Hungarian monk, under whose charge the prince grew up, and whose influence over the easy temper of his pupil became absolute. At the time of their accession the queen and her consort were but sixteen years old, and Fra Roberto contrived to get all the power of the government into the hands of the Hungarian party which surrounded ^ Obsid. ladr. lib, i. c. xix., xxiv. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 99 the person of the kmg. One by one the ex- Discontent perienced councillors of E-obert I were dismissed tans with and their posts filled by Hungarians, and the garians. Neapolitans saw with growing discontent and repugnance that then- queen was queen merely in name, and in reality the prisoner of these ' harha- rians,' in whose hands her husband was as much a puppet as herself \ The insolence of the Hun- garians and the careless indifference of Andi-ew provoked some of the more ardent spirits among the discontented Neapolitans to form a conspiracy, and they were encouraged by Carlo duke of Durazzo, who had married the queen's sister and was next in order of succession to the throne. The news that Lewis had procured a bull for the coronation of Andrew not as consort but as legiti- mate king of Naples precipitated their plans, and on the night of September 18, while the Hun- Murder of . . , . . Andrew, garians were stupid with drink and buried in Sept. is, sleep, Andrew was waylaid as he left the queen's apartments in the castle of Aversa, a noose was ^ With Costanzi and the Neapolitan historians the Hun- garians are always barbarians, and we hear enough of their insolence, drunkenness, and ' barbari costumi.' There is a letter of Petrarch extant describing his interview with Fra Eoberto. He says, ' Oh infamia del niondo, che mostro ! . . . un animale orrendo coi piedi scalzi, col capo scoverto, corto di persona, marcio di tempo, grosso di fianchi, coi panni logori e strac- ciati per mostrar a studio jmrte delle carne, non solo dis- prezzare le suppliche de' tuoi cittadini, ma con grandissima insolenza, come dalle torre della sua finta santita, non fare nullo conto della imbasciata d' un Papa.' All the rest of the Hun- garian ministry, he goes on to say, are like their chief, whom he calls a ' crudele ed atroce bestia.' H 2 lOO History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i, A.D. 1345. thrown round his neck, and he was strangled and his body thrown out of the window. A few ob- scure victims were selected for punishment, but though a papal bull was launched against the principal offenders their rank and power pre- vented any measures being taken against them. Their impunity excited suspicion ; it was whis- pered that Giovanna herself had been privy to the crime, and Lewis wrote to her accusing her of her husband's death, and threatening speedy vengeance ^ , A.u. 1345- Meanwhile the sie2:e of Zara was pressed by Siege of . ^ ^ ... Zara by the the Venetians. Within the city opinion was Venetians. ^ . -, , , divided : the populace, who were sailors and sea- faring folk to whom Venetian rule was not un- welcome, were willing to come to terms, while the upper classes were inclined to the Hungarian alliance and determined to hold out ; but the stern demand of the Venetian commander that the city should be surrendered to his discretion and the walls thrown down united all classes in a policy of resistance ; they raised the royal stan- dard of Lewis their ' natural lord and master ' and exerted themselves to the utmost to put the city into a good state of defence. By sea the Venetian admiral Jacopo Ciurani blockaded them with a powerful fleet, in which were included galleys * Giannone, lib. xxiii. A contemporary account of the murder of Andrew is given by Domenico di Gravina, who writes as a partisan of the Hungarians and an enemy of the queen. Muratori, vol. xii. p. 560. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. loi from Ragusa Spalato Arbe and Trail, and smaller vessels from the other states according to then- ability ; the land forces, amounting to more than 16,000 men^, were commanded by Marco Ginstiniani, who entrenched himself within a stockade or bastide 200 paces long and 100 wide strengthened with thirty-four towers, leaning on the sea to the east of the city so as to communi- cate with the fleet, and commanding the isthmus which joins the city to the mainland. The object of this entrenchment was to resist the threatened attack of the king of Hungary, whose army was on its way to raise the siege. The winter was consumed in small engagements with varying success, and conducted with much bitterness on both sides, no quarter being given. In January January, the Venetians took the fort of St, Damiano on the island opposite Zara, and bursting the chain ^ forced their way into the harbour. In May they made an unsuccessful assault on the city, and in June, 1346. June Lewis with an army of 100,000 men of of Lewis to various nationalities ^ encamped at Semelnich Zara. seven miles from the city, A deputation of the citizens laid the keys at his feet, to whom he swore that he would either deliver them from the ^ Obsid. ladr. lib. ii. c. xii, "^ The construction of the chain is described, Obsid, ladr. lib. i. c. xix, ' quamdam catheuam mirae grassitiei, ex tredecim tignis ad invicem ferro connexis ac confibulatis.' ^ ' Ungari, Croati, Bognaschi, Phylistei, Cumani, Boemi, et Teutonici seu Alemanici, et alias plures gentes.' Obsid. ladr. lib, ii. c. xi. 102 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Venetians or leave his bones at Zara^ While there remained an enemy on their territory he declined to enter the city, but with an escort of 2000 men he approached within sight of the walls amid the ringing of bells and shouts of the popu- lace. July 1, Saturday, July 1 2, was fixed for an assault on Defeat of the Venetian bastide, and as the King had no garians. military engines he borrowed some from the city. But his army was better qualified to meet an enemy in the field than to attack a fortress, and there was not space for more than a small propor- tion of them to come into action. Some of his miscellaneous host, moreover, were suspected of friendly relations with the Venetians, and the Ban of Bosnia, with his forces, remained an in- active spectator of the fray^. The Venetians were entirely successful, the assault was repelled, the engines of the assailants were destroyed and burned, and the Zaratini, on whom the brunt of the conflict had fallen, were driven back to their walls exclaiming against the treachery of their allies. ■^ 'Non semel imrao saepe et crebrius cum juramento affirmasse visus est potius suum velle corpus ladrae condere sacrofago quam constantissimos ladertinos velle desolates relinquere.' Obsid. ladr. ii c. ix. "^ Obsid. ladr. lib. ii. c. xii, 'die qui Saturn o est dedicatus.' Elsewhere the reverend author enlivens his narrative by such expressions as ' existente sole immediate subsequentis diei in medio polo,' or better still ' dum Titan tertiarum hora prosignabat.' ' Obsid. ladr. lib. ii. c. xii. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 103 On the following day Lewis burned his remain- July 3, ing engines, and the day after, July 3, broke up Retreat of his camp and beat a retreat, which the Venetian historians magnify into a flight, to Yrana and thence back into Hungary ^ The Zaratini, thus abandoned to their fate, un- plored the king at all events to make then* peace with the Venetians before forsaking them, but his proposals were naturally received by the Signory with contemj)t. Tumults arose in the city, the a.d. 1346. Distress 01 populace being as before for surrender, the nobles the for resistance. Meanwhile the siege was vigor- ° ously pressed, and the castle of S. Michele on the island of Ugliano was taken or betrayed. A worse enemy soon began to make its impression on the resolution of the citizens ; twenty-eight thousand souls, natives and refugees from the sur- rounding territory, were cooped up within the walls, of whom only six thousand were capable of bearing arms, and the ravages of famine began to drive the populace to desperation. At last in ^ Caresinus (Murat. xii.) says, ' multisque ex Hungaris vilis- sime interfectis.' I have found no authority for the defeat of Lewis with a loss of 6000 killed aud many more wounded, of which Sir Gardner "Wilkinson speaks, vol. ii. p. 272. The author of the Obsid. ladr. says the Zaratini were left unsupported while the Hungarian army stood and looked on, ' lucide consj)icit Eex, et tota ejus turba, nemini imperat ex suis illis fidelibus ladertinis guttam sufifragii praestare, speculatur universus exer- citus armis fulgidis decoratus,' lib. ii. c. xii. Lucio says that ' Rex nullo Venetis illato damno, nullo subsidio Civitati prae- stito, multitudine sua gravatus, fugato similis intra biduum recesserit ; ita ut exinde Veneti Eegem fugisse scribant.' De Regn. lib. iv. c. xv. p. 225. I04 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. December it was decided to send an embassy to Venice, and kneeling before the Doge and Signory Surrender the envoys made their unconditional submission. Dec^^i', The gates were opened, the Venetian captains ^^^ ' with their forces entered the city, and the stan- dard of S. Mark was raised in the place of that of the Hungarian king. The conditions imposed on the city were more favourable than might have been expected. With the death of Andrew and the rupture between Naples and Hungary one source of danger to the Republic had been removed, and as the Venetians might now hope to retain their hold on Dalmatia they no longer desired to dismantle the fortified Favour- towus. Zara therefore retained her walls, but the ditions citizcus wcre disarmed, and fifty of the nobles'* Venice. ^ wcre scut as hostages to Venice. A garrison of 400 foot and 200 horse was placed in the castle, Marco Giustiniani was appointed count, with Marino Superanzio and Jacopo Delfin for his councillors, and the island of Pago was taken from the terri- tory of Zara, and made the seat of a Venetian count. In other respects the Zaratini were left in enjoyment of their ancient privileges. The siege had lasted sixteen months, and cost Venice from 700,000 to 1 ,000,000 ducats ^ A variety of circumstances had combined to ^ Chron. Venet. cited by Lucio, iv. c. xv. p. 224. ' Vojo clie se sapia che 11a dita Zara chostava al Chomun de V^. due. 40 fina 60 millia al mexe,' &c. Cortusii says one million. Sir G. Wil- kinson says three millions, but gives no authority. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. T05 reduce this formidable expedition of Lewis to a Eeasons mere military parade. The Venetian stockade of Hun- could only be taken by regular siege operations, ^^^^^^* and even then with difficulty, as the Venetians had command of the sea. But Lewis had neither navy nor siege train, and the Hungaiians were not expert in siege operations, while the Venetians were famous for their skill both in attacking and defending fortresses. Lewis had also to reckon with the disaffection of many of the Croatian counts ; he could not expect those whom he had subdued in 1 345 ^ to be very zealous adherents, and Paul count of Ostrovizza and Mladin count of Scardona and Clissa still held to their alliance with the Venetians, and had not joined his army •^t all. The abstention of the greater part of the royal army from taking part in the battle of July ist is ascribed by the author, who was an eye-witness of the siege, to the influence of the Croatian leaders, and especially that of the Voyvode Laccohovich 2, but it is possible that Lewis himself may have had his own reasons for not pressing it too vigorously. He was then Designs of meditating an expedition to Naples to avenge the Naples. murder of his brother and claim the kingdom for himself as the heir of Carlo Martello his grand- ^ Vid. sup. p. 94. ^ ' Et nisi hoc fraudulentum perdimentum tunc per illos Regis Barones et praecipue per Voyvodam Laccohovich exactum fuisset sexta quidem hora ipsius diei non consummasset quod ipsa bastida ac combusta esset et in manus hostium tradita.' Obsid. ladr. lib. ii. c. xii. io6 History of Dalmatia, [Ch. i. father, and it rested with the Venetians as masters of the sea to prevent or permit the passage of his army across the Adriatic. It was hinted to him that if the Venetians were not interfered with at Zara no opposition would be offered by them to the passage of his army into Apuha, and this possibly outweighed the obligations under which he lay towards the Zaratini ^. December, Lowis, howover, was unablo to persuade either A.D. 1347. the Genoese or the Sicilians to transport his army, and he finally invaded ' tlie Kingdom ' by land. Jan. 17, On Jan. 17, 1348, he reached Aversa where he Entry of' was met by the majority of the Neapolitan nobles. Naples. The queen, with her second husband, had fled to Avignon, and no resistance was offered by the people. Passing with his army before the castle where his brother had been murdered, he halted, and calling the duke of Durazzo before hun asked from which window his brother had been thrown. The duke denied all knowledge of the circum- stances, but his complicity was proved by the production of a fatal letter in his own handwriting, and he was immediately beheaded and his body thrown from the same window whence the un- happy Andrew had been precipitated 2. Summary justice thus performed, and an inconvenient rival ^ So Caroldus, cited by Luc. iv. c. xv. p. 223. ^ Carlo, Duke of Durazzo, had added to liis other offences that of marrying Maria, the sister of Giovanna, who had been destined for Stephen, a younger brother of Lewis. This mar- riage, in case Giovanna left no children, diverted the succession from the Hungarian line. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 107 removed, Lewis advanced to Naples, which he entered wearing his hehnet, preceded by a black standard painted with the figure of a strangled king, and receiving in grim silence the addresses of the trembling citizens. Many of the barons were thrown into prison, the young prince Caro- berto, son of Andrew and Giovanna, was sent into Hungary to be educated by his grandmother, and Hungarian officers were appointed to the principal posts in the government. Lewis himself, after four months, embarked on May, 1348. a ' bireme ' at Barletta, and staying a few days at o/LewiT^ Vrana on his way northwards returned to Hun- Navies. gary. His departure was the signal for the re- vival of the party of Giovanna. The arguments of the queen, seconded by the donation or sale on easy terms to the chm^ch of the city of Avignon, had convinced the Pope that she was innocent of the murder of her first husband, and the barons of her kingdom, disg-usted with the rule of the Hungarians whom they regarded as barbarians, readily accepted the Papal verdict as sufficient authority for taking arms on her behalf. Giovanna Eetum of ^^ - , , Giovanna. and her husband landed at Naples where they were received enthusiastically, and hostilities were at once begun. Meanwhile the Venetians had offered Lewis Aug. 5, terms of peace on condition that he resigned his Eight pretensions in Dalmatia. He had at first refused peace to listen, but the news 'that reached him from veSe and Naples, the necessity of reinforcing his army there, "°^^'^* io8 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. and the preparations of the Venetians to intercept his transports made him change his mind, and he consented to make peace for a term of eight years. In 1349 the young prince Caroberto died in Hun- gary. Lewis now hoped for his own investiture by the Pope, and as this was refused he continued the war and recovered all the kingdom except A.D. 1 35 1. Naples and Aversa. But when at last the latter Lewis re- ^ tires from place was Surrendered his forces were exhausted Naples. ■*■ and he was glad to treat for peace, and professing himself ready to accept the Pope's decision that Giovanna was innocent of his brother s death, he vacated the kingdom in 1 3 5 1 . A.D. 1348. The year in which peace was signed between The Great ^ ■^ \ ° Plague. Venice and Hungary is that of the great plague which swept across Europe desolating whole coun- tries and leaving famine and ruin in its track. Its approach was heralded by a dreadful earth- quake, and, if the historian of Spalato^ may be credited, by an eclipse, a comet, and divers portents such as the appearance of demons and even of the three furies Alecto Tisiphone and Megaera from the Stygian pool, at whose aspect men lost their tongues and ofttimes their wits, stories which serve to show the terror excited by the visitation. At Pagusa 1 1 ,000 died of it ; at Florence, where it found a historian in Boccaccio, the deaths amounted to 600 a day ; at Venice half the population was swept away ; and in England, whither the ' black * Hist, a Cutheis, c. i. The plague at Spalato burst out on Dec. 25, 1348. Ch. L] History of Dalmatia. 109 death ' in time found its way, it destroyed in its repeated visitations more than half the population of the kingdom. During this awful calamity arms were by com- a.d. 1351. mon consent laid aside, but no sooner did it abate between than the smothered quarrel of the Genoese and Genoa. Venetians burst out into flame. Nicol5 Pisani, defeated in the Bosphorus, retrieved his laurels near Sardinia ; but the Genoese managed to equip a.d. 1353. a new fleet to replace that which Pisani had nearly destroyed, and, dexterously eluding the Venetian cruisers, their admiral Paganino Doria ravaged the coast of Dalmatia and Istria. The town of Lesina was sacked, Pola was nearly a.d. 1354. , , . Dalmatia reduced to rums, Parenzo was attacked and and istria plundered, and these reverses so afflicted Andrea by the Dandolo the Doge and chronicler of Venice as to cause his death. It was of importance to the Genoese to secure the alliance of the Hungarians that they might victual then* fleet from the Croatian shore, and they tried to induce Lewis to ally himself with them and attack the Venetians by land while they did so by sea. Lewis however confined himself to a demand for the restitution of the Dalmatian cities which the Venetians of course refused, but which formed a serious addi- tion to their difficulties. They strengthened their fortifications in Dalmatia, negotiated with the king of Servia for the j^urchase of Scardona and Clissa, which Lelca the widow of Mladin had given him to prevent their falling into the hands of the no History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. Hungarians, and induced the Emperor to dissuade the king of Hungary from breaking the peace he had aofreed to. The successor of Dandolo was Marino FaUero, and his accession was followed by the annihilation of the Venetian fleet under Nicolo Pisani by the Genoese under Paganino A-D. 1355- Doria. Disaster followed disaster ; the Republic was convulsed by the conspiracy and punishment of Marino Faliero, and the first object of the succeeding Doge, Giovanni Gradenigo, was to put June I, an end to the war. Fortunately he succeeded in 1355. _ , *^ Peace coucluding a peace with the Genoese and the Venice and dukc of Milan their ally in 1355 before he had a fresh and still more formidable enemy on his hands. Eenewaiof The term of the eight years' peace with the war with _ • f» i Hungary. Hungarians was now at hand, and Lewis refused to listen to any proposals for its continuance. Allying himself with the patriarch of Aquileia and Francesco Carrara of Padua, both natural foes of the Republic, he invaded the marches of Treviso, while the Ban of Bosnia by his orders ravaged Dalmatia. The territories of Nona Zara and the other towns of Dalmatia and Istria were wasted, the peojDle were driven within the walls, all cultivation of the soil was prevented, the sea was infested by pirates, and the inhabitants were Aug. 26, reduced to the erreatest straits. A fresh em- 1356. ° bassy from the Venetians oflered to restore Zara to her former liberty, to restore certain places in Slavonia to the Hungarians, to pay an annual Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 1 1 1 tribute for the rest, and an indemnity for the expenses of the war. Lewis however would hsten neither to the Venetians nor to his own councillors who urged him to consent to these proposals. A third offer by the Venetians to surrender all the rest if Zara alone were left to them had the effect of causing Traii and Spalato to open their gates to the Hungarians in order to gain the credit of a voluntary surrender. On July 8, 1357, the a.d. 1357. Venetian garrison and count 01 bpalato were matian surprised in their sleep and disarmed, and the mit to soldiers shut up in various churches and crypts ; at Trail the citizens shut their gates on their podesta who had gone out to a neighbouring church, whereupon he made his way to Spalato only to find himself a prisoner with his colleague. Both counts were treated honourably, and con- veyed to Venice at the expense of the Spalatini, and the Ban was invited to take possession of the cities in the name of his master ^ The Venetians tried to rouse the remaining Dalmatians to join them in recovering the revolted cities, but the hardships they had suffered from the ravages of the enemy and the insolence of the Venetian soldiery ^ outweighed any other ^ Tabula a Cutheis, ch. iii. ^ ' Spalat. vero non valentes ulterius tanta mala et damna sustinere et pati a gente XJiigara . . . deliberaverunt inter se insimul cum Trag. ut declinarent a dominio Ven. et rever- terentur ad dominium naturals et pristinum Ung. . . . Postea per aliquot dies omnes Civ. Dalm. simili modo rebellaverunt a Ven. putantes quod non esset bonum statum ipsorum sub 1 1 2 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. considerations. Sebenico sent envoys to make her submission to the Ban who was engaged in besieging Nona. The islanders of Brazza declared for Hungary; Lesina which held out for Venice was invaded and sacked by the men of Almissa Trail and Spalato in the fervour of their conver- sion to the Hungarian cause ; and the abbot of Sept. 17, g^ Michele treacherously opened the gates of Zara and admitted the German mercenaries of Lewis who after some severe fighting made themselves masters of all but the castle. Nona and Scardona still held out, but Nona was starved mto surrender after the besieged had eaten their last horse. Lewis himself came to Zara to press the siege of the citadel, but before it was taken the Venetians found it impossible to continue the contest, and a peace was agreed to by which Lewis gained every- Peaceof thing he had contended for. The Venetians Zara, Feb. . ini- t-vi ' c> ^ ^o 18, 135S. resigned ail claun to Dalmatia irom hali-way up Dalmatia tlic Quariicro to Durazzo^ and ^ in jparticular the tians. ^ cities of No7ia Zcvva Scardona Sebenico Trail Spalato and Ragusa on the mainland, also these cities icith their adjacent territories, viz. Cher so Veglia Arhe Pago Brazza Lesina Curzola, ivith their islands,' and they agreed that the Doge should drop the title of Duke of Dalmatia, while dominio Venet. jam in fastidium effect! erant Dalmatinis Veneti propter ipsoruin stipeudiarios et Soldatos.' Tab. a Cutheis, c. iii. ^ In the words of the treaty, ' reuunciamus . . . toti Dal- matiae a medietate scilicet guarnarii usque ad confines Duracii.' Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 113 on the other hand the king was to restore to the Kepubhc his conquests in the Trevisan and Istria. An amnesty was to be proclaimed for the adhe- rents of either side, the respective territories were to be transferred within twenty-two days, and a special provision was made for the repression of piracy by both parties ^ Instructions were sent to the Venetian counts throughout Dalmatia to surrender their charge, and thus the Republic ceased to have a footing on the eastern side of the Adriatic^. Before pursuing the history of the fifty or sixty Reasons for years that elapsed before Dalmatia passed once tain aiie- more and finally out of the power of the Hun- fL Dai° garians into that of the Venetians, it will be ^ The text of tlie treaty is given by Lucio, lib. iv. cb. xvii. p, 235. It will be observed by those who argue for the per- petual independence of Eagusa, that no distinction is made between that city and the others which were subject to Venice. But vid. History of Eagusa, infra, chapter xix. '^ ' • . . el castello de Zara in lo qual iera stado f Andrea Zane Cap. e mo jera Cap. Piero Badoer, e Scardona della qual se haveva dominio fo messa in le man del Ee de Ongaria, apresso fo scritto a f lacomo Corner Conte de Arbe, e f lacomo Ziuran Conte de Pago, e f Nicolo Corner Conte de Cherso e Ossero, e f Nicolo Corner Conte de Liesina, e a f . . . Zuzi Conte de Cursola, e a f Marco Sanudo Conte di Eagusi che de li detti luoghi se dovesse remover con tutta la famegia e vegnir k Venexia e de quelli plui non se impazar,' Chron. Ven. in Lucio, p. 235. Cattaro threw herself on the protection of Lewis in 1370, the Servian kingdom having sunk to so low an ebb as to be unable to protect her from the lords of Zenta. VOL. I. I 114 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Policy of useful to pause and consider how these repeated the Dalma- tian cities, changes of master were regarded by the Dalmatian cities, and what occasioned the apparent fickleness with which they so readily transferred their alle- giance from one side to the other. The causes which led to the successive rebellions of the Zaratini, will throw light on the revolutions that occurred in the other cities as well. Their first revolt in 1 1 80 was provoked by the subjection of their archbishop to the Venetian primate ; the causes of the second in 1242 are obscure, but may no doubt be found in the close subjection in which they were held since the conquest of 1202 ; their third revolt in 1 3 1 1 was made at the instigation of the counts of Bribir, with the prospect of regaining under Hungarian rule those ancient privileges of which since their previous outbreaks the Venetians had deprived them ; and their fourth in 1345 was occasioned by uTitation at the loss of the islands which the Venetians compelled them to restore to the Sebenzani. In all these cases the offence was given by interference either with theii' municipal autonomy and independence, or with the territorial rights of the commune. Autonomy The real object of the policy of Zara and every their real desire. towu of the Dalmatian pale, was to be allowed to live under its own laws, to choose its own magis- trates, to govern itself on its ancient democratic basis, and to regulate its own internal affairs without interference from any superior authority. These privileges were secured to the citizens by Ch. I.] Histoiy of Dalmatia. 115 the ancient charters, which were confirmed from Nature of , . , . . T , . , -, , their an- time to tmae by the successive rulers under whose cient privi- dominion they passed. They are all to the same ° effect ; the citizens were exempted from tribute ; they had leave to elect their own count and bishop^ whom the suzerain, Hungarian or Venetian, was to confirm ; they were to use then* ancient Roman laws, and to appoint their own judges ; no alien, even if he were of the ruling nation, was to reside within then* walls except at then* pleasure, a stipulation by which they were protected against the intrusion of a foreign garrison ; no castle or fort was to be built on their territory without then' leave ; they were not to be called upon to give hostages ; and no citizen could be cited to appear before any foreign tribunal or before any judges but those of his own city. So long as these privileges were respected and they were allowed to govern themselves in their own way the muni- cipalities of Dalmatia considered that they were free^, and it is in the prospect of better preserving their freedom and autonomy under the protection of one ruler or the other that we must seek the explanation of the readiness with which they ^ M. Guizot remarks that it was the general characteristic of Eoman municipalities, — of cities properly so called, — that the clergy in concert with the people elected the bishop. Hist, of Civilization in France, Lect. xvii. ^ ' Suis enim legibus vivere idem erat quod integra libertate frui, nam leges civibus modum vivendi statuentes a cujuslibet alterius jurisdictione cives eximebant.' Luc. de Regn. lib. iv. c. ii. p. 273. I 2 ii6 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. turned from Venetian to Hungarian, and from Hungarian to Venetian, rather than in any prefer- ence for one over the other. Their need What the cities really desired was to be left of protec- "^ tion by a alouo and to have as little as possible to do with great power. either or any of their powerful and dangerous neighbours ; but unhappily theu^ weakness and isolation made them necessarily dependent on that neighbour who was for the thne being the most dangerous and powerful. For the cities of Dalma- tia had no cohesion among themselves ; had they been able to league themselves together like the free cities of Lombardy they might perhaps have defied Croatian, Venetian, and Hungarian ; but except now and then under the leadership of Venice the relations of city to city were seldom amicable and often hostile. Too small to stand alone they naturally sought the protection of the most powerful friend they could find, and so long as their internal autonomy was respected and their territorial rights were not infringed they were willing to serve as allies and to send a contingent of ships and men to the forces of the power whose flag they hoisted. Difficulty Xhe difficulty of the position of these maritime position, cities between the rival powers of Venice and Hungary was extreme. Their position on the sea coast, their conunercial pursuits by which they lived, and their possessions on the islands that lay off their shores placed them at the mercy of Venice in time of war, and it was to Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 1 1 7 Venice that they had to look in time of peace for security against the piratical Slavs who infested those seas. On the other hand their territory on the mainland, surrounded by the feudal estates of Slavonic counts, or the lands of Croatian cities like Nona and Belgrad, was at any time exposed to be invaded by the Ban to whom they were seldom able to oppose any adequate resistance. Their allegiance to one side or the other was obviously a matter to be decided more by interest than by affection, and in time of war when neither party could protect them against the other except on his own element their case was pitiable. The instincts of race, and the ties of a common Their language and culture naturally inclined the Latin inciina- population of the cities towards Italy rather than towards towards Hungary. Between the Latins and the ^^' Croatians, in spite of the intermixture that natur- ally took place during the lapse of centuries, there was little sympathy. As the towns grew in wealth and importance, and developed the arts of civilisation in their midst, the Croatians seemed to them more and more left behind in compara- tive barbarism. The municipal governments were moulded on the model of the towns of Italy; the chief magistrate or podesta was generally an Italian ; at Spalato immediately after Coleman's conquest we find the rector was a Trevisan ; in 1 200 the citizens made an Italian from Perugia their archbishop : they refused the rectorship of ii8 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. the city to Reles, duke of Croatia, because they spurned the idea of being governed by a Slavo- nian^, and in 1239 they invited a podesta from Ancona. It was the same in the other cities, and even under the tyranny of the Slavonic counts of Bribir the office of podesta was filled by Italians generally chosen from the march of Ancona^. Autocrati- Bctwecn the Latins and the Hungarians there cal govern- rv • i i ment of \vas evcn less affinity than between them and the Croatians. From both Latins and Croatians the Hungarians were aliens in race, language, and customs. The free democracies of the cities, whose acts were issued in the name of ' tlie count with the judge and the whole body of the 'peo'ple'^\ were unintelligible to them. Monarchical themselves they treated the Dalmatians autocratically, and the privileges which the Hungarian kings con- firmed were in effect often infringed. The Bans, subservient to the king themselves, loved to lord it in their turn over the provincials, and the privileges of the towns were a constant source of vexation to the Bans who could not oppress the citizens as they did the Croatians. ^ 'Detestantes prorsus regimen viri Sclavigenae experiri.' Thom. Archid., c. xxi. ^ ' Potestates autem, qui ex Marchia Anconitana ut plurimum voluntate tamen Comitis eligebantur,' &c. Lucio de Regn. lib. iv. c. xiv. p. 205. ' A.D. 1 1 74. 'Ego Joannes Sjialatensis comes pariter cum Petro judice, et cum toto ejusdem Civitatis Populo pari volun- tate et communi consilio decrevimus,' &c. Luc. lib. iii. c. x. p. 132, and so passim. Vid. also quotations from statutes of Eagusa, infra, chapter xix. Ch. I.] Histojy of Dalmatia. 119 The Venetians therefore might have been ex- Character ^ Till ofVenetian pected to attract the sympathy and command govem- the allegiance of the Dalmatians more readily than the Hungarians. Under the rule of the Kepublic the provincials paid no tribute or taxes beyond the ' strena or strinna ' which perhaps represented the nominal acknowledgment re- tained to the Empne in the time of Basil I\ their ancient constitutions were respected, and they were treated as allies rather than as subjects^. The Venetians might have made sure of Dal- matia had their protection been as powerful by land as it was by sea. Lucio observes that there always had been, and were even in his own day, ' two classes of men in the cities of Dalmatia, Twoparties especially those of the continent, one living by city. terrestrial pursuits and industries, the other by navigation and fisheries ; from which difference two parties grew up in each state, the landed party attaching itself to the Croats and Hun- garians, the maritime party to the Venetians, and the maritime party prevailed until as time went on the territory on the mainland increased in extent, when the landed party either equalled Reason of or overmatched the maritime^,' The landed party, influence. whose farms and estates were at the mercy of the Bans, naturally wished to keep on good terms with them and the Hungarians, and the frequent ^ Yid. supra, p. 23, and Const. Porphyr. de adiu. Imp. 0. xxx. '^ Lucio, lib. vi. c. ii. p. 275-6. * Ibid. p. 227. 1 20 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. and prolonged absences of many of the maritime party on trading exj^editions threw more power into the hands of those who were always at home. It required the t}T:'anny of the counts of Bribir to unite both parties in opposition to the Croats and Hungarians and to force them into the arms of Venice. A.D. 1358. The rule of Lewis did not give universal satis- Dalmatia p . • t^ i • t i • under lactiou HI Dalmatia, nor did it remove the Great. gricvanccs which had been felt under the govern- ment of Venice. Spalato Trail and Sebenico which had voluntarily surrendered to him re- ceived a confirmation of their privileges^ and liberties, but some jealousy was felt at the same favour being extended to the other places which had been taken by force or given up by the Venetians. The Zaratini alone were excluded Character from the kinff's liberality : the island of Pasro was of the rule i i • of Lewis in not restored to them, nor those of Srimaz and Dalmatia. . . . i n 1 Zuri which were given to the bebenzani, nor were they remstated in their ancient privileges of which the Venetians had deprived them, nor was the castle pulled down as they had hoped it would have been, but on the contrary it was garrisoned with Hungarian troops. A new rule provided an appeal to the king from the decisions of the judges which was rightly felt to cut at the ^ Vid. text of confirmation of those of Sebenico. Lucio, iv. xvii. p. 234. Ch. I.] History of Dahnatia. 121 root of their autonomy ^ and the Queen-mother, Elizabeth ' the Elder,' whom Lewis sent into Dal- matia as regent with plenipotentiary powers, set herself to work with the barons who were as- sociated with her to clip and shape all the customs and privileges of the country to an uniform pattern, the object of the king being to obliterate the ancient distinctions of Dalmatian, Croat, and Serb, and to govern them all by the same code^. On one point he was forced to give way ; the jDossibility of having the decision of their municipal courts upset by appeal to the king made the other privileges worthless, and Lewis was at last obliged to listen to the remon- strances of the citizens and substitute for an appeal to himself one to four colleges in Italian states friendly to himself It was not only in these respects that the Abridg- liberties of the cities suffered under a king accus- privileges tomed to absolute rule. He interfered with the election of the counts, refusing to confirm those chosen by the citizens, and appointing others of his own choice ; he exempted certain citizens from the municipal jurisdiction, and imposed heavy dues, especially creating the state monopoly of salt, an abominable institution that has survived under various governments down to our own day^. From this monopoly he derived great profit, and he tried to export salt to Ferrara and Padua, ^ Luc. vi. c. ii. p. 276. '^ Luc. v. c. i. p. 238. ^ Luc. vi. c. vi. p. 276. 122 History of Dahnatia. [Ch. I. but was prevented by the Venetians who had by treaty with those places a monopoly of their own in that article. A.D. 1378. In the deadly struggle between the republics Chioggia. of Venice and Genoa, which from its principal incident is known as the War of Chioggia, the Hungarians with the Carrara lords of Padua and the patriarch of Aquileia were allied with the Genoese. In the abasement of Venice and the destruction of her supremacy in the Adriatic Lewis saw his way to form a navy of his own, and to secure a safe and easy communication between his Dalmatian conquests and that king- dom of Naples which still eluded his grasp. This is not the place to follow the history of that six years' struggle in which Dalmatia played no part Daimatia but that of a sujfferer at the hands of the Venetian Venetians, admu^al Vittorc Pisani, who made havoc of the unhappy maritime cities which were now subjects of the Hungarian enemy. On Aug. 17, 1378, he sacked Cattaro but spared the citizens and re- stored the city to them, leaving a garrison in the castle ; on Oct. 1 7 he sacked and burned Sebenico, where he also left a garrison ; from Zara, which he watched with his main force, he sent on Nov. 7 a detachment to Arbe, whose citizens, now as always inclined to be loyal to the Venetians, delivered then- keys to the Captain Ludovico Loredano^ ; and on Nov, 17 Pisani with ^ ' Confestim Arbenses clavibus exhibitis ad suum verum Ducale Dominium redierunt.' Caresinus in Muratori, vol. xii. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 123 the whole fleet moved from Zara to Trail, where he found seventeen galleys of the Genoese but was unable either to cut them out or assault the town. After the surrender of the Genoese fleet, which a.d. 1380. from blockading Venice had itself become block- aded in the lagunes, Arbe was retaken by Maruffb, who commanded another squadi'on of the Genoese, and the Venetians sacked and burned Segna, recovered Veo-lia^ and burned Buccari. When peace was at last restored by the medi- Aug. 8, ation of the Duke of Savoy Dalmatia was once Peace of more ceded to the King of Hungary, and the reconquests which the Venetians had made were given back. The Hungarians were prohibited by the terms of the treaty from trading with ports north of a line drawn from the point of Istria to Rimini, and the Venetian triremes were forbidden to enter any royal port which was closed by a chain. Such chains were placed at the entrance of the harbour of Sebenico and many others, as for instance in the bocche di Cattaro, where the channel which it closed is still known as ' le Catene.' Lewis, in failing health and no longer young, Succession to crowns was obliged to leave to a more youthiul and of Naples ^ ' Galeis inde recedentibus Yeglienses laesi fuerunt sed modice quia statim ad obedientiam devenerunt.' Caresinus. The islanders generally preferred Venetian rule, having less to fear from the Hungarian ban than the citizens of the con- tinental towns. 124 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. and Hun- vigorous arm that conquest of the kingdom of Naples which had been the dream of his hfe, and to which the acquisition of Dalmatia had been a stepping stone. For a long while he had been childless, and had brought up at his court and destined as his heir the orphan nephew of that Carlo duke of Durazzo on whom he had wrought such summary vengeance at Aversa. Giovanna was also childless ; in case of her death her realm devolved on Lewis as direct heir of Carlo Martello, and the young Carlo della Pace as he was called was destined by him to inherit and unite the two kingdoms of Hungary and Naples. The birth of his daughter Maria caused Lewis to change his plans. The crown of Hungary was reserved for his daughter, and that of Naples for Carlo della Pace, who was forthwith married to his cousin Margarita, posthumous daughter of the duke of Durazzo, so as to unite her claims to the crown of Naples with his own. Charles III In 1 3 76, at the invitation of Urban VI, Lewis of Naples. n\ -\ ' sent Carlo into Italy to dispossess Giovanna, who had offended the Pope by siding with the anti- pope. The resistance of Otto her fourth husband was speedily overcome, and Giovanna surrendered to her rival, by whom she was imprisoned A.D. 1382. and shortly afterwards put to death. It is Giovanna. Said that Carlo wrote to Lewis to ask what he should do with her, and was answered that her end ought to be the same as that of her husband Andrew. She was smothered in the Ch. I.] Histoiy of Dalmatia. 125 castle of Muro in the Basilicata, in the year 1382^ Her murderer succeeded as Charles III of Naples. In the same year, on Sept. 12, Lewis died at Sept. 12, Ternova and was succeeded by his daughter Death of Maria, then scarcely twelve years old, who was crowned ' Mng ' on the 1 7th of the same month at Alba Regalis or Stuhlweissenburg^. Elizabeth, widow of Lewis, know^n in history as ' the Regency of younger,' to distinguish her from his mother the Elizabeth ' the elder,' had acted for her husband ^^^°^®^* during his last illness, and she continued to ad- minister the kingdom during the minority of her daughter. At first the reign of the two queens was undisturbed, but signs of discontent soon showed themselves. The warlike nobles of Hun- gary and Croatia despised the government of a woman, resented the influence of the Palatine Nicol5 Ban of Gara, and disliked the idea of subjection to Sigismund of Luxembourg, king of Bohemia and marquis of Brandenburg, the son of the Emperor Charles IV, to whom Maria was promised in marriage. A party was formed to revive the pretensions of Charles III of Naples, of which the leaders were Paul bishop of Zao^abria Conspiracy '- _ against or Agram, Stephen vaywode of Transylvania and Maria. ^ Giannone, lib. xxiii. c. 5. ^ '1382, 17 mens, praesentis D. Maria filia senior antedicti Eegis in Civ. praedicta coronata fuit in Regem.' Mem. Pauli de Paulo, Patricii Jadrensis. The reader will remember the ' Moriamur pro rege nostro Maria Theresa ' of the Hungarians in 1 74 1. 126 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. his brother, Giovanni PaHsna prior of the Knights Hospitallers at Vrana, and Horvat ban of Dal- matia. The suspicions of the queens were aroused; they went in person to Zara, Palisna and Horvat were removed from theu^ offices, and Vrana which had openly revolted was recovered. On Nov. 4 the queens visited Vrana and after- A.D. 1384. wards returned to Buda. In the following year the conspiracy continued to gain ground. Four persons whose treason had been discovered were beheaded in the piazza of Zara in July, fresh oaths of allegiance to the queens were exacted from the citizens, and Horvat was sent out of the way into Italy on pretence of supporting Charles in his struggle with Lewis of Anjou. This seems to have been injudicious, for Horvat abused his opportunity to persuade Charles to undertake the easy task of dispossessing the youthful queen and making himself kmg of Hungary. The bishop of Zagabria followed with the same request ; Charles listened eagerly to the proposal, and on Sep. 1 2, A.D. 1385. 1382 he sailed from Barletta in Apulia with only Charles III a Small body of adherents, anticipating a welcome '^- reception and little opposition. Zara was held by a Hungarian garrison, and the Dalmatians gener- ally I'emained faithful to Maria ; passing them by therefore, Charles made for Segna, whence he reached Zagabria six days after leaving Barletta. Here he stayed some days to issue his procla- mations, which were highly garnished with promises of immunities and privileges ; all Hun- gary. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 12'j gary and Croatia rallied to his standard, the queens were deserted by nearly everyone but the Palatine Nicolo, and on the arrival of Charles at Buda they were kept in an honourable captivity and obliged to affect submission and compliance. In one point they had been too quick for their Marriage ,,,,. -, -, TIT* !• ^^ Maria to rival ; he had intended to marry Maria to his son Sigismund, Ladislaus, but on the news of his landing Sigis- mund had been summoned and his marriage with Maria celebrated before the Neapolitan party could prevent it, and as Charles approached Buda Sigismund retired before him into Bohemia. In the following year, however, by the con- a.d. 1386. trivance of the Ban Nicol5, Charles was waylaid Murder of and murdered in the apartments and presence of m. the two captive queens \ his Italian suite was dispersed, and the populace shouted for ' King Maria,' as loudly as they had a few days before shouted for her rival. The rebellion was however continued in Croatia by Horvat and Palisna, who collected a party to meet the queens as they were on their way southwards to reestablish their authority. The encounter took place ' prope Diacum ' ; the queens were accompanied apparently only by their ordi- nary suite ^ and were unprepared ; their followers ^ For further particulars of this affair vid, infra, Novigrad, chapt. V. The story is given at length by Giannone, lib. xxiv. c. 2. ^ Caresinus, ' Cum Nicolao magno Comite Palatino et aliqua Comitiva.' Lucio says, 'solitis Aulicis comitautibus,' lib. v. c. ii. p. 253. 128 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. fought bravely, Nicolb of Gara and Blasio Forgac, by whose hand Charles had fallen, were killed, and the queens were taken prisoners and conveyed Jan. 1387. to the castle of Novigrad near Zara. Here Elizabeth. Elizabeth ended her days, though whether she of Maria, was drowucd in the Bozota, or dispatched by the sword, or whether, as some say, she died of grief remains shrouded in mystery. The heads of Nicol5 and Forgac were sent to feed the ven- geance of Margarita, the widowed Queen of Naples, and Maria was reserved to be sent after them, a living victim on whom a still sweeter revenge might be taken. Sigismund, who advanced from Bohemia to the rescue of his bride, was driven back by the Croat ians, and the case of Maria would have been desperate but for the assistance of the Venetians, who though they owed little to her family, saw probably that in her survival and marriage with Sigismund lay the strongest barrier against the union of Naples and Hungary. Coronation The ambassadors of the Republic persuaded ofSigis- . ^. . mund. the Hungarian barons to accept Sigismund for their king, and he was crowned at Alba Begalis on March 31, 1387. Meanwhile the Venetian admiral Giov. Barberigo, Captain of the Gulf, watched Novigrad to prevent the threatened June 4, abduction of Maria, and their land forces so 1387- Release of presscd Palisna, the prior of Vrana, that he was obliged to release his captive. On June 4 Maria was brought to Nona, where she received dele- Ch. L] History of Dalmatia. 129 gates from Zara, among whom was Paolo de Paoli, as he records in his journal^; on the 15th she reached Segna, a feudal possession of the Frangi- pani counts of Veglia, who were among her supporters, where she stayed till July i, and on the 4th of that month she rejoined her husband Sigismund at Zagabria. During these disputes the Dalmatian cities Attitude of , .,.,,. theDalma- remamed quiet, preservnig their allegiance to the tian cities. queen, so far at all events as to take no part with the Croatian insurrectionists. For the usual 'Hegnante Regina Maria' at the head of their public acts, the Spalatini, in 1385, substituted ' impedita Peg. Maria ^,' nor did they prefix the name of Sigismund after his coronation until he was formally associated with Maria on the throne. The rebellion however was not yet at an end ; The rebellion Sigismund sent a force to j^unish Horvat and the continued. prior Palisna, who invited the assistance of Tvartko King of Bosnia, and thus brought a new disputant into the field. Bosnia from being a banat of the Hungarian crown had, under the reign and by the permission of Lewis, been ad- ^ '1387. Die. 4 men. Junii de mane Sereniss. Princeps et D, nostra naturalis D. Maria E. Ung. liberata fuit a captivitate, et exivit de Castro Novigrad in quo detinebatur et die Veneris sequentis ivi ad earn Nonam, et die crastiua die Sabbathi lociitus fui Majestati suae, et die lunae immediate recessi a Nona licentiatus ab ea/ &c. Memoriale Pauli de Paulo, Patritii Jadrensis. 2 Lucio, p. 253. VOL. I. K 130 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. vanced to the rank of a tributary kingdom \ The Ban Stephen Tvartko was cousin to Queen Elizabeth the younger, and enjoyed the royal Bosnian favour I and after he had been employed about kingdom 01 1 ./ Tvartko I. ^j^g year 1357 to humble the neighbouring king- dom of Servia or Rascia, he was allowed to assume the title of King of Rascia and Bosnia^. His ambition aspired to the dominion of the sea coast as well, and in the appeal made to him by the insurrectionary Croatians he saw an oppor- tunity to attain his object and to shake off what remained of the Hungarian yoke at the same time. Advancing into Dalmatia he made himself A.D. 1389. master of Cattaro Clissa and Almissa, and at- of^Dai-^^ tacked Bagusa and Spalato. Palisna had been Tvlrtk^o"^ driven back by the Zaratini with the aid of the count of Segna and Modrussa, and was be- leaguered in the stronghold of Vrana. Tvartko raised the siege, captured Nona and Ostrovizza, and again attacked Spalato Sebenico and Trail. A.D. 1390. Disappointed in their appeals for aid to Sigis- mund and Maria, the citizens consented to treat with the Bosnian king, stipulating only that time should be allowed for the return of their messengers from Hungary that they might save their reputation for fidelity. The time elapsed, ^ Lucio de Eegu. lib. v. p, 256. The assumption of royalty by Stephen Tvartko was about 1376. ^ He was the first Bosnian prince since Culin (d. 12 16) who coined money, and his reign marks the high tide of Bosnian history. That country had never been so great before, and its decline set in immediately afterwards. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. i^i no help was forthcoming from their Hege lords, and the three cities made their submission to Tvartko, stipulating, as usual, for a confirmation of their privileges. The islands of Lesina Brazza and Curzola admitted his lieutenants, the sea coast of the ancient duchy of Chelmo was his by conquest, and Tvartko could now style himself D. G. Rasciae, Bosniae, Maritimaeque Rex. His ad. 1391. forces under Palisna repulsed an army of Sigis- mund which attacked the fortress of Knin, and Zara and Ragusa alone defied his arms. In the succeeding year, however, Palisna died ^•°- ^39i- Death of (Feb. 16, 1391) ; Tvartko himself died a month Tvartko ii-T\i 'I'l n M • and decline later, and his Dalmatian kingdom lell to pieces as of Bosnia. rapidly as it had been formed. His successor, Stephen Dabiscia\ had to contest his throne with ^ The succession of the Bosnian kings is very obscure. The list given by Nic. Isthuanfy {de reb. Ungar) is incorrect. The following table is I hope accurate ; it has been collected from various sources. Stephen, Ban of Bosnia, d. 13 10. i Stephen Cotroman, Ban. d. 1357. I Elizabeth, wife of Lewis the Great of Hangary. r "VVladislav. Steph. Tvartko I, King of Bascia and Bosnia, 1376. d. 1391. I Steph. Tvartko II, illegitimate, disputes throne with Ostoya, 139 6- 1435. Beigns alone 1435. d. 1443. \ I Ninoslav. I Steph. Dabiscia, 1391. d. 1396. Steph. Ostoya Keistic, disputes throne with Tvartko II. d. 1435. Catharine, dr. of Steph. Cosaccia. = Steph. Thomas Kristic, 1443. Murdered, 1461, by Stephen Tomasovic, his illegitimate son, who was flayed alive by Mahomet II, 1463. K 2 132 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. a rival, and when this difficulty was overcome he had enough to do to keep his kingdom against the Turks, and he resigned the reversion of his rights in Croatia and Dalmatia to Sigismund without a struggle, reserving for himself only a life possession. A.D. 1395. \^ ^]-^Q same year died Maria queen of Hun- Death of "^ , 111 Maria. gary. The question now arose whether the Disputes . 1 • 1 o\' • about the succcssion was vcstod m her consort bigismund, or whether it did not pass to Hedwig or Edviga, queen of Poland, the surviving daughter and sole descendant of Lewis ; and for a time the acts of Spalato Sebenico and Trail contain no royal name at then" head, but are issued in the name solely of the Rectors and Judges ^ But Edviga and Sigismund were not the only claunants of the throne ; a thu-d pretender was put forward by the Croatian insurp-cut Croatiaus, whose resistance to the au- disaiiec- ^ *ioii- thority of Sigismund had never been overcome. Their revolt had obviously less to do with the question of succession than with that of the dependence or liberty of Croatia. In the rivalry of Maria and Carlo III the Croat leaders had seen an ojDportunity of freeing themselves from the Hungarians, and by their alliance with Tvartko and his conquest of Dalmatia they had partially succeeded. When the Bosnian power declined ^ '1394, Aug. 14. Spalatenses autem decreverant quod a Tnorte Tuertichi Regis citra non fiat meniio de aliquo Rege nee de aliquo alio nisi solummodo de Reciorihus et Judicibus,' &c. Luc. V, iii. p. 258. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 133 the Croatian leaders looked around for another Preten- ally, and fixed their eyes on the young Ladislaus LadisUus of Naples, son and successor of Charles III, whom put S-^^ they invited to revive his father's claims. But thTcr^oats. while Ladislaus hesitated^, Sigismund acted with promptitude ; his Ban Nicolo Gara defeated and slew Horvat, the leader of the rebellious party since the death of Palisna, and recovered the maritime cities, and for the next few years Ladis- laus was too much occupied by domestic dis- turbances to think of the Hung-arian succession. It is time to turn our eyes to a new power that the turks was steadily making its way towards the Dal- matian seaboard, and a new danger that threat- ened not only Hungary but Christendom itself A.n. 1299. A century had nearly elapsed since Othman con- quered Prusa, and the Ottoman Turks first made their appearance in history. Orchan the son of Othman achieved the conquest of the Asiatic provinces of the Empire and the ruin or subjection of the seven Apostolic churches. The Turks owed their first introduction into Europe to the same discord among the Christians by which their emph^e a.d. 131 2. was in after times cemented, and the Emperor John Cantacuzene inflicted on the Empire ' its deep and deadly wound' by inviting the aid of the Ottomans against his ward and rival John ^ * Sed juvenis, paternae necis memor, accedere verebatur.' Luc. V. iv. p. 259. 134 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Palaeologus. Once established in Europe they speedily overran Thrace, and Amurath I. (Murad) A.D. 1360. fixed his capital at Adrianople. Postponing the fate of Constantinople he attacked the kingdoms of Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, and Albania, and from the hardy youths of those countries whom he captured and reared in the Moslem faith he formed the invincible corps of Janizaries. The crisis, which decided the fate of Christendom in June 15, the Balkan peninsula, was reached in 1389, when Battle of Lazarus Grebelianovich, king of Servia, combined his forces with those of the kings of Bosnia and Bulgaria, and encountered Amurath at Kossovo. Treachery and discord as usual ruined the Christian cause ; the allied forces were disas- trously routed ; and though Amurath himself fell by the hand of a desperate Servian after the battle was over, the knell of Servian and Bul- garian liberty was sounded on the fatal field of Kossovo. Zenta or Montenegro preserved a doubtful and obscure independence among her mountams, and from this day her separate history begins. The Bosnian forces alone escaped the rout ; they retired in good order from the field. Defeat of and Tvartko was able again to meet the Turks Tvartkof and to wipc out his defeat by a victory which for 1389.^°' the time saved his kingdom ^ From this time ^ He reports this triumph to his subjects at Trail on Aug. i, 1389, 'iuito cum eis hello die 20 Mensis Junii proxime prae- teriti, Dei dextera adjutrice et nobis propitia assistente, obtento penitus cum triumpho campo confliximus, devicimus, et humi Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 135 Servia and Bulgaria sank gradually into the condition of Turkish provinces ; but it was not the policy of the Turks to reduce their conquests instantly to slavery ; Servia was for a time gov- erned by despots appointed by the Sultan, and it was not till 1459 that it was reduced to a mere province of the Turkish Empire. After the death of Tvartko a fresh advance of ^.d- 139^- Crusade the Turks on Bosnia alarmed and united the against the TT ' n\ 1 T-i 1 1 Turks. Hungarians Germans and trench by a sense of their common danger. A crusade was preached, and an army of 100,000 soldiers of the cross as- sembled under the leadership of Sigismund to meet Bajazet Bderim at Nicopol on the Danube. Sept. 18, The day was lost by the rashness of the French Battle of chivalry, the crusaders were disastrously defeated, ^^"^"^^ ' and Sigismund with difficulty escaped by a small boat down the Danube to the Black Sea, whence he reached Constantinople, and was conveyed by the Venetians to Ragusa. He passed the winter at Knin to which place he granted a ' privilege,' and reached Hungary in the following spring. a.d. 1397. The invasion of Timour, the defeat of Bajazet at Angora in 1402, and his captivity and death, interrupted the victorious career of the Ottomans and gave Europe a short breathing space. The sons of Bajazet were occupied by civil wars, and the Ottoman Empire was not reunited till the reign of Amurath II. (1421-1451). prostravimus interemptos, paucis demum ex ipsis superstitibus remanentibus.' Luc. v. iii. p. 257. 136 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. Preten- Meanwhile the Croats continued their re- Ladisiaus sistanco to Sigismund, and their invitations to apes. j^g^(^-g2g^^g of Naples. Ostoya the new king of Bosnia and the Voyvode Hervoye were drawn into the same cause, and the cities were divided by factions, some favouring Sigismund and some the Neapolitan pretender. Sigismund had be- come an alien in Hungary since his wife's death, and his reputation had been ruined by the defeat of Nicopol. Many of the Hungarian nobles were favourably disposed towards his rival, and for a short time he was a prisoner in the hands of an insurrectionary party. In Dalmatia his excessive taxation had disgusted the cities, especially Spalato, and Zara had not forgiven him for de- priving her of her territory on the island of Pago, to which he had conceded the same liberties which were enjoyed by the other cities of Dalmatia. A.D. 1400. Ladislaus had now finally triumphed over Lewis invades"^ of Anjou, his rival for the throne of Naples, amatia. ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ Hstcn to the ovortures of the Croats. Hervoye was constituted his lieutenant and in his name confirmed the privileges of the A.D. 1401. Dalmatian cities. His admiral Aloysio Alde- marisco arrived with a fleet at Zara, the citizens were won over by the promise of the restitution of Pago, on Aug. 27 his standard was hoisted in the piazza, and the example of the Zaratini was speedily followed by the other towns and islands. The Ban of Croatia, who was ap- proaching to supj)ort the cause of Sigismund, was Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 137 defeated near Bihac ; Vrana was taken by Her- voye, and with the exception of Kagusa and Cattaro the whole of Dahnatia and its islands accepted the dominion of Ladislaus. His pre- a.d. 1403. Ladislaus tensions were supported by the Pope, and a crowned at legate was sent to meet him at Zara where he was solemnly crowned King of Hungary, Dal- matia, and Croatia. He confirmed the privileges of the various towns, and yielded to the objec- tions made by the Tralirini and Sebenzani to the construction of a castle within their cities as a violation of their liberties. Hervoye was con- stituted his viceroy and voyvode, and was made count of Spalato, and of the islands of Curzola, Lesina, Lissa, and Brazza ; and, leaving his new kingdom in his lieutenant's charge, the king re- turned to Naples in November. His departure revived the sinking cause of Reaction i-iiyri .-.in favour of Sigismund. Veglia begna and Modrussa received sigismund. back their Count Nicolo Frangipani who sup- ported Sigismund, and under his guidance Arbe was recovered, but soon after lost again to the NeajDolitan admiral Giovanni di Lusignan. But Ladislaus was occupied with another war in Italy and could send no troops to Dalmatia, Bosnia was torn by a struggle for the succession to the throne, and was powerless, and the party of Sigismund gained adherents every day. Finally Hervoye a.d. 1408. himself made his peace with Sigismund and trans- of^Hervoye ferred his support to that side, and soon there tSus.^ remained to Ladislaus of all his acquisitions in 1 38 History of Dalniatia. [Ch. i. Dalmatia only the city of Zara, the castles of Vrana and Novigrad, and the island of Pago. To save himself from absolute discomfiture he re- solved not to wait till these places fell into the hands of the Hungarians, but to sell them to the Venetians, and thus, though driven off the field by his rival, he could feel that he left his sting June 9, behind ^. A hundred thousand ducats was the H09- ... Venetians pricc whicli the Venetians were glad to give to &cf ^^^' recover once more a footing in Dalmatia ; a fleet was sent to take possession of Zara, the indigna- A.D. 1409. tion of the Neapolitan soldiery was appeased after covered by somo disturbance, a garrison was introduced, and the defences of the city were strengthened by cutting through the isthmus which joined it to the mainland. Pago was placed as before under the separate government of a Venetian count. Sigismund did not remain passive ; his armies in- vaded Friuli and Dalmatia, but without any success. A.D. 141 1. The Venetians opposed his journey to Rome to receive the Imperial crown, and allied themselves against him with the Duke of Milan, and finally compelled him to conclude a truce for five years. At Sebenico the city was rent by factions : the nobles favoured the Venetians and were expelled by the populace, who were for Hungary; but ^ Luc. V. V. p. 262 lias preserved the deed of sale. 'Ladis- laus, &c. . . . et ex aliis causis justis moventibus mentem suam Eegiam vendei-e et alienare Civitatem ladrae . . . cum et sub specificatione Novigradus Insulae Pagi et aliorum districtuum ipsius nee non terram Lauranae cum fortalicio et castro . . . pi'o ducatis centum millibus.' Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 139 finally, in 141 2, weary of internal dissension, the a.d. 141 2. exiles were recalled and the city handed over to recovered the Venetians. At Spalato Hervoye, who was ''^ ^^'''''^' convicted of intriguing with the Turks, was dis- graced and expelled ^ and retired to Cattaro, where he died in 141 5. In 1420 the islands of Lesina Brazza and Curzola gave themselves to the Venetians, Trail was bombarded and captured ^•^- H20. by their admiral Pietro Loredano, Spalato sur- Spaiato, rendered to avoid a like fate, and Cattaro, which Slnds^^re- had for long implored the protection of the Ke- vJnii. ^ public against the Balsa of Zenta, was for the first time in its history admitted to the dominion of Venice. The whole of maritime Dalmatia was now in the possession of Venice except Bagusa, Almissa, and Veglia. Almissa gave herself to the Bepublic in 1 444 ; Veglia continued independent under her counts of the Frangipani line, subject to the pro- tection of Venice, till 1480, when the tyranny of the last count Giovanni or Ivan caused his depo- sition, after which the island was governed, like the other Dalmatian states, by a Venetian count. Although the Em^^eror did not formally cede his Peace of rights till the peace of 1437, ^® never succeeded ju'iy 29, in recovering any of the maritime cities ; and by the terms of that peace, while the towns of the Final re- interior, Knin Verlicca Sign Scardona Clissa and Dalmatia others were left to the Hungarians, Novigrad ^ ^ ' Vafritiem Demetrii Pharii imitatus Ducatum Spalati cou- secutus.' Lucio, p. 267. 140 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. L Ragnsa becomes indepen- dent. Nona Zara Sebenico Trail Spalato with their respective territories, and all the islands except those which belonged to Ragusa, were recognized as Venetian. Ragusa alone had no share in these changes. Of all the cities of Dalmatia she alone was pos- sessed of resources sufficient to qualify her for independence. Till 1358 she had acknowledged the dominion of Venice and received a Venetian count ; since that time she had lived under the protection of Hungary, and accepted a count from the king. But now that Hungary was in no condition to interfere, the Ragusans, while care- fully maintaining the useful shadow of Hungarian protection, gradually advanced to complete prac- tical independence, and formed their state into a miniature republic on the model of Venice. As such it survived almost to our own time, protected first by the kings of Hungary and aftei'wards by the Empire, and its interesting independence might have continued even to the present day but for the whim of Napoleon who, in 1808, thought fit to declare that the Republic of Ragusa had ceased to exist. Venetian ' Thus,' says Lucio at the end of his great barrier to history, ' whatever is included by the name of the conquest. Dalmatian kingdom \ except Ragusa, by the good ^ Lucio here as elsewhere limits the ' Dalmatian kingdom ' to the old Roman cities, and the more recently chartered towns like Sebenico, which being put on the same footing he considers as placed within the Dalmatian pale. Ch. L] History of Dalmatia. 141 fortune of Dalmatia, passed into the hands of the Venetians. For the Turks spreading their Empire wider every day, having taken Constantinople, seized the kingdom of Bosnia and its dependencies after the murder of Stephen, the illegitimate son of King Thomas Ostoya, and occupied the greater part of Hungary and Croatia, and day by day wasting the territories of the maritime cities them- selves, acted over again the period of the occupa- tion of Dalmatia by the Slavs, except that this time things were better in one respect, namely that through the precautions of the Venetians the Turks occupied none of the islands, nor were they allowed to practise piracy ; so that the Dalmatians lead a more tolerable existence, and form a barrier against the jDassage of the Turks to the neighbour- ing shores of Italy, the country which they declare it is their principal aim and desu-e to conquer ^' FOURTH PERIOD. From the final accfiiisitioti of Dalmatia hy the Venetians in 1430 to the doionfall of the Reimhlic in 1798. By the establishment of Venetian rule through- out Dalmatia an end was put to the civil dissen- sions which had agitated the maritime cities since ^ Luc. cle Regn. lib. v. c. v. p. 270. This was wi'itten about the middle of the seventeenth century, while the Venetians were still occupied in driving the Turks back from Dalmatia into Bosnia. Venetian acquisi- tion. 142 History of Dahnatia. [Ch. T. Unsettled the death of Lewis m 1382 ^. For nearly thirty Daimatia years they had been tossed to and fro from one trt'he"^ master to another, and whatever the shortcomings of Venetian rule may have been — and they were not few nor unimportant — it was at all events something gained for the provincials to know who was their master. The pretensions of Charles III of Naples to the throne of Hungary, the captivity of Queen Maria, and the outbreak of the national movement of the Croats towards independence had shaken the reliance of the Dal- matians on the protection of Hungary, and left them uncertain to which side it would be most politic to attach themselves. In 1390 they sub- mitted to the Bosnian king Tvartko ; five years later they returned to Sigismund, but only to doubt whether the death of Maria did not deter- mine their allegiance to her husband ; five years later again the whole country embraced with something like enthusiasm the cause of Ladislaus of Naples, only to find it had grasped at a shadow. Civil The result of these strug-gles and chanp-es was to factions in _ _ ^ _ . . , tte cities, divide the citizens into hostile factions which favoured difiei'ent sides and plotted and intrigued against one another with all the animosity that civil discord alone can inspire. Most of the towns had their extrinseci and intrinseci, the weaker ^ Farlati remarks of the end of the fourteenth century, ' lucredibile dictu est quanta in conversione rerum et pertur- batione in temporibus illis turn Dalmatae omnes turn vero Arbenses versarentur, sic prorsus ut inter paucos annos ex aliia ad alios Dominos et transierint et redierint.' Tom. v. p. 248. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 143 of the two parties being driven into exile, and ever watching from beyond the border for an opportunity of return and vengeance on the triumphant faction. Theirs is the old story of the banished citizens of the Greek common- wealths, the fuorusciti of the Italian republics, the emigres of revolutionary France, who were more formidable in exile than they would have been at home, always intriguing with the neigh- bouring powers and ready to sacrifice their country to their own political objects. All Padfica- this was now at an end, and in spite of the prosperity terror of Turkish invasion which from this time province forward hung like a cloud over the country till v'^enice. the Turkish power itself began to decline, Dal- matia under the settled government of a great commercial power advanced rapidly in wealth and prosperity. The arts flourished, noble buildings sprang up, the treasuries were enriched with beautiful work of the goldsmith or silversmith, and while artists from the other shore of the Adriatic were invited into the country, the native Dalmatians proved themselves by no means de- ficient in power both of design and execution, and some among them attained celebrity and eminence among the artists of Italy herself From this time till the eighteenth century the history of Dalmatia is simply a narrative of re- sistance to the westward progress of Turkish conquest. To the policy no less than the resolu- tion of the Republic of S. Mark, and the stub- 144 History of Dahnatia. [Ch. i. born valour of her Dalmatian subjects, Europe is indebted for the safety of Italy, the country for which the Turk ever hungered, but on which, except for a moment at Otranto, he never set foot. The Ottoman power soon recovered the shock of Angora ; ' the massy trunk ivas bent to the ground, hut no sooner did the hurricane pass aivay than it rose again ivith fresh vigour and moi^e lively vegetation'^' The empire of Bajazet, torn by the civil wars of his sons, w^as reunited by Amurath II in 142 1 ; in the next year he assailed Constantinople ; in 1 444 he defeated Ladislaus IV and his general John Corvinus Huniades on the fatal and perjured field of Varna; and in 1453 A.D. 1453. Mahomet 11, son of Amurath, took Constantinople Constant!- nopietaken and extinguished the last feeble spark of the by the ® . ^ Turks. Koman Empire. A.D. 1428. Servia meanwhile had regained a brief inde- pendence. But the country was agitated by dis- putes about the succession to the throne, and when Lazzaro II, Brancovich, the fourth Despot of Servia, died in 1458, his widow Helena obtained from the Pope the investiture of the kingdom as A.D. 1459. a fief of the Church. Enraged at this concession Servian to the Bomisli Church, which they detested, the Servians appealed to the Sultan Mahomet II ; the Turkish armies crossed the frontier, and in 1459 Servia and Bascia lost their last traces of independence and sank into the condition of a ^ Gibbon, chap. Ixv. kincrdom. Ch. I,] History of Dalmatia. 145 province of the Ottoman Empire. Helena escaped into Hungary, and thence retired to Ancona, Ragusa, and Venice, where she died m exile. Bosnia also was torn by dissensions about the End of the kingdom of succession to the throne between Ostoya and Bosnia, Tvartko II. Tvartko invited the Turks to his aid and Ostoya the Hungarians, and though the former succeeded in triumphing over Ostoya, it was at the expense of allowing the Turks to obtain a footing in the kingdom. In 1443, after the death of both rivals, Stephen Thomas Kristic, son of Ostoya, was elected king, but he was obliged to purchase the acquiescence of the Turks by an annual tribute to Amurath of 25,000 ducats. His illegitimate son Stephen Thomasovic, who mur- dered him and succeeded to the throne in 1 46 1 , having refused to pay the tribute, was flayed alive by Mahomet II, and the kingdom of Bosnia be- came, like Servia, a Turkish provmce. One Slavonic principality still remained to be End of swallowed up. In 1 440 the Emperor Frederick III Herzego- had made Stephen Kosac, known to the Italians a.d. '1465. as Cosaccia, Herzog or Duke of S. Saba, the modern Herzegovina \ which at that time in- cluded within its boundaries the highland republic of Poglizza, and the Craina or sea-coast from the Cetina to the Narenta. Almissa was induced to a.d. 1465. ^ ' Herzegovina received its name from the title of Herzog, Duke, or Voivoda It was also called the duchy of Santo Saba, from the tomb of that saint.' Sir G. Wilkinson, ii. p. 96; vid. also Lucio, lib. v. c. v. VOL. I. L 146 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. submit to the Venetians in 1 444, and the republic of Poghzza, while retainmg its autonomy, ac- cepted the protection of the Republic, agreeing to pay a small annual tribute by way of acknow- ledgment, and to supply recruits for the Venetian garrisons of Spalato Trati and the other maritime cities. The rest of the duchy was overrun by the Turks in 1465-6, and Cosaccia finding him- self unable to defend the Craina, made it over to the safer keeping of the Venetians ^ In 1475 his son Ladislaus gave them the fortress of Vissech on the Cetina about tlu^ee miles above Almissa, to prevent its falling into the hands of the Turks ^, and with these exceptions the duchy of Herzego- vina shared the fate of Servia and Bosnia. Keasons Xhc casc witli wliicli the Slavonic principali- for ease of conquest ties wcro conouered by the Mahometans is to be by Turks. ■, • i , -r, • • n i i explamed by two causes. JPrmcipaliy, no doubt, it was due to their internal dissensions, in all of which the Turks took care to mix themselves I. Dissen- up, and out of which they never failed to reap ad- among the vantage. Another reason that has been given is Christians. . . . p •■ -, a religious one. ihe majority 01 the people were Bogomiles or Patarenes, who had been persecuted with fire and sword by the king the nobles and the clergy, and who were driven in despair to look to the Turks as deliverers ^. We have seen ^ Sir Gard. WilkiDson, vol. ii. p. 196. Storia della Dalmazia (Zara, 1878), p. 200, 209. ^ Luc. de Eegn. lib. v. c. v. p. 270. ^ Vid. Introd. to Mr. A. Evans's ' Through Bosnia,' &c. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 147 how in Servia, where the people were attached 2. Persecu- te the Greek Church, they voluntarily called in Bogomiies Mahomet II to defend them against the preten- kings. sions of the Church of Home ; and in Bosnia it is laid to the charge of the Romish propaganda and its system of persecution that the people to so great an extent became, and still remain, Mahometan. In 1459, while his kingdom was tottering to its fall, Stephen Thomas Kristic, who had himself renegaded from Bogomilism, and whom the gTateful Catholics have rewarded with the title of ' the Pious,' expelled 40,000 mnocent Bogomiies, who took refuge with the Herzog of S. Saba their co-religionist. Already in 1450 Bogomiies the Bogomiies had turned to the Turks for pro- to seek tection and invited them to enter the country, FronTthe^ and it was then that the tribute of 25,000 ducats ^ ^' had been imposed as a condition of peace ; and now on the final invasion of Mahomet II the people offered no resistance. Radic, the Patarene governor at Jajcze, persuaded the parricide king to surrender himself, the ' Manichean' governor of Bohovac gave up the keys, seventy strong places and cities opened then- gates without a a.d. 1462- struggle, and m a week the whole of Bosnia passed into the hands of Mahomet II. Of the Christian population, both Latin, Greek, and Patarene, a large portion preserved their faith and have kej)t it to the present day ; but Bosnian r> 1 -r» • • n pi • nobility many of the Bosnians, especially 01 the aristo- not Turk- -. . - ish but cracy, renegaded to Islam, m order to preserve siav. L 2 148 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. their ascendancy, retain their feuds, and triumph over their ancient CathoUc foes. It must not be forgotten in considering the history of Dalmatia from this time that the Moslem population of Bosnia and Herzegovina are for the most part not Turkish intruders but descendants of these renegade Slavs, speaking the same language and belonging to the same race as then- Christian neighbours; and it is said the begs, or feudal nobles, of Bosnia have all along kept with reve- rent care their old title-deeds and pedigrees in readiness for the return of Christian supremacy \ Advance of Bv the fall of those ultramontane kine'doms, Turks into "^ . . . Dalmatia. the outworks of Christian Europe, Dalmatia was left exposed to the immediate attack of the Turks, who advanced wreaking every kind of cruelty on the unhappy people. In 1467 they penetrated so far as to threaten Segna and ravage the territory of Sebenico and Zara, and the Tralirini to protect their coast built the succession of castles along the shore of the Sea of Salona, which gave it The the name of the Biviera dei Castelli. Numbers of Morlacchi. refugees from Bosnia and Croatia flocked into the ^ It used to be said (vid. Mr. Evans's ' Through Bosnia,' &c.) that the Begs would become Christian again if Bosnia passed to a Christian power. This condition has now come to pass, but hitherto at all events no such conversion has followed. On the contrary, something like an exodus is taking place. When I was in Dalmatia in 1884 and 1885 the steamers were crowded with Mahometan Bosnians with their wives children and sub- stance on their way to Trieste, whence they go to Asia Minor where the Sultan gives them a settlement and grant of land. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 149 Venetian territory, tlie ancestors of the Morlacchi who constitute the peasantry of Northern Dal- matia, an agricultural and pastoral race, hardy and warlike, deadly foes of the Turks, and in- valuable recruits for the armies of the Kepublic \ Watch-towers and beacons were planted on every point of observation, on mountain-top or high- land pass, and on the approach of the marauding infidels the alarm was given by smoke in the day- time or fire by night, so that the people might take refuge in the fortresses or cities or arm themselves for defence. Matthias Corvinus, son of Huniades, who had a.d. 1465. been elected King of Hungary in 1458, recovered recovery of ^ The origin of the name Morlacco is ohscure. Luc. lib. vi. c. V. believes the Morlacchi who at this time descended into the plains retiring as the Turks advanced, to be Vlahi, Vlachs, or Wallachs, descendants of the population which preceded the Slavonic conquest in the seventh century. Vlah, he says, will be found among all the Slavs to mean Eoman, Latin, Italian, names which became terms of contempt and reproach with the victorious Slavs. He quotes the Presbyter Diocleas who, writing before 1 200, says the Bulgarians conquered ' post haec totam Provinciara Latinorum qui illo tempore Eomani vocabantur modo vero Moroulachi hoc est nigri Latini.' He adds that Moldavia was in later times called by the Greeks Maurolahia. The Morlacchi however, if they ever were Piomans, have not preserved their Latin language like the Roumanians, but speak lUyrian, and it remains to be exj)lained why they should have been called hlack. Others derive the name from Mor^ ' sea,' and Vlah, inhabitant, ' dwellers along the sea ' ; not however the Adriatic, but the Black sea, whence they originally came. Vid. Sir G. Wilkinson, ii. 295. This seems far-fetched in every sense of the word. There are various other derivations of the name besides these. Fortis devotes a chapter to the subject. 150 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Bosnia by a large part of Bosnia in 1465, almost as rapidly as it had been lost, and the Banat of Bosnia maintained itself in dependence on Hungary- till 1527. The condition of Dalmatia was deplorable ; the raids of the Turks across the frontier were continued even during the time of peace ; Ladislaus of Hungary, who received an annual subsidy of 30,000 ducats from the Venetians to enable him to protect the frontier, was unable to fulfil his engagements; his bans and viceroys vied with the Turks in ravaging the Venetian A.D. 1508- territory in Dalmatia and Istria; and finally the League of Isaguo of Cambrai, which reduced the Bepublic Cambrai. ^^ ^j^^ ^^g^ extremity, caused the recall of all the Venetian forces in Dalmatia for service at home, thus leaving the defence of the province to its own unassisted resources. By the time that the Republic emerged from these perils which had well-nigh swamped her, and found herself once more in smooth water though with shattered forces and half-ruined commerce, it was no wonder that the Dalmatians had begun to look for help elsewhere, and that a Hungarian party had been formed in several of the cities. Envoys from Zara and Trati had been sent to Buda, and commotions had taken place in those cities, and also at Sebenico and Lesina ; but severe measures were taken against the leaders of disaffection, and the authority of the Bepublic was re-established. Oh. I.] History of Dalmatia. 151 Meanwhile the incursions of the Turks con- a.d. 1515. tinned. Clissa and the PoHzzani were compelled ^Jirkis? °^ in 1 5 1 5 to pay tribute ; the mvaders burned the «o°^^est. suburbs of Knin, besieged Jajcze, and captured Karin, and, though often driven back with severe loss, returned with undiminished ardour to the attack. Even the Montenegrins in their inac- a.d. 1516, cessible fastnesses could scarcely maintain their negro^" doubtful independence, and the last of the Tzer- to^pay noievich dynasty, desjDairing of further resistance, *"^^*®- abandoned his country and retired to Venice with his wife, who was of the family of Mocenigo, and sank into obscurity as a Venetian patrician. The defence of his princij)ality was boldly taken up by the bishop, or Vladika, of Cetinje, the first The 01 the nne 01 episcopal and princely heroes who have so gallantly maintained then- independence to our own day. At this time however they were obliged to pay an annual tribute to the Porte, and a century elapsed before they were strong enough to refuse it. The condition of the Croatians and Bosnians Croats was desperate. They could obtain no aid from themselves the Hungarians, then- own forces were exhausted, and their Ban Berisclavic had been slain. The Croats turned their eyes towards Venice and proposed to place themselves under the protec- tion of the Republic, but Venice was occupied a.d. 1522. by the war of Cyprus, and was obliged to decline scardona even to take over the fortresses of Scardona and by^the^ Clissa which were offered her. Knin, the prin- ''^^^^' 152 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. cipal Croatian fortress in Dalmatia, surrendered to the pacha of Bosnia in 1522, and the inhabit- ants of Scardona fled to Sebenico abandoning their city to the enemy, but the Croatian garrison still held out in Clissa, though hardly pressed by the besiegers. A.D. 1526. Hungary was at this time torn by the sti*uggle M^ohacz° fc)i' ^^ throne between Lewis II and John Za- polya the Voivode of Transylvania, and the Sul- tan Solyman thought the moment had arrived for finally conquering the country which had so long barred his way. Invading Hungary with an enormous army he was met by Lewis with a very inferior force at Mohacz on the Danube. The Hungarians were routed, Lewis himself was among the slain, Buda was obliged to open her gates, and the whole country along the Danube was ravaged before the conqueror returned to Belgrad. Ferdinand of Austria, brother of Charles V, who was elected to succeed Lewis II, had enough to do to secure his throne against the party of Zapolya, and he was in no condition to send any assistance to Dalmatia or Bosnia. Zapolya who had been crowned by his own party at Alba Kegalis allied himself with Soly- A.D. 1529 man, to whom he offered to make his kingdom tributary, and the Turkish armies advanced as far as Vienna before they were compelled to reth-e. A.D. 1527. Meanwhile Jaicze had been surrendered to the Bosnia recovered Turks in 1 52 7, and with it the whole of Bosnia Ch. I.] History of Dahnatia. 153 passed once more, and irretrievably, into the power by the of the Sultan. Sign Verlicca and Nucak in Dal- matia were betrayed by their commandants, who had been won by Turkish gold, and in 1536, after their heroic commandant Peter Krusic had a.d. 1536. fallen, the garrison of Clissa were compelled to conquests surrender that place to the pacha of Bosnia. The tL. ^ ^^' castles of Yrana and Nadin were surrendered in 1538, and though the Venetians captured and destroyed Scardona, and with the aid of the fleet of Charles V took Castelnuovo in the Bocche di Cattaro, the latter place was recovered du^ectly by Haneddin Barbarossa, who put the Spanish garrison to the sword. When peace was con- cluded between the Kepublic and the Sultan in Peace of 1540, no part of continental Dalmatia was left Daimatia to the Venetians except the cities ; while the cities rest of Dalmatia was made a Turkish province the Turks. under a Sangiac who fixed his residence at Clissa. An illustrious modern writer on Dalmatian history^ attributes to the crowding of the cities at this time with refugees who left the open country from fear of the Turks the introduction of the Illyrian language within the walls, where it has since remained the tongue of the populace, Italian being the language only of the upper classes, except at Zara and Spalato which have retained a thoroughly Italian character dowai to our OAATi times. ^ Storia della Dalmazia. Zara, 1878, p. 243. 154 History of Dabnatia. [Ch. i. Tie Uscocs "WiQ garrisoii expelled from Clissa was comjDosed in great part of 'Uscocs,' or refugees from the countries in the interior, who on the surrender of the fortress retired to Segna on the Croatian shore of the gulf of Quarnero, where Ferdinand readily gave them a settlement on the understand- ing that they were to defend the frontier against the Turks. Active mountaineers, and well ac- quainted with the country, they formed very effective guerilla troops, and their forays across the border kept the Turks in a constant state of alarm. But they were a wild race, accustomed to eke out the poor livelihood derived from a barren and miserable country by deeds of robbery and violence, and being unused to control or discipline they were almost as formidable to their TheUscoc8£j,^gj-^(jg ^^^ allics as to their enemies \ Once become pirates, settled at Segna they became no less expert by sea than they had been on the mountains, and their constant attacks on the shipping and mari- time possessions of the Turks exposed the Vene- tians, who were responsible for the safety of the seas, to complaints and recriminations which threatened to disturb the peace. Venice com- plained in her turn to Ferdinand, Segna being in Croatia and therefore within his dominions, ^ Vid. Palladius Fuscus Patavinus, a. d. 1540. ' Incolae uno omnes vocabulo Morlachi vocantur qui ferinum potius quam humanum aspectum prae se ferentes lacte caseoque victitant, et prope vias abditi viatores alienigenas adoriuntur atque dispo- liant, denique summam laudem esse putant ex rapto vivei'C.' Ch. T.] History of Dalmatia. 155 but her remonstrances met with Httle attention, and the Uscocs, finding their movements watched and impeded by the Venetians, extended their depredations to the property and territory of the Repubhc, and rapidly degenerated into mere bloodthirsty corsairs whose name has become infamous in Dalmatian history. The piracies of a.d. 1570. the Uscocs gave occasion to Selim II, who had opened succeeded his father Solyman the Magnificent vg^tians in 1567, to break the peace with Venice, and ^^'^ ^"'^ ^' reopen the war in Cyprus and Dalmatia. Ze- monico near Zara was taken by his troops and Novigrad assaulted, and the renegade Uliz-Ali king of Algiers entered the Adriatic with a powerful fleet. After ravaging the islands of Zante and Cefalonia, he invaded Albania, took Dulcigno Budua and Antivari, unsuccessfully assaulted Curzola where he was daunted by the courage of a slender garrison aided by the heroism of the women, and landing at Lesina gave a great part of the city to the flames. Meanwhile Cyprus was invaded by an over- a.d. 1570. whelming force of Turks ; Famagosta and Nicosia conquered fell after a heroic defence, and the whole island ^^^*^'g® passed into the possession of the enemy on the 4th of August, 1 5 7 1 . On the 7th of October however the sinking a.d. 157 i. fortunes of Christendom were retrieved by theLepanto. victory of Lepanto, when the united squadrons of Spain Venice and the Pope, under the com- mand of Don John of Austria, utterly defeated 156 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. 1. the Turkish fleet and sank eighty of their galleys. Uliz-Ali with about thirty galleys forced his way through the enemy's lines and made his escape, but otherwise the success of the Chris- tians was complete and decisive. The Dalmatian contingents had then- share in the honours of the day, and in the churches of Veglia and Arbe may still be read the epitaphs of the captains who commanded the triremes of those islands \ Diary of Sir Gardner Wilkinson gives extracts at con- ag^ente^^ sidcrablc length from the diary and reports of I57I-4- Venetian agents at Sj)alato and elsewhere in Dalmatia during the years 1 571-4, which are extremely interesting and throw much light on the nature of the harassing and desultory warfare of that time. They show that although the Turks were guilty of great cruelties to the peasantry, yet the hostilities between the regular combat- ants were marked with something of chivalry and courtesy. There are challenges to single combat ; joustings between Captain Giorgio and the E,ed Turk. Captain Giorgio complains that his foe has killed his horse contrary to knightly usage, and the Red Turk promises to give him another, after which they embrace and part. In tlie middle of all this comes the news of the vic- tory of Andrea Doria and Don John at Lepanto, and great rejoicings are made at Spalato, Zara, and Trail, much to the perplexity of the Turks ^ Yid. infra, Veglia, chapt. xxvi, and Arbe, chapt. xxviii. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 157 outside, who send a cavalier into Zara to enquire Diary of what has happened. Six cavaHers of the Turks agents, challenge six Christians to tilt. They kiss each ^°'^"'*" other first on the forehead. There are love affau-s between the two sides ; a Turk recjuests leave to enter the churches and hear mass, but is refused because he is suspected of being enamoured of the Marquis's daughter. From these and similar stories we erather that character the Turks, though rude and overbearing, were not Turks, without generosity. As the Venetian agent says, ' no nation are all evil alike, seeing how some of them are without conscience, laws, or honour, while others are true and loyal cavaliers.' The Turks respected a foe who showed a bold front, and always gave him fair play. ' Whenever any of our Dalmatians before turning his back to fly like his neighbours wheels round upon his adver- sary and gives him a sound drubbing, using his fists and heels lustily, they always stand round and allow him a fair fight. Moreover they always remember the names of such individuals and re- late then- prowess among themselves, and these men can always go with impunity among the Turks even unarmed, because the respect which they have inspired renders them inviolate ^' Peace was signed between Venice and the Porte a.d. 1573. in 1573, each party regaining what it had lost geH^ n**' during the war, except that the Turks retained ^ Sir G. Wilkiuson, vol. ii. p. 344. Sir G. W. says that this description applies to the Turks of the present day also. 158 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. iJscoc Zemonico. For the next seventy- two years no direct piracies , „. . , , counte- hostilities occuiTed between the two powers, but Austria, the irregular warfare carried on by the Uscocs was continually on the verge of embroiling them, for though the Venetians used every means to re- strain the Uscocs by force, and induce the emperor to remove them from the sea coast, they were unable to succeed in either case, and the Turks accused them of complicity with their tormentors. The position of the Venetians was a very difficult one ; their gTeat object was to main- tain peace with the Turk, but the Uscocs could not be crushed without invading Croatia, which would have involved hostilities with the emperor. A.D. 1596. In 1596 a party of Uscocs and Poglizzans sur- attack on prised CHssa, but the Turks speedily recovered it, and routed the Croatians with the loss of many of their number, among whom was Antonio de Dominis, bishop of Segna. This gave occasion to the Porte for fresh complaints against the Vene- tians who punished those who had taken part in the affair, and renewed their remonstrances with The Uscocs the empcror and his archduke of Styria, in whose Venice and province Croatia was included. Matters grew worse, and at last the murder of a Venetian officer by the Uscocs with cu-cumstances of the most brutal atrocity brought matters to a crisis. The Venetians attacked and destroyed Novi on the Croatian coast, and war broke out between them and the Austrians which raged for three years in Friuli till terminated through the mediation of Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 159 France in 161 7 by the peace of Madidd. The a.d. 1617. Uscocs were removed in the following year to Madrid. Carlstadt in the interior of Croatia, then- fleet was destroyed, and Segna was garrisoned by German troops ^ War again broke out between the Venetians a.d. 1645. and Turks, and the pasha of Bosnia invaded Turir' Dalmatia with a large army. Novigrad was sur- ^^^^^^ • rendered by the Governor Conte Soardo after a brief bombardment, and Sebenico was besieofed by the pasha, but without success. Leonardo Foscolo, who was sent into Dalmatia as Provve- ditore, recovered Novigrad, took and destroyed Scardona, and captured Zemonico after a des- perate resistance by the Sangiac Ali-beg of Yrana. Fresh forces under Tekely, the new pasha of a.d. 1647. Bosnia, advanced to besiege Sebenico, the com- of Leonar- mand of which place w^as entrusted by Foscolo "^ °^°° °' to Degenfelt, who repelled the Turks with a loss of 4000 killed. Disease had incapacitated 5000 more, and the pasha was obliged to retreat to Dernis, and thence into Bosnia. In the following a.d. 1648. year, at the head of 6000 Morlacchi and 700 horse, Foscolo assaulted and took Dernis, ad- vanced to Knin which he found abandoned by the enemy, and captured Verlicca. His proposal to rebuild and fortify Knin was unwisely rejected by the Senate, and they had reason before long to regret their decision. Clissa still held out, ^ A more detailed account of the Uscocs will be given with the description of Segna. Yid. below, chapter xxvii. i6o History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. and an attempt to relieve it was made by Tekely Pasha, but he was defeated, and the garrison surrendered on condition that they should be A.D. 1649. allowed to depart without arms. In the following year Foscolo attacked the Turks in the Bocche di Cattaro and took and destroyed Risano. The war continued several years with varying success ; Knin, which had been reoccupied by the Turks, was unsuccessfully assaulted, but the Mor- lacchi under Smiglianich gained several brilliant victories over the enemies of then" race, till then- leader fell in 1654. Had the defence of the province been confided more to the natives and less to the Italian mercenaries, it is probable that the Turks would have done far less mischief. The Venetian agent at Spalato in 1574 wrote to Gallantry the Siguory that ' the principal defence of their native Dal- 0W71 coimtry ought to he committed to those brave people who verily have no care for their lives against the Turks, hut set on them like mad hulls; and truth compels me to say (albeit ivith grief) that ive have been vanquished in more than one important skirmish through the coivar^dice of the Italian infantry'^.' The Provveditore Andrea Corner in 1660 had the same opinion of the A.D. 1660. native militia, and declared to the Senate that the peasants were the principal defenders of the province^ ; but the Venetians seem to have in- herited from the Byzantine empire the jealous ^ Cited Sir G. Wilkinson, vol. ii. p. 344. 2 Storia della Dalmazia, Zara, 1878, p. 265. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. i6i mistrust which refused to the provincials the defence of their own frontier. The history of Ragusa since 1420 is so distinct a.d. 1667. from the general history of Dalmatia that it is ea^rttquake reserved for a special chapter. It is impossible, ^'^ ^^s^^*- however, not to notice in its chronological j^lace the fearful earthquake by which 5000 Bagusan citizens, including the Rector Ghetaldi, were buried in the ruins of their houses, and many of the principal buildings of the city were thrown down. The earthquake was felt as far as Cattaro, where great damage was done to the cathedral and other buildings. Peace was at last arranged between the Porte a.d. 1669. and Venice ; Candia, which after a defence of J^^^^gg^ twenty-nine years had been forced to capitulate, ^^^^irks was yielded to the Sultan, but the Venetians were secured in the possession of Clissa and the forts they had occupied in Dalmatia. Disputes arose as to the possession of the forts which the Venetians had destroyed but not occupied, and the Turks claimed and retained under this head the castles of Zemonico Vrana Ostrovizza Der- nis Knin and Douare. Hostilities again broke a.d. 1683. out with Kara Mustapha, the Grand Vizir, but his vSia^ defeat by Sobieski before Vienna, and his subse- gX^^s^^ quent disgrace and execution, relieved Dalmatia of a dangerous enemy. The Venetians took advantage of the Turkish reverses, and in the following year they had recovered Ostrovizza a.d. 1684- Plavno Perusic Bencovaz Scardona Obbravazzo VOL. I. M i62 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Venetian and Demis, and the only places still held inDaima- by the Turks were Sign and Knin. Their fate tia. was however only deferred, for Sign was taken in 1686 and the garrison put to the sword, and Knin and Verlicca were obliged to surrender in 1688. The tide of Turkish conquest had turned. Buda was taken by the Christian forces in 1686, after having been 145 years in the possession of the Moslem, and the soil of Hungary was once more cleared of the invader. In 1690 the Venetians completed the conquest of the Morea, and having driven the Turk back from the sea- board of Dalmatia, they pursued their successes A.D. 1699. in Herzegovina and Bosnia. The war was closed Cariovitz. by the peace of Carlovitz between the Emperor Dalmatia the Bopublic and the Sultan, by the terms of Venice. ° which the Venetians gave up then' conquests be- yond the frontiers of Dalmatia, but were confirmed in the possession of all Dalmatia except the terri- tory and city of Bagusa, which remained inde- pendent under the nominal protection of the Empire, and the more real defence of the Turks, to whom the Bagusans paid a tribute. A.D. 1714. The Turks were not disposed to rest long under renewed, terms SO disadvantageous to them, and they de- clared war again against Venice in 17 14 on the ground that the BejDublic had allowed piracy and favoured the Vladika of Montenegro theu^ enemy. A.D. 1717. The Emperor offered his alliance to the Bepublic, Belgrade, and Briiice Eugene advanced into the Banat and Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 163 besieo'ed and took Belorade, a success which partly compensated Christendom for the loss of the Morea, which was regained by the Turks in 1 71 5. The peace of Passarovitz confii'med the ^d. 1718. Republic in the possession of the whole of Dal- passa- matia, excepting as before the territory of Ragusa Venetian which extended from KJek on the Canale della ^f p^bna^ Narenta to Sutorina in the Bocche di Cattaro. ^^^] At these two points Ragusan jealousy of the Vene- tians, whom the little Republic feared more than the Turks, had stipulated that a narrow slip of territory should be conceded to the Turks to divide her by an impassable barrier from the dan- gerous proximity of the Venetians. Beyond Sutorina the Venetian territory began again \\T.th Castelnuovo, and the province of Vene- tian Albania, as it was called, extended from this pomt southwards, beyond Cattaro and Budua. Dalmatia from the mountains to the sea was Turkish thus finally united under the government of the finally Republic, and the Turks never again invaded it. From this time till the fall of the Venetian Republic there is little or nothing to record. The policy of the State was to preserve its neutrality and avoid occasion of quarrel with its more power- ful neighbours, and to prevent any excitement or outbreak in its provinces, and the Dalmatians were involved in the political and moral stupor Venetian rule in that gradually paralysed the Venetian common- Dalmatia, wealth. M 2 164 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Fall of the On the fall of the Bepublic of Venice the Republic , of Venice. Dalmatian troops were sent home, disDanded, and Dalmatia distributed among their families without any dis- Austria. turbauce. Dalmatia was ceded to Austria by the treaty of Campo Formio, together with the rest of the Venetian territory. Some disturbances fol- lowed at Spalato and Trait, where the Garagnin palace was sacked by the mob, and also at Sebe- nico Lesina and Macarsca, but the arrival of the Austrian officials and troops put an end to all idea of resistance, and order was re-established without difficulty. Peace of The remainder of the history of Dalmatia may Fresburg, "^ "^ Dec. 26, be briefly dismissed. After Austerlitz, Dalmatia Dalmatia was by the temis of the peace of Presburg- ceded ceded to *^ ^ ° . France, to France, but before the French could arrive to occupy it the Russians had seized the Bocche di Cattaro, garrisoned Castelnuovo, and induced the Montenegrins to rise in arms to support them. The French under Molitor reached Knin on Feb. A.D. 1806. 12, 1806, occupied Zara and Sign, and advanced Frencb and towards the Bocchc by way of Trail, Spalato, ussians, ]y[g^(.^pgQg^^ g^j^(j ^jjQ Narenta. The small independ- ent state of Bagusa unhappily lay in their path, and as the two combatants could only get at one another by traversing Bagusan territory the government of that state was unable to remain neutral. To allow the French to pass would bring on the Bagusans the vengeance of Bussia, to Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 165 refuse would cause an instant rupture with France. Danger It was a dilemma in which either alternative despair of meant ruin ; the despair of the citizens was ex- ^^^^" treme, and Count Caboga proposed that the Kepublic should beg from the Sultan, their pro- tector, some island in the Aegean whither they might migrate and where they might continue to live under their ot\^i laws as heretofore. These councils of despair were not heeded ; the French were allowed to enter, and in consequence the EagTisans found their commerce laid under an embargo in the ports of every European country which was at war with France. The Russians and Montenegrins ravaged their territory, and theu" delicious suburbs with the gardens and villas of their aristocracy were reduced to a wilderness. A report that the French were advancing in force caused the Russians and Montenegfrins to retire, CD ' but the ruin of Ragusa was effectually accom- plished. In the following year the Russians took Curzola, a.d. 1807. but were repulsed by the French in an attempt J?on*of°' on Lesina. The little peasant republic of Poglizza ff poSlL, in the fastnesses of Mount Mossor rose in arms, but the French made short work of its rustic militia ; those who could not escape to the Russian ships had to witness the destruction of their homes and the massacre of their kindred in cold blood by the brutal French soldiery, who marched through then' country for three days destroying the villages and putting the inhabitants to the 1 66 History of Dalniatia. [Ch. i, sword. A price was set on the head of the Great Count and the other officials, and the Repubhc of PogHzza 'ceased to exist.' Peace of The Fronch administration of Dalmatia after Tilsit, July, 1S07. the peace of Tilsit, when they were left in posses- sion of the country, was tyrannical and severe, and the prisons were crowded with political offenders who were afterwards transported to France where they languished in captivity till the downfall of the Empire. A.D. 1808. In 1808 it was decreed by Napoleon that the Eepubiic Hcpublic of E,agusa, which had been ruined in his of Kagusa. ggj.yj(3g^ \^q^^ ' ceased to exist.' At this time our own countrymen contribute a chapter to Dalmatian history. England had sent a detachment of her fleet under Captain Hoste into the Adriatic, which made its princij^al station at Lissa, the outermost island of the Dalmatian The Eng- archipelago. Under the protection of the British lish at • Ti 1 • p -r» • • 1 Lissa. flag Lissa rapidly became an empormm for British commerce, and the goods of Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham, prohibited in every port under French control, were smuggled across the Dalma- tian frontier and so through Bosnia into Germany. The population of the island rose between 1808 and 18 II from 4000 to 12,000, and the profits made both by Lissans and Dalmatians were im- mense. In the temporary absence of the English squadron a French fleet under Dubordieu sailed from Ancona, and entering Lissa under English colours landed a body of troops unopposed and Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 167 burned sixty-four merchantmen with their cargoes. A rumour of the return of the Enghsh fleet caused the French to make a hasty retreat, and they sailed ao^ain the same niffht for Ancona. In the Battle of ^ ° Lissa, spring the French fleet was strengthened and a March 13, resolute attempt was made to expel the English from Lissa. Dubordieu's force consisted of four frigates of forty-four guns, two corvettes of thirty- two guns, a sixteen-gun brig, a schooner, two gun- boats, and a xebec, carrying in all 284 guns, and a body of infantry destined to occupy the island. The English fleet, under Captain Hoste, consisted of four ships, the Amphion Active Cerberus and Volage, mounting altogether 156 guns. The numbers were 880 men on the English side against 2500 French and Italians, but notwithstanding the odds against them the English obtained a complete victory. Three frigates and one corvette of the enemy struck their colours, and the French admiral Dubordieu was among the slain. In the following year Lissa, and in 1 8 1 3 Curzola, a.d. 1812- were regularly occupied by the English, who English occupation appointed a governor and established a system of the of administration under native officials in each island, which continued till July 15, 181 5, at the end of the war, when both islands, together with Lagosta, which had also been occupied by the English, were handed over to the Austrians. In 1809, the French troops having been with- drawn from Dalmatia, the Austrians re-entered ; but by the treaty of Vienna, Oct. 14, 1809, the 1 68 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Severity of proviiice was restored to France and united to the govern- lUyrian kingdom. A military commission sat at Dalmatia. Scbenico wliicli tried, shot, and imprisoned those who had been imphcated in bringing back the Austrians, and the fort S. Nicol5 at the entrance of the harbour was crowded with pohtical prisoners. The clemency of Marmont, who commanded in the province, is in agreeable contrast to the severity of the French government which he served, and it was owing to his humanity that the town of Scardona was spared the destruction to which it had been condemned for a demonstration in favour of Austria. A.D. 1814. After the Russian campaign, and the other disasters that befel the French arms, the combined efforts of Austria and England drove the French from Dalmatia, which has since remained under the rule of the Austrian Emperor, and so, as it were by accident, has once more returned to the dominion of a Hungarian king. Condition From a review of the character of Venetian matia dominion in Dalmatia since the final occupation of Venedans, the couutry by the Republic, and of its effect on ij'97-^'^°^~ the condition of the people, it may be gathered that however little the Venetians desired to pro- mote the interests of their subjects, and however badly they may have governed them in some respects, the province, and more especially the cities, made on the whole a rapid advance in Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 169 material prosperity under the settled government Daimatia of the Republic, and that arts and letters flourished Venetians, in spite of the absence of any encouragement from 1797. the State. The worst feature of Venetian govern- ment was its jealous hatred of any political vitality in its subjects, and the terrorism of the secret police by which it guarded itself against popular Terror of combinations. So great was the moral terror police. inspired by the secret machinery of the State that it is said one or two sbirri were enough to carry out any sentence of the law, and that a man con- demned to the pillory would sit out the term of his punishment without any guard being necessary to prevent his escape. The government agents kept the Senate informed of everything that took place, and of everything that was said ; those who had gone far enough to be dangerous disappeared, and their fate was wrapped in mystery which added terror to its warning for others ; young men of family who had travelled and imbibed liberal notions at Padua, Oxford, Brussels, or Rotterdam, and had been overheard indiscreetly drawing unfavourable com- parisons between their own government and that of other countries, were sent for to Venice and appointed to some post or employment ' ivhich ivoidd hee'p them away from the firel and the local authorities of the various towns were warned not to hesitate ' to cut aivay certain poiso^ied members toj)reserve the sound part from infection'^.' ^ Documenti Storici, published by Solitro from the Records 1 70 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Daimatia The voutlis of Dalmatia and Istria were withdrawn under the „ , . • i 1 Venetians, froHi then* own country where they might have 1797. been dangerous, and drafted into the forces of the RepubHc serving in Italy, while Dalmatia was defended by Italian troops, who, as we have seen, made a much weaker barrier against the Turks than would have been opposed by those whose state con- liearths and homes Were threatened \ The Church theChuich. itself was made to feel the restraining hand of the State ; it was allowed no secular power, the patronage of benefices and even bishoprics was virtually possessed by the government, the repre- sentative of the Republic was enthroned in the cathedral in a position of equal dignity with the archbishop or bishop - ; and when at last the Senate was induced to allow the establishment of the ' Holy Inquisition ' within its dominion, the per- mission was accompanied by the condition that lay assessors appointed by the State should sit with the inquisitors, and that the sentences should be revised and confirmed by the Council of Ten^. in the Library of S. Mark, class. 7, cod. ccx. quoted by Sir G. Wilkinson, vol. ii. p. 344. ^ The Dulmatiau levies amounted to 12,000 men out of a population of 250,000. Stor. della Dalra. p. 280. "^ Cubich, Veglia, part ii. p. 116. See also below, description of duomo of Zara, chapt. iv. ^ Eomanin, Stor. di Ven. v. c. 6. The i-esult was that very few cases of capital punishment for heresy occur in the annals of Venice. ' La saggia Venezia voleva frenare il soverchio zelo ed eventuale fanatismo degl' inquisitori e raccommandava mitezza nelle pene ; sicche rarissimi furono i casi di condanne a morte che altrove abbondavano.' Franceschi, L' Istria, p. 291. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 171 At the final re-entry of Venice into Dalmatia the Dalmatia "^ under the ancient privileo^es of the cities seem to have been Venetians, 1 1 TT_ pA.D. 1409- confirmecl in most respects, but the liberty ol 1797. electing: the count was not restored to them, the appointment being thenceforth vested in the State. The Gran Consigiio also, originally a democratical assembly in each little commonwealth, as it had been in Venice before 1 299, was now as in the ruling state a close aristocratical body, to which the people had no access, and which served the central government as an obedient instrument for carrying out its ends. In other respects the municipal hberties seem to have been maintained, and justice on the whole fahly administered between rich and poor ; but the distance from the central government threw too much power into Excessive . . , . , . power of the hands of the Proweditori, who durmg then' thegovem- thirty-two months of ofiice were almost absolute rulers, especially on the islands, and who some- times exercised then- authority in an arbitrary and despotic manner. The taxes were onerous, and as the object of the government was to keep the country poor and dependent the burden was so arranged as to press heavily on the few native industries it possessed. The monopoly of salt The salt . . monopoly. placed, as it still does under the Austrian govern- ment, insuperable difficulties in the way of the fisheries, which if properly developed would be a mine of wealth for the maritime Dalmatians, especially the islanders. Nowhere is there a more abundant supply of fish than at Lissa, and yet for 172 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Daimatia political reasons no magazine of salt was allowed on Venetians, that island, SO that when the fishermen had a ir97-^°^~ great take offish they were obliged to row thirty or forty miles to Lesina to get salt ; and if con- trary winds or bad weather prevented their going thither, fifty or a hundred thousand fish would sometimes have to be thrown into the sea and wasted^. Industry In some instances the government attempted to repressed. pi destroy the resources of the country by more direct means. The silkworm had been cultivated in Dalmatia from early times ^, and silk and olive oil had been among the chief products of the country. An iniquitous decree of the Senate ordered that all the mulberry trees and olives should be cut down, and a great number of the former had been destroyed when it was found that the people were determined to resist a measure which meant nothing less than ruin to them, and the olive trees which are scarcely less important to the Dalmatian farmer than his vines were saved. Education Educatiou, if uot prohibited, was discouraged, discourag- • i • i ed. and no public schools existed m the province except one seminary at Spalato which was founded in 1700 by archbishop Stefano Cosmi Comasco, and endowed with the funds of two religious establishments at Trail ^. The youths of the higher ^ Fortis, Viaggio in Dalm. ^ E.g. at Arbe ; vid. sup. p. 31, and infra, cbapt. xxviii. ^ Storia della Dalmazia, p. 408. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 173 classes had to go to Italy to study in the univer- Dalmatia sities of Padua, Pavia, or Bologna, or else to con- Venetians, tent themselves with the teaching of the clergy at 1797. '^°^ home, while the peasantry were left m the lowest depths of ignorance and barbarism. It will scarcely be believed that the printing press was not introduced at Zara till 1 796, when the Re- public was on its deathbed. The country swarmed with ecclesiastics, and the Excessive number of conventual establishments almost ex- ecciesias- ceeds belief. The island of Arbe, with a popula- tion of some 3000 souls, had at the time of Abbate Fortis's visit no fewer than three convents of friars, and as many of nuns, besides sixty priests who were poorly endowed, and whose sustenance fell on the ah-eady impoverished islanders. Out of 3000 inhabitants of Cherso at the same period there were 120 ecclesiastics, including- a convent of friars, and a monastery of nuns, ' an excessive number to say the truth in a 2)^ctce ivhere arms are so precious.' At Pago Fortis found no fewer than two convents for men and one for women within the walls, and at a short distance another for Franciscan friars, ' a race of men who under various names and disguises infest every place where credulous ignorance can he persuaded to maintain the idle and superstitious^.' Of the condition of the Morlacchi at the time Social state of his visit he gives a very interesting account, stition of He found them honest, generous, simple, and con- lacchi. ^ Abbate Fortis, Description of island of Pago. 174 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. Daiinatia fidiiig, and easilj imposed on by the Italians. Venetians, There woro no beggars among them poor as they 1797- ^°^ were, and they were never wanting in hospitahty to strangers. Their superstition was abject, and the mendicant clergy were either as ignorant and superstitious as their flock or else traded on the ignorance of the people for their own profit. The Morlacchi both of the Greek and the Latin church believed in witches, fahies, enchantments, noc- turnal apparitions, and vamj^ires^ or spirits of dead persons who suck the blood of infants. When any dead person was suspected of becoming a vampire the body was ham-strung and pierced with pins which prevented its wandering, and many jDorsons on their deathbed, afraid of becom- ing vampires, implored their relatives to serve them in this way after death. Morlacca girls Treatment wero Carried off by their suitors with then' own of women . • r^ i among consent, m order to escape the attentions of those they intended to reject. Before marriage Fortis says the girls were neat, but when married they neglected their persons and became filthy and repulsive. Women were treated as inferiors ; if the husband possessed a bedstead the wife lay on the floor ; and a man never spoke of his wife without an apologetic ' by your leave,' or ' begging Their cot- your pardou.' Their cottages were seldom roofed " ' with anything but thatch or shingles ; beds were rare, the people generally lay on the ground wrapped in goat's hair blankets, or in summer out ^ Called Yukodlah ; or in the island of Cberso B'dsi. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 175 of doors the better to escape the attacks of Dalmatia . , under the vermm. The walls of the huts were built with- Venetians, out mortar, the door was the only opening, and 1797. the smoke had to find its way out without a chimney. The interior was varnished black and loathsome with smoke, the savour of which per- vaded everything, hanging about the persons and clothes of the inhabitants and flavouring the milk and everything they ate or drank. The only point about which they were nice was that of sanitary cleanliness, as to which they seem to have been scrupulously exact, but they were con- tent to share their houses with the beasts, and a slight wattled partition plastered with clay or dung was all that separated the human inmates from their pigs and oxen and horses. They had an extreme abhorrence of snakes, founded on Pagan Supersti- tion ofivior- traditions. In the beginning they say there were lacchi con- cerning three suns, the heat of which being excessive the snakes. serpent resolved on getting rid of them. He succeeded in absorbing two and a half, but the remaining half sun, whose light we now enjoy, proving too much for him, the serpent, unable to bear the hght, hid himself among the rocks. The sun incensed at the attack that had been made on him applauded every one who killed one of the serpent race, and threatened to punish him who failed to do so when he had the chance. When Fortis was ascending Monte Biocovo above Almissa a viper crossed the path of his guides. * They both ran furiously to kill it ivith stones ; our interces- 1 76 History of Dabnatia. [Ch. i. Daimatia sioii to let it ciloue had no effect; they said it was Venetians, « malejick demoii disguised in that form, and 1797-^°^ eve?i turned in horrour from the ivay they thought it might have touched.' His companion Signor Bajamonte having taken it up in his hand and approached them to show them it was dead, they presented then* muskets at him and hade him stand off at the peril of his hfe. Supersti- Still moro curious were the superstitions about teredby tcuipests and the mode of averting them. At Paofo one of the Dominican friars was in Fortis's time elected by the people to the office of exor- cising storms, and keeping the island clear of the summer rains which damaged the salt works, and of hail which destroyed the vines. At Novaglia also the clergy were expected to exorcise the evil spirits and the Vukodlaci or witches who raised the storms, and they had to stand in their sacer- dotal dress with the holy water in their hand exposed to wind and rain. ' 27ie im^oostors,' he says, ' apjy eared to act this scene very seriously, making a thousand m,otions and grimaces and leaping from one side to the other as if pursuing some Vuhodlak. I hneiu one of them, tvho ran after the devil into the sea up to the middle, ayid in that strange position continued his crosses, aspersions, and conjurations. The islanders, while the priest mutters his prayers, discharge their pieces towards the place pointed at hy him as if to kill the tcitches or p>ut them to fight. Wliat sillier customs can there he among the Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 177 Lapioonians ! ' At Verbenico on the island of Daimatia Veglia the priests 'are obliged to sleep under ct Venetians, lodge open on cdl sides and contiguous to the 1^97/°^" steeple from St. Georges Day to Michaelmas, that they 7)iay be ready at any time to drive away the storms of hail by ringing the bells, and if the storm continues it is their duty to go out into the open air bareheaded to conjure it.' The Abbate goes on to enlarge on the shameful ignor- ance and superstition of the priesthood in the rural districts. At Castelmuschio he was shown two pieces of willow and told they were parts of Moses' rod, and two links of a chain which were said to have bound S. Peter. The samts were represented by frightful images scarcely resem- bling anything human, to which the people were so devoted that it would have been dangerous to attempt to deprive them of them\ The degree of cultivation among the upper cuitiva- classes, less dependent on local conditions than upper that of the peasantry, was not inferior to that of^^^®^' Italy or the rest of Europe, and a very creditable list may be made out of Dalmatians who distin- guished themselves in arts and letters durmg the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Sebenico, the youngest of 'Dalmatian' towns, produced more illustrious sons than any except perhaps Eagusa, and Fortis declares that m the sixteenth century the arts and sciences flourished ^ I saw a frightful but highly venerated image of S. Gau- denzio at Ossero in 1884. VOL. I. N 1 78 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. t. Daimatia there Hiore than in any other town of Dahnatia. under the , . . i /> -vt • • r> i Venetians, From this City Sprang the four Veranzii, 01 whom 1 797. the eldest Antonio (b. 1 504 f 1 5 73), rose to the dig- Daim™*^^ nity of Archbishop of Gran, Primate of Hungary, tians. g^j^^j Viceroy of the kingdom, and left behind him valuable materials for the history of his country ; the Illyrian poet Difnico and the historian Tomco Marnavich were also Sebenzani, and so were Schiavone the painter, whom Titian condescended to imitate, and Martino Rota the engraver. Giorgio Orsini also, the architect of the wondrous vaults of the cathedral, was an inhabitant of Sebenico, though probably a native of Zara, and he may be claimed as a naturalized Dalmatian though descended from a Roman stock. The island of Cherso produced Francesco Patrizzi or Patrizio, the first to unfold the military system of Pome, from whom Lipsius is accused by Scaliger of plagiarizing^ ; Arbe gave bu*th to Nimira an accomplished though self-taught mathematician, and the famous Marc Antonio de Dominis the first to explain the solar spectrum, whose theo- logical wanderings have almost made the world forget his achievements in the field of natural science; Zara alone has no illustrious progeny to boast of unless, as seems probable, the architect Giorgio Orsini was born there. Spalato during this period can only point to the name of Marco ^ Vicl. Hallam, History of Literature, vol. i. p. 526, vol. ii. pp. 6, 371, and Fortis, Saggio d' osservazioni sopra 1' isola de Cherso ed Osero. Patrizio was born in 1529, and died in 1597. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 179 Marulo the historian, but Trail may glory in Dalmatia having given bu'th to Giovanni Lucio, the father Venetians, of Dalmatian history, whose great work is as 1797.'^^ remarkable for critical sagacity as for the industry and research which have gone to produce it. Kagusa, whose independence dates from the Eagusan period when the rest of Dalmatia passed finally under the dominion of Venice, has a still more brilliant roll of worthies to display. Elio Lam- pridio Cervo, the poet laureate, and Ludovico (Tubero) Cerva of the same family, the historian of his own times, flourished in the fifteenth and earlier part of the sixteenth century : Gian. Fran- cesco Gondola (b. 1588 f 1638) achieved the great literary triumph of the lUyric language by his epic poem of the Osmanide, in which the subject is taken from contemporary history, and the hero is a sultan of those Turks whose friendship strangely enough was the bulwark of E,agusan independence at the time that they were generally regarded as the natural foes of Christendom. At the same time Marino Ghetaldi was pursuing those experi- ments in natural science which gained him an European reputation, while the Kagusan peasantry thought him an enchanter and dreaded to ap- proach the cave which served him for a laboratory ; and in the eighteenth century the achievements of E,uggiero Giuseppe Boscovich as a mathema- tician and natural philosopher shed lustre on his native city^ ^ Both Ghetaldi and Boscovich travelled to England, and the N 2 i8o History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Daimatia That 111 poiiit of material prosperity the maritime Venetians. towHS and islands of Dalmatia flourished under i797-^^°^~ the dominion of Venice is proved beyond a doubt Material by the public and private buildings which began fihown by to Spring up ou all sides as soon as the political architec- , . /y> i r? turai acti- transition was effected. Zara completed her 1420. cathedral and the basilica of S. Grisogono ; Sebenico began her new cathedi^al and raised it nearly to the cupola ; Curzola completed her duomo and raised the campanile, and built the Badia with its graceful cloister which is one of the gems of Dalmatian art ; a new cathedral was begun at Ossero ; and the cathedi^al at Traii was enlarged and adorned by its western tower and by the sumptuous sacristy baptistery and chapels that render it the most magnificent church in Dalmatia. Throughout the province the churches and convents were fitted with handsome stalls, and the treasuries furnished with beautiful plate and embroideries, reflecting the taste of the ruling city and probably generally the handiwork of Venetian artists. Palaces and public buildings that remind one by their architecture of the Grand Canal sprang up in the streets of every seaport to^vn of the mainland or islands ; the streets and squares were paved, and the walls latter was made a fellow of our Eoyal Society. Boswell men- tions him more than once ; he met Dr. Johnson at dinner at the houses of Sir Joshua EejTiolds and Dr. Douglas, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, where ' that celebrated foreigner expressed his astonishment at Johnson's Latin conversation,' ch. li. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. i8i and gates rebuilt or strengthened ; the harbours were improved, arsenals were established, and the dockyards were crowded with shipping in course of repah" or construction. In the principal f)iazza of each city was erected the loggia or tribunal, whei'e sat the judges, and where the principal public business of the place was transacted ; in front of it a pillar supported the flag-post from which floated the banner of the Republic, while the Lion of St. Mark, in marble or stone, looked do^Am from every gateway, bastion, and public building, sig- nificant of the watchful argus-eyed government seated on the distant laoTines whose vio;ilance nothing could escape. As the commercial greatness of Venice declined Decline of Venice felt towards the end of her career, the prosperity of her in Daima- dependencies naturally passed away at the same time. Decay and torpor set in, ship-building de- clined, the ports were deserted and the trade came nearly to a standstill. The arts were neglected, and the series of architectural works was closed, except at Ragusa, which still preserved its liberties and some remains of its former prosperity. The palaces of the rich Venetian and native merchants were deserted or neglected, and many of them fell into the ruin which now meets the eye at every turn. Such was the state of Dalmatia when the pro- Dalmatia vince came into the hands of the Austrians, and Austria. such to a great extent it remains to the present day. Something has undoubtedly been done by l82 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I. Dalmatia the preseiit government, and it is no light benefit tria. to the province that a perfect system of pohce has been established, that the Haiduks or bandits have been suppressed, and that notwithstanding the vicinity of the Turkish provinces the traveller may move about in the remotest corners of Dal- matia as freely as he would in England, and with a security that is unknown in the south of Italy or Spain. Blood feuds among the Morlacchi have also been repressed, and the practice of carrying arms put under control, and above all a regular system of education in all its grades, both elemen- tary and advanced, except that of the University, has been introduced into every part of the country. For all this Dalmatia may well feel grateful to her present masters ; but there is still much that she may fairly ask to be done for her. Her trade and productions are hampered by vexatious cus- toms and monopolies, and the peasants still plough the land with instruments compared to which the Virgilian plough was a masterpiece of ingenuity. ' Ah, Signore,' said a Dalmatian tradesman to me, ' it is a wretched country you have come to visit ; the Venetians made a Morlaccheria of it, and though the present government has done a little for us of late years, things are not much changed for the better,' In the interior of the country the Morlacchi still inhabit the huts described by Fortis a hundred years ago, without window or chhnney, black with smoke, and serving as in Ireland for cottage and pig-stye in one, men women and Present condition of the po- pulation. Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 183 beasts occupying the same tenement, with scarcely Modem any partition to divide them. The belief in "vyitch- craft and fau-ies is as strong as ever, brides are still carried off by the favoured suitor and brought home again after an interval to be formally es- poused, and firearms are still supposed to be efiicacious against the demon of the storm. The abuse against which Fortis declaims of an extra- vagant number of ecclesiastics and convents still exists, and the number of the latter is scarcely diminished since his time. Of the adult popula- tion of the country not less than 33 per cent, are non-productive, consisting of priests, monks, nuns, idlers, mendicants, and rogues \ and consequently it is no wonder that more than half the cultivable land of the province should be lost to agriculture, serving merely to afibrd scanty pasturage to sheep and goats, and that Dalmatia should be the most backward and the poorest province of the Austro- Hungarian dominions. During the past two years a fresh movement Distinc- has taken place in Dalmatia which is driving the Latins and most intelligent and cultivated of its inhabitants moderiT to something like despair. In the preceding pages *^™^^' the dual element in the population of the country ^ Schatzmeyer, La Dalmazia. Trieste, 1877. He divides the adult population of Dalmatia thus : — Agriculturists, 50V0 > industrials, 3-75°/oJ commercialists and mariners, 2-50°/^; proprietors and government employes, 2-50°/^ ; servants, 7-50°/ ; and ' i restanti, vale a dire ^:>Mt di 33°/o '^* t'^^t''' 9^^ ahitanti rappresentano una j^opulazione improduttiva, che con- siste di preti monaci e monache oziosi mendicanti malviventi,' &c. 184 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. which has existed since the seventh century, and has survived all changes of government down to our own days has been put forward as the key to the proper understanding of Dalmatian history. Side by side through all the alterna- tions of Venetian and Hungarian rule the Latin and the Slav have remained as two distinct elements, mixing at the edges as it were, but never fusing into one another. In the old Koman cities the old Roman traditions, and no doubt the old Roman stock survived the shock of Slavonic conquest, and though the Croat was lord outside the city walls and beyond the narrow territory claimed by the citizens, within the gates the Dalmatian people retained their old Roman customs, governed themselves by the old Roman law, and spoke the old Latin tongue, which they still speak at the present day in its modern form. Erroneous Thosc who havc uot acquainted themselves with idea as to origin of Dalmatian history are apt to think that the Latin thisdis- . , tinction. fringe which borders the Slavonic province has derived its language and customs from Venice, to which it was so long subject. Nothing can be farther from the truth ; Zara Spalato Trail and Ragusa were Latin cities when as yet Venice was not existent, and they remained Latin cities throughout the middle ages, with very little help from her influence untd the fifteenth century. The Italian spoken in Dalmatia before that time was not the Venetian dialect ; in some parts it had a distinct form of its own, in others it re- Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 185 sembled the form into which Latin had passed in the south of Italy or Umbria, and it was only after 1420 that it began to assimilate itself to the Italian of Lombardy and Venetian At Ragnsa it never became Venetian at all, and to this day resembles rather the Tuscan dialect than any other, while the patois of the com- mon people is a curious medley of Italian and Illyric, with traces of rustic Latin, Ylach or Rouman. It is to the Latins of Dalmatia that we must Dalmatian look for evidences of culture and intellectual pro- the Middle gress, and not to the Slavs. Those Croatian towns fiSToThe that, like Sebenico, emerged from semi-barbarism ^ "^' did so by being gathered within the Dalmatian Adherence .... of the Bal- pale, and by copymg the mstitutions and customs matian and adopting the language of the older cities of Latin tra- Latin descent. Ragusa, the Dalmatian Athens, has sometimes been held up as an example of Slavonic culture, but this is only partially the case, for the history of Ragusa is uniformly that of a Latin rather than a Slavonic city. The public acts were recorded either in Latin or Itahan, never in Illyric, except in case of correspondence with a Slavonic power ; Italian appears as the language of the records and laws as early as the fourteenth century ^ ; the pleadings in the law-courts in the fifteenth century were not in Illyric but in a ^ Yid. Luc. lib. vi. c. ii. ^ Vid. Statutes of the Dogana of Kagusa in Eitelberger's Dalmatien, p. 374, ed. 1884. 1 86 Histoiy of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Bouman or debased Latin dialect^ ; the rules of the lay confraternities of goldsmiths carjjenters and other trades are drawn up in Italian at least as far back as the year 1306, an incontestable proof that Italian was then the vernacular lan- guage of the working classes ^ ; and when, in 1435, the little republic set an example which many greater states might worthily have imitated, and instituted public schools, it was from Italy that she invited her professors. Cattaro, the remotest of Dalmatian cities, which lived till the fifteenth century under the shadow and protection of the kings of Servia, preserved her Latin traditions as jealously as the rest ; it was from Italy that she invited her public teachers ever since the thir- teenth century, and it was to the colleges of Rome Padua or Bologna, and not to the court of Rascia, that an appeal was provided from her municipal tribunal. Venetian Xhis Lcitin — it would bc iucorrcct to call it rule favourable Italian — element which the Venetians at their to the Latins. advciit fouiid already existing in Dalmatia natu- rally became preponderant over the Slavonic element when both parties passed under the rule of an Italian power. Under the Venetian govern- ment Italian was the ofiicial language throughout the enth'e province, from the sea-shore to the ^ DeDiversis, ed. Brunelli, p. 70. Zara, 1882 ; vid. also infra, History of Ragusa, cliaj)ter xis. ^ Le confraternite laiclie in Dalmazia. G. Gelcich, Ragusa, 1885, p. 30, &c. Ch. I.] History of Dahnatia. 187 crests of the Vellebich mountains ; Italian officials were appointed to every office in both urban and • rural districts, and the lUyric language was left to boors and husbandmen. And when the Austrians came in and established a system of public in- struction throughout the country it was given in Italian, even in places where the population was entirely Slavonic and the Italian language under- stood by only a minority. This was clearly unjust, and could not be expected to outlast the period of Slavonic depression and servitude. AU this is Prepon- now changed : the achievement of independence siavs in by Servia and Bulgaria, the successful revolt of times. Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Turks, and the virtual incorporation of those provinces into the Austro-Hungarian Empire, have given an impetus to the Slavs of Croatia and Dahnatia, and they too have begun to dream of forming an independent state, federally attached to the Austrian Empire, but enjoying the same kind of autonomy as Hun- gary. The Croats are agitating for the separation of that tie which has bound them to the Hun- garian monarchy since the days of King Coloman, and among the Dalmatians a party has sprung up which clamours for union with Croatia and a share in her anticipated ' Home Bule.' Unfortunately the fervour of their new-born Present national life has brought the Croats of Dalmatia nism of into violent collision with the Latins. The Croat Croatian party insists on the thorough Slavonizing of the whole province, whether rural or urban ; they 1 88 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I, Demands demand that Illyric shall be the official language, of the -I ' -\ p ni • • 1 •• Croat and the vehicle for all education, in the cities as well as m the country, even m the higher grade schools, and in the case of those whose mother- tongue is Italian. These demands of the Croat party probably partake of the nature of a rebound from former depression. It is hard to say what Dalmatia is to gain by the extinction of her ancient Latin culture, and the suppression of a native language which is understood by most educated men in western Europe, and which makes her merchants and sailors at home in every port of the Mediter- ranean. It is not as if the Illyric language were not understood in the cities, and had to be in- troduced there ; every educated person in Dal- matia is bilingual, and though he may generally talk Italian in his own family, he has also talked Illyric from his cradle. The double language places no barrier between the citizen and the countryman, for both can talk Illyric, though both may not be able to talk Italian. So far as a common language goes there is nothing to prevent the Latin and Slav from combining to form a Dalmatian nation, and to a foreigner it appears absurd that politics should have been dragged into a social and educational question. For there is no question in Dalmatia of ' Italia irredenta,' as there is in Istria ; the Latin element numbers only ten per cent, of the population, and the merest visionary could hardly dream of an- Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 189 nexation to Italy. All that the Latin population Demand desire is that Italian should be retained as the Latin language of school instruction for those who ^^^ ^' desire it and in those towns where Italian is spoken by everybody, while in the rural schools the instruction might be given if preferred in Illyric ; and in this demand it is difficult for an outsider to see anything unreasonable ^ The educational question touches the Latins views of alone, but the political question touches one branch party, of the Slavs also. For the Dalmatian Slavs them- selves are not of one family, nor at present of one mind. Northern Dalmatia is peopled by Croats, and Southern Dalmatia by Serbs, the division between them being the river Cettina as it was in the times of Heraclius and Porphyrogenitus ; these two branches of the Slavonic race speak a slightly different dialect of their common Illyric language, and have different political aspirations, for while the majority of the Croats are Boman Catholics and are agitating for the annexation of Dalmatia to Croatia, in order to form a single powerful Slavonic province with an independent constitution like that of Hungary, the majority of the Serbs belong to the Greek Church, and are bitterly opposed to the idea of sinking their nation- ality in that of the Croats, and incline rather towards union with Servia and Montenegro. The ^ It should be observed that by the Austrian law private schools are rendered practically impossible, and children have no alternative but home education or the state school. iQO History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Tiieaw- common danger has for the present united the party!""* Serbs and Latins in opposition to the Croats, and they form what is kno^vn as the autonomous party whose primary object is to defeat the union of Dahnatia and Croatia and maintain their separate national existence. Eecent The Government however is fighting the battle tionai laws of the Croats, by suppressing hostile municipal ofthe°" boards and appointing others, and by manipu- ^^^" lating the elections as a paternal government well knows how. It is the policy of Austria, which seems preparing for itself a retreat from Germany into the Slavonic lands of the Balkan peninsula, to ingratiate itself with the Croats, and the Croats have had theu^ way in this and every question between them and the Latins. Except in Zara, a place which is so thorouglily Italian that the change has been found impracticable, and one or two places like Trau, where the Latin element was strong enough to insist on the change being op- tional with the parents of the children, the whole education of the country is now conducted through the Illyric language. Even in the Ginnasi or schools immediately below the grade of the Uni- versity it is the same, and those who wish to study Italian literature must do so through the medium of Illyric, even though Italian be their mother-tongue. Slavonic literature there is next to none ; it is a matter of the future ; it consists at present of little more than one epic and a mass of lyric poems and national songs, and is in- Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 191 ferior in interest to the ancient literature of Wales. The most ardent Croat can hardly wish to substi- tute this for the 'Divina Commedia,' and it is scarcely possible to take him seriously when he replies to the objection by telling you that the Italian poets will still be read through the medium of excellent translations into lUyric. It remains to be seen what will be the outcome of this mode of education at second hand ; meanwhile it is difficult for a foreigner to view without regret a needless attempt to extinguish an ancient cul- ture and to silence an ancient language which can boast an uninterrupted descent from the days of the Roman Empire ^ The political future of Dalmatia is necessarily and inevitably Slavonic ; Dalmatia is the natural sea-board of the great Slavonic populations behind her ; but there is no reason why the regeneration of the Slav should mean the extinction of the ^ The violent measures by which the Government was obliged to introduce this and similar changes favoui'ing the Croat party, make one suppose that they were unwelcome not only to the Latins, but to the majority of the Dalmatians. I never talked with a seafaring man who did not speak with bitterness of the change, and dilate on the hardship of his children not being taught Italian, a language in which a sailor can make himself understood throughout the Levant, and in almost every port of the Mediterranean. Indeed, when talking with gentle- men who were extreme partizans on the side of the Croats, I never found one who did not admit that the extinction of the Italian language would be a loss to the country, although in their public and collective capacity they are doing all they can to bring about that of which in private they deplore the con- tingency. 192 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i. Latin. The best hope for the formation of a Dalmatian nation lies in a policy of conciliation, and not in the vain attempt to turn the Latins into Croats. The race distinctions of Latin and Croat will probably never be effaced, but there is no reason why if they mutually respect one another they should not live as contentedly under one government as the various races of England Scotland and Wales. TABLE OF THE KINGS OF HUNGARY DOWX TO THE TIME OF THE AUSTRIAN DYNASTY VOL. L TABLE OF THE KINGS OF HUNGAKY, DOWN TO THE TIME OF THE AUSTRIAN DYNASTY. Arpad, settled on Danube, c- 887. Zoltan, 907-961 (?). I Toxun, 058-971. OEIZA, 971-997, baptized 9S9. 1. STEPHEN I, 997-103S, crowned first King of Hungary 1000, canonized 1083. Oisela. I Xiadialaus the Bald, d. 1 2. PETEB, 1038, deposed 1041, restored 1043, Sophias deposed and daughter of blinded J047. Emp. Henry III. 3. ANDHEW I, 1047-1 I 5. SALOMON, 1 4. BEI>A I, 1061-3 (?) 6. OEIZA. I, 'the Great, I 8. COLOMAN, I 0. STEPHEN II, 7. LADISLAUS I, 1077-95. 095- : Lampert (?) QU8, ace. Lucio, and others, ei I 10. BELAII, 'the Blind,' 11. GEIZAII, 1141-61. 12. STEPHEN III, dethroned 1161, 13. BELA III (Alexius), 1173-96. 14. EMEBIC, Gertrudis =f= 16. ANDREW II, r 304-35 ^ Beatrice d'Este- 15. LADISLAUS II, r of =f 17. BELA IV, 1234-70. led M Stephen V). An: Slisabeth ^ Hei Charles I opposed I died at ] Bobert, Kioj of Naplea, l309-,>34^- John, Duke of Stephen, Ban of Ladislaus, Stephe Ban of Biiu Bosnia. 1 Stephen Tvartko I. King of Caaimir. Casimirlll, 'theGreat,' Eliaabeth'the: ' — I of Poland, d. 1370. Elder,' d. 1380. Cotroman, ^ Elizabeth. Elizabeth 'the Younger,' ^24. LEWIS I, 'theGreat,' Andrew, murdered or died in I King of Hungary 1342, mar. Sept prison at Novigrad King of Poland 1370, Joanna I, Quee of Naples, de- posed and mur- murdered I dered by CharleJ 111,1383. Sept. 1345. Maria ^ Charles, Duke Louis, Count jt to death died at 1348 by Charh ated 1 38S, alone 1395, Emperor I4I1, died 1437. John Huniades, died 145' = 25. MABIA, 1383, Hedwig^ Jagellon, Grand Duke married 1385, I of Lithuania, elected died Sept. 1395, s. p. King of Poland 1386 i= and wife, Barbe de Cilley. as Ladielaus V. Naples in 13; prison 1363. Margarita, =1= 26. CHARLES III, King o d. I413. Naples, crowned King of Hungary 1385, murdered by Elizabeth 1386. .BETH, =f £ fell at battle of Van 34. PEBDINAND I of AuBtria, = A brother of Charles V, elected King of Hungary and Bohemia 1526, King of the Bouiaus 1531, Emperor 1558. luks continued in Elizabeth =r Casimir IV of Poland. I 32. LADISLAUS VI, 1490, King of Bohemia 1471, died 1 5 16. . LADISLAUS V. i44.'i-5; throne of Hungary with Sigismund. Crowned at Zara 1403, retired 1409, died 1 41 4. 38. LEWIS II, King of Hungary and Bohemia i;i6, fell at battle of Mohacz io»6- CHAPTEE 11. Dalmatia. The Country, the People, and the Architecture, with a chrono- logical list of the principal buildings. Dalmatia though nominally a kingdom has never had any independent national existence. It has never since its first appearance on the stage of history been the home of a single united nation, and it is not so much a distinct country as a convenient geographical expression. Even its geographical boundaries have been differently fixed by different writers and at different times ; for while Pliny ^ gives to Liburnia the coast from the Piver Arsia in Istria round the head of the Quarnero as far as the Titius or Kerka at Sebenico, and to Dalmatia the coast southwards to Lissus on the Macedonian frontier, Constantine Porphyrogenitus^ in the tenth century ^ ' Nunc finis Italiae fluvius Arsia,' lib. iii. c. xix. ' Liburniae finis et initium Dalmatiae Scardona in amne eo.' v. c. xxii. ^ De admo. Impo. c. xxx. He divides the theme as follows : — (i) Diolcea, from Dyrrhachium and Antivari to Decatera (Cat- taro), and inland to Servia. (2) Terhunia, from Cattaro to Ragusa and inland to Servia, corresponding to the district of Canali. (3) Zachlurnia (Za= behind, Chlum the name of a certain moun- tain), from Eagusa to the Narenta ; afterward the Serb duchy of O 2 196 Boundaries of Dalmatia. [Oh. ii. confined the theme of Dahnatia to the coast south of the Cettina, which enters the sea at Ahnissa. In the middle ages after the uTuption of the Croats and Serbs the name Dalmatian was for a long time confined to the Latin inhabitants of a few maritime to^wais and islands, the whole of the country beyond then- narrow territory bemg considered Croatian ^ In modern times Dalmatia is the strip of lowland or sub-mountainous country between the Alps and the sea, as well as the whole archij)elago of islands that lie off its shores, reaching from Albania on the south to the ojDening of the gulf of Quarnero on the north, and including the islands of Pao-o and Arbe within that gulf For this length of nearly 300 miles it has an average width of some twenty or twenty-five miles, varying from barely a mile at Cattaro to not quite forty miles at Knm. It is divided from Croatia Bosnia Herzeo'ovma and Montenegro by the high range of the Dinaric Alps Chulm or Chelmo, known also as the Primorje (or sea-coast) of Stagno. (4) Pagania, from the Narenta to the Cettina at Almissa, known afterwards as the Craina, or the Primorie par excellence, the country of the Pagan ISTarentines, to which belonged the islands of Melita, Curzola, Brazza and Lesina, nearly deserted then, but used as pastures. (5) Croatia, northwards from the Cettina round the Quarnei'o, as far as Albona in Istria. Pliny's Dalmatia included the first four of these divisions and part of the fifth, as far as Sebenico. The rest of Porphyrogenitus' Croatia is Pliny's Liburnia. •^ ' ladra, Tragurium, et Spalato quae, cum insulis, Dalmatarum vel Eomanorum nomeu retinueruut.' Luc. de Eegn, lib, ii. c. siii. p. 89, et passim. Ch. II.] Dalmatian Scenery. 197 which go by various names in various parts of theii- extent, between which and the Adriatic the land lies in a succession of ridges running parallel to the mountains and the sea with intervening valleys and plains. As the general level falls westwards the sea enters between the last parallel ridges, and the result is that strange shoal of long narrow islands, the crests of half sunken mountains, which frrngfes the coast of Dalmatia, and which we knew so well in our school atlas. The natural scenery of Dalmatia is as smgular as its geographical formation, and is in the strongest contrast to that of the opposite shores of Italy. The luxuriantly wooded mountains of Umbria, and the lacrunes and marshes of Romao-na and Venetia, are confronted in Dalmatia by stony deserts and mountains of an arid whiteness which at the first view seem covered with new fallen snow ; while the muddy sea that beats on the flat shores and harbourless coast of Italy is exchanged on the opposite side for sapphh^e depths of crystal clear- ness which interlace an intricate network of natural breakwaters and penetrate into countless havens of matchless security. To the traveller from central and western Europe the sterility and barrenness of Dalmatia suggest the deserts of Arabia rather than any part of his own con- tinent. It is true that there is some appearance of fertility in some of the islands, on the Riviera of Trail, and at the entrance of the Bocche, but still the general unpression which the country leaves 198 Dalmatian Scenery. [Ch. 11. on the mind is one of bare white mountains, and fields covered with loose splintered rocks which the land ' grows ' faster than they can be picked off it, although the great heaps that divide field from field cover more gromid than they leave exposed for cultivation. In those parts of the interior where the mountains recede from the coast there are extensive peaty moors and unwholesome swamps, seed-beds of agues and fevers which are extremely prevalent throughout the province. These moors and swamps are due to the curious conformation of the surface, which is honeycombed with pits punch- bowls or basins of all sizes, some so small that you may jump over them, and others many miles in diameter, which are known by the various names of foibe, doline, or polje. Into these basins the rain washes down all the vegetable earth, and forms an alluvial stratum which is the cultivable soil of Dalmatia. At the bottom of each little crater is a potato bed or a patch of corn land, and the large plains which form the floor of the greater punch- bowls are the best pasture lands. From these hollows there is often no natural outlet, or none that is sufficient to carry off the drainage, and violent or long continued rain often reduces them to the condition of a lake. With the return of dry weather they become dry land again, and the damp effluvium from the mud and decaying vegetation is extremely pestilential ^ But the malaria is not ' These singular hollows in the soil of Dalmatia and Istria have Ch. II.] Dalmatian Scenery. 199 confined to the interior : many of the maritime towns enjoy an equally bad reputation. Sebenico is said not to be free from malaria, nor TraiA either, though the air there is more wholesome than it used to be ; but Scardona Nona and Ossero are regular hot-beds of ague and tertian fevers, and till a few years ago Pola and Parenzo in Istria were no better. It is curious that all these places are old Roman towns, which once sujDported large and flourishing communities, and which it may be pre- sumed were in ancient times wholesome to live in. Pola has become so once more since the establishment of the arsenal there and the enormous increase of its population with corresponding at- tention to sanitation ; and at the other places I have named the cause of malaria is patent enough and so is the remedy ; for behind or around their walls lie festering in the sun filthy deposits of mud and sewage, half sea and half marsh, that exhale deadly mists at sunrise and sunset to which no stranger can expose himself with impunity, and of which the effect may be seen in the ghastly com- plexions and lack-lustre eyes of the natives. The absence of running water lends another element of strangeness to the landscape. There are some few rivers of considerable size, and after rain there are mischievous torrents that wash away the scanty soil and run dry in a few hours, but there are no brooks or springs, and most of the never been satisfactorily accounted for. Vid. Reclus, Nouvelle Geographic Univ. vol. iii. p. 216, &c. 200 Dalmatia : Agriculture. [Ch. II. people have no water to drink but such as falls from the skies and is collected in cisterns. The limestone rock of which the country is composed, honeycombed with chasms and fissures, swallows up the rainfall, and streams plunge into Kara^oOpa as they do in Greece, continuing underground for many miles and bursting forth again into daylight at a great distance off with the volume of a full-grown river. From so unpromising a soil it might seem hopeless to expect much return, and yet Dalmatia is literally a land of oil and wine. The oil may be compared favourably with that of Lucca, and however poorly the traveller may fare otherwise he will never have reason to complain of the wine. An immense quantity is exported annually from Spalato and elsewhere into France, and Englishmen would be surprised to learn how much Dalmatian wine they have drunk under the name of claret since the partial failure of the Bordeaux vintage. When the results achieved by Dalmatian farmers with their present appliances are considered, there seems no reason to doubt the capabilities of the soil under better conditions, for their plough is a simjDler in- strument than that described by Virgil, and pro- bably the same as that employed by the ancient Illyrians in the time of king Agron before the Romans first crossed the Adriatic ^. In the maritime cities of the mainland, and on most of the islands the traveller may well imagine himself in Italy ; for the language, architecture, ^ Vid. illustration, Fig. 17, in ch. vi. Ch. II.] The Dalmatians: Latin and Slav. 201 manners and dress of the citizens are the same as on the other side of the Adriatic, It is not among the Latins that he will find anything of that brilliant and picturesque costume for which Dal- matia is famous. It is the Slav who arrays himself in broidered garments and blazes with silver and gilded ornaments, and preserves in his attune the magiiificence and bizarrerie of the middle ao^es. In some parts of South Dalmatia, especially on the bocche di Cattaro, the national costume is worn by aU classes just as it is in Montenegro where the Prince and Princess and their family wear it habitually ; and in some parts of Northern Dal- matia, on the island of Pago for instance, the fashion has set in for the upper classes to give up the dress of the ' borghese ' and wear the national garb, which in point of appearance certainly carries the day over the humdrum coat waistcoat and trousers of Western Europe. Interesting costume, however, is confined to the mainland and to the country districts, except on market days when the country folk come into the towns to sell their poultry, eggs, and other farm produce, and make their purchases of necessaries or finery in the gay little shops that line the narrow streets. On the islands there is little or no costume to be seen, for though, mth the exception of Veglia Ossero and Arbe, they were repeopled by Slavs, and have no Latin descent to boast of, their long subjection to Venice and the sea-faring life led by most of their male population, Avhich brings them into constant 202 The Dalmatians : Latin and Slav. [Ch. ii. contact with Italy, has pretty thoroughly Italianized them in manner, costume, and language^. Of aU the towns in Dalmatia none will make the visitor fancy himself in Italy more completely than Lesina, a place which was entirely repeopled by Slavs who occupied the deserted site of an ancient Greek colony, but which, nevertheless, seems less Slavonic than many towns of Latin origin. Of all the Dalmatians the islanders have the reputation of being the most intelligent, industrious, and pro- sperous, and the standard of civilization is certainly higher among them than among the peasantry of the mainland. One never sees on the islands the rags and dirt that are common among the Morlacchi of the interior ; on the contrary, there is a general air of comfort and respectability, and though no doubt poverty exists there as it does everywhere, it does not seem to exist in an extreme form. Though the soil is probably worse on the islands than on the continent it is better cultivated, and the people have the sea to help them to a livelihood as well as the land. Many of the islands have a considerable trade in ship-building ; Curzola is unrivalled in the make of small craft, while at Lussin-piccolo large vessels of 1200 or 1300 tons are constructed, and indeed in the number and tonnage of the ships launched annually from her yards Lussino is inferior to Trieste and Fiume alone among the ports of Austro-Hungary. ^ In the remoter villages and districts of the islands, however, we found Italian was only understood by the men, and not by all of them. Ch. II.] The Dalmatians : Latin and Slav. 203 As one turns one's back on the sea-coast and advances into the interior towards the old Turkish frontier, both country and people become ruder and less cultivated. In the few miserable towns of in- land Dalmatia there are no doubt a certain number of residents of a better class, ' impiegati ' and others, among whom the traveller will find accomplished and highly educated gentlemen, but they seem lost amid the semi-barbarism that surrounds them. The huts in which the Morlacchi live are the same as those described by Fortis; the women are strange half-savage looking creatures, with elf locks hanging over their weather-beaten faces, dressed in thick embroidered leggings that give them the appearance of Indian squaws, and among the men are to be seen rags and tatters, and sometimes half-naked figures with nothing but a blanket to shield them from the weather as they tend their flocks on the bleak highland moors. Yet, poor as they are, most of them appear on festival days with silver coins beads and buttons hung so thickly over their wretched rags that as they journey on their little asses or ponies over the mountains to the fair, they blaze in the sunshine like a troop of cuirassiers. The contrast between this idle wealth and the misery of the tatters below serves but to give a deeper tinge to their barbarism. The architecture of Dalmatia has so much in it that is peculiar and distinctive that it is entitled to rank as a style by itself among the various national 204 Dalmatian Architecture, [Ch. II. styles of mediaeval Europe. It is entirely urban, and confined to the maritime cities, for the sea has in all ages been the parent of Dalmatian civilization ; the history of the country is in fact the history of the maritmie towns, and it was in them alone that art and letters found a congenial soil and took root. The Slavonic conquerors came in as barbarians with everything to learn and nothing to teach ; they gradually received the religion and in a rude way unitated the art of the Byzantine Empire to which they paid a nominal subjection, but they never developed an art of their own, and the silver- smith's work which has been produced in purely Slavonic districts in modern times is but little re- moved from the Byzantine art of the eighth and ninth century \ The Dalmatians of the maritime cities on the contrary were brought into contact with the nations of western Europe, and above all with Italy, and though their architecture bears traces of Byzantine influence as late as the twelfth century, they developed after that period a native art of their own, and have left us a series of architectural monuments not inferior in interest to those of any country of Europe. Their style is principally based on that of Italy — it is only natural that it should be so — but nevertheless it has about it something dis- tinctive that is not altogether Italian, shewing that the Dalmatians were not mere coj)yists. Something there is about it that reminds one of Northern ^ E. g. tlie silver i^late in tlie convent of Savina ; vicl. infra, ch. xxiii. Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 205 Gothic, which may be due to the influence of Hun- garian rule, for though the Hungarians were not an artistic people themselves they employed artists from France and Germany, and some masters of those nations may have followed the track of Hun- garian conquest in Dalmatia. It is said that among the various ' maestri ' whom the Dalmatian cities or the various confraternities of artizans from time to time invited from other countries, the painters carvers masons and master architects were com- monly brought from Hungary and Austria ^ Other elements there are that may be traced to the in- fluence of Slav or Albanian ; for though the Slav developed no art of his own, he no sooner came down to the coast and mixed with the Latins either as a settler within their walls, or by imitating, as at Sebenico, their municipal constitutions, and gaining for his Croatian city admission to the Dalmatian pale, than he shewed a capacity for art which proved his backwardness to be due only to the want of good example. Many of the Dalmatian artists whose names have come down to us seem by their names to have been Slavs, and others were Albanians, of that still more ancient stock in which it is supposed the old lUy- ^ ' I salariati {maestri) sono per lo piu cliiamati cV Italia ; i notari perb, i trombettieri eel i musici assai piu spesso d'Ungheria, 6 qualclie volta anche dalle provincie dell' Austria ceutrale. I doratori, i fabbro-ferrai, i pittori e gli intagliatori dall' Ungheria, 8 dall' Austria, donde s' ebbero anclie degli scalpellini e dei maestri arcbitetti.' Le Confraternite laicbe in Dalmazia, p. 25. G. Gelcich. Eagusa, 1885. 2o6 Dalmatian Architecture. [Ch.ii. rian race survives. Of these the work of the Albanian is the most singular ; that of the Slav is fresh and vigorous but not especially character- istic, his talent being for adopting and imitating rather than for originating ; that of the Northerner, be he Hungarian, Teuton or Gaul, is tempered by southern influences till only a faint flavour of pe- culiarity remains ; and the work of one and all is practically based on that of Italy, the country to which the Dalmatian cities looked ever for support and instruction, and from which they often invited artists to come among them as they did their podesta or then- schoolmaster even during the period of Hungarian dominion. The history of Dalmatian architecture is an epitome of that of southern Europe. In the palace of Diocletian at Spalato we have one of the earliest, perhaps the earliest, step towards that new depar- ture in architecture which resulted in the devel- opment of the styles of modern Europe. Here we see the first relaxation of the strict rules of ancient classic art ; the proportions of the different members of the order are varied and arbitrary ; some members are omitted entirely ; new forms of orna- ment, such as the zigzag, which was to play so large a part in Norman architecture, make their first appearance ; and the arches are made to spring immediately from the capitals without an inter- vening entablature. Other irregularities occur in this building which shew the decline of the age towards barbarism, and for perhaps the first time in Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 207 classic architecture columns and fragments of older buildings are adapted and used up second-hand in the new one^ It is impossible to overrate the interest of this building to the student either of ancient or modern art. To the one it will be the last effort of the dying art of antiquity, still ma- jestic in its proportions, still dwarfing into insig- nificance by its huge masonry the puny works of later ages, which are already crumbling into ruin while it seems destined to stand for eternity, but at the same time fallen from the perfection of the classic age, and stamped with the seal of returning barbarism. To the other it will seem the new birth of that rational and unconventional mode of build- ing in which the restless and eager spuit of the regenerated and repeopled Roman world has found free scope for its fancy and invention ; which places fitness before abstract beauty, delights to find harmony in variety, and recognizes grace in more than one code of proportions. Both will be right ; the jDalace of Spalato marks the era when the old art died in giving birth to the new. The date of Diocletian's building is from 284 to 305. Of the architecture of the next five cen- turies Dalmatia has not a smgle perfect example remaining. In Istria and Friuli, however, the continuity of examples is better preserved, the irruptions of the barbarians having been less dis- astrously destructive there than on the eastern side of ^ This seems to me obviously the case ; I do not know whether it has been observed before. Vid. infra, ch. xi. 2o8 Dalmatian Architecture. [Ch. ii. the Adriatic. At Parenzo still stands the magnificent basilica of Euphrasius, built between 535 and 543. At Grado the duomo of Elias was completed be- tween 571 and 586, and we may still admu-e the wondrous pavements and grieve over the shattered capitals of the original building. The magnificent basilica of S. Maria di Canneto at Pola has un- happily disappeared, and its rich columns of marble and oriental alabaster must be looked for at Venice, but at Trieste there are still some remains of early Byzantine architecture in the apse of the church of S. Giusto. It is a wide bound from the architecture of Spal- ato to that of these examples, so wide indeed that in the interval a new art had time to arise and perfect itself The church of Euphrasius is a specimen of the Byzantine style at its best. Classic tradition survives in the basilican plan, the long drawn ranks of serried marble columns, and in the horizontal direction of the leading lines. But the capitals with their crisply raffled foliage, emphasized by dark holes pierced with a drill which recall the fragility and brilliancy of the shell of the sea echinus, belong to a new school of sculpture, and the massive basket capitals which are found among them, as well as the second capital or impost block which surmounts them all, were novelties in architecture at the time of their erection. These buildings belong to the best school of Byzantine art, and were erected at the same period as those at Ravenna and Constantinople, Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 209 which they resemble in every detail ; and in the church of Parenzo especially one might imagine oneself in the ancient capital of the exarchs. Dalmatia, as I have said, has nothing to shew that belongs to this period. There must have been buildings in this style of equal importance with those just mentioned, and the half-excavated basilica of Salona seems to have been worthy to rank with those of Istria and the lagunes. But in the seventh century the province was swept by barbarian hordes, the cities were depopulated and laid in ruin, and when the trembling Latins ventured once more to return and inhabit their desolated homes they found their ancient monuments prostrate, and had to reconstruct them little by little as well as their poverty and weakness enabled them. The series of Dalmatian examples begins at the opening of the ninth century with a remarkable class of buildings of which the church of S. Donate at Zai^a is the most important. From Parenzo and Grado to S. Donato is a wider bound than the last, and the change is proportionately greater. We find ourselves now landed in a much ruder age ; the traditions not only of good architectural design but even of good building construction are for- gotten ; the buildings are generally small and the masonry of the roughest. It was beyond the humble powers of the builder to make capitals or columns for hunself, and his only resource was to pilfer them from the surrounding ruins of which there was then no lack. The columns were used VOL. I. P 2IO Dalmatian Architecture. [Ch. ii. just as they came to hand ; some were longer and some thicker than the others, and they were crowned with capitals that never belonged to them, and were often much too small to fit them. If the supply of caj)itals ran short a fragment of a cornice or a moulded base upside down was made to serve instead, and in at least one instance the architect has not hesitated to place the square capital of an ancient pilaster upon a cylindi^cal column, with the sublimest indifference to the grotesqueness of the effect. In the plan of their churches and such simple bits of original detail as the builders of the period trusted themselves to execute we find the influence of Byzantine art still governing them. The Eastern Empire was still nominally supreme in Dalmatia, and remained so till the twelfth century ; from time to time its power was still felt in the Adriatic, and Venice herself at this period professed submission to the ' King of the Romans,' and borrowed her art from Constantinople. In a rude way and generally on a miniature scale the two classes of Byzantine churches, the domed church and the basilica, are represented in the buildings of Dalmatia erected during the remainder of the Byzantine period from the ninth to the twelfth century. Of the basilican type are the churches of S. Pietro vecchio S. Lor- enzo and S. Domenica at Zara, S. Barbara at Trati, S. Stefano and S. Giacomo in Feline at Ragusa, to which may be added that of Muggia vecchia near Trieste. The churches at Ragusa consist of simple Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 211 naves ; S. Pietro vecchio at Zara has the peculiarity of a double nave divided by a central arcade ; and the others have a nave with two side aisles. They are generally covered with waggon vaults strength- ened by flat ribs of stone at each column, and the vaults are finished with a semidome at the east end. The ground plan, nevertheless, is not apsidal but square, and the corners are filled up at the springing level of the semidome with little squinches which bring the square plan to a semicircle from which the semidome rises. This is a peculiarity I have observed in no other country, and the Dal- matians were so fond of it that the aisles of S. Lorenzo at Zara are vaulted with a succession of semidomes constructed in this way facing side- ways to the central nave. The largest basilican church (i/ao? SpojULCKos) of this period of which any traces remain in Dalmatia is the duomo of Zara, S. Anastasia, which is described by Porphyrogenitus as decorated with painting and paved with mosaic, and constructed with columns of white marble and cipoUino, which were no doubt the spoils of ancient buildings. If, as seems likely, the apse and the eastern part of the cryj)t of the present duomo are parts of this basilica, and have survived the re- building of the greater part in the thirteenth century, the older church probably dated from the ninth or tenth century, for the work is too rude to be attributed to the palmy days of Byzantine art in the sixth or seventh. Other examples of basilicas of this period are to be seen in Istria, at p 2 212 Dalmatian Architechire. [Ch. II. S. Lorenzo in Pasenatico, and in the duomo of Trieste. Of domed churches there are several varieties. At Nona the churches of S. Nicolo and S. Croce are small cruciform buildings, barrel vaulted, apsidal, and with a central cupola rudely carried on pen- dentives, the invention of which feature is the crowning triumph of Byzantine art, and the middle of the church is carried up so as to form a kind of central tower which conceals the exterior of the cupola. The size of these buildings is generally insignificant ; S. Croce was the cathedi-al of Nona, but its dome is only about eight feet in diameter, and each arm of the cross is only about eight feet long. At Cattaro the two churches of S. Maria and S. Luca, which though rebuilt in later times probably retain their original plan, have cupolas rising from the centre of an elongated nave which finishes with an eastern apse. The ancient baptistery of Zara and the churches of S. Trinita at Spalato, and S. Orsola at Zara of which only the foundation exists, are still more curious in plan; they consist of a circular central space or nave covered with a cupola, which is sur- rounded by six apses applied to the external drum, and opening to the central space by round arches. At S. Orsola one of these apses is interrupted to form a short nave ending with a campanile. I cannot but think that the singular plan of these churches is derived from that of the duomo of Spalato, and affords one instance among many of the influence ex- Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 213 ercised on Dalmatian art from first to last by the buildings of Diocletian's palace. The baptistery at Zara is polygonal externally like the temple, from which it differs only by being hexagonal instead of octagonal, and havmg all the niches round instead of round and square alternately (comp. Figs, i and 29). Of the date of these buildings all that can be said with certainty is that they were built at some time between the year 800 and the year 1 1 00. Dming this long period architecture stood still here as it did pretty well throughout all Europe. Some of the buildings are ruder than the rest and contain no original details, and these may be attributed to the earlier part of this dark period ; to this class S. Pietro vecchio may certainly be joined. Others contain not only fragments from old Roman build- ings, but also capitals and cornices carved originally for their place, the first thnid efforts of native Dal- matian art, and these may safely be placed towards the end of the period ; of this class S. Domenica at Zara is the best example. But it would be dan- gerous to attempt to fix the date of each building more precisely. Fortunately the finest church of this period that has descended to us is also the one about whose date there is least doubt. The grand round church of S. Donato at Zara was undoubtedly built about the year 810 by Donato bishop of Zara, and in its rugged sunplicity and elephan- tine proportions it supplies an admirable illustra- tion both of the rudeness and the promise of 214 Dalmatian ArchitecHire. [Ch. ii. that age. It will be fully described in the next chapter. With the opening of the twelfth century new political factors began to operate in Dalmatia; the last tie which bound that country to Byzantium was severed, Venice and Hungary were left to con- tend for possession of it, and its architecture was for the future based on the styles of Italy or Ger- many instead of that of Constantinople. Venetian art, it is true, still continued to cling to Byzantine ex- ample, but it was Byzantine with a difference, while the art of France and Germany which had been adopted by the Hungarians, and that of Lombardy also, belonged to the other branch of round-arched architecture, the Romanesque. The influence of Venice was predominant at Bagusa and in the islands, where her j)ossession was seldom disturbed during the twelfth, thu^teenth, and first half of the fourteenth centuries, and it is in precisely those parts of the province that the impress of Byzantine feeling remained longest, though even there Bomanesque details began from an early date to make their way. The transition from pure Byzantine work towards the round-arched styles of Lombardy or Germany, m other words from the eastern to the western form of Bomanesque architecture, may be observed in the interesting church of S. Giovanni Battista at Arbe. There we have the old basilican nave and aisles with closely set columns and with the impost block or second capital above the first, but the apse with its semi-circular ambulatory, and the narrow arches Examples of Early Dalmatian Work Plate r Ft'e- "i- Nona . SG'oce. TG.J. ^truffaeAC Phcto-htno London Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 215 opening into it, with their coarsely carved capitals, have nothing about them that can be referred to the art of Constantinople, and remind one rather of the Komanesque art of France or England. In Plate I. I have collected a number of examples to illustrate the progress of Dalmatian art from the end of the seventh century to the end of the twelfth. The panel from Ragusa, Fig. i, has a thoroughly Byzantine character, which disapj)ears gradually in the succeeding examples, though there are traces of it in Fig. 7, which is probably coeval with Fig. 9, and if so dates from 1 180-1 190. Of the part played by Hungary in the modifica- tion of Dalmatian art it is difficult to speak very precisely. At the tune of their first coming into the country the Hungarians were a much ruder people than the Dahnatians of the cities, among whom the arts and letters had already beg-un to re- cover themselves : they were perhaps even ruder than the Croatians, living as they did in huts in winter and tents in summer, and possessing scarcely any buildings of more durable materials^. To the Latin races the Hungarians seemed barbarians down to a much later day : their unpolished manners and overbearing conduct, their drunkenness and ' harhari costumi made them odious to the Neapolitans of the fourteenth century 2. On the capital of the ^ Yid. supra, p. 40, the account of Otto Frisingensis who describes the Hungarians of his own day, c. 11 56-8, half a century' after their arrival in Dalmatia. "^ Vid. supra, p. 99 note, extract from letter by Petrarch. 2i6 Dalmatiaii Architeciure. [Ch. il. ducal palace at Venice, of which the jDoles are occupied by the Greek and Latin, the Hungarian figures vrith. his tall cap and untrimmed locks among Turks Tartars Goths Egyptians and Persians ; and to the Ragusan Ludovico Tubero, writing about the year 1500, the Hungarians are still a Scythian race, to whose overbearing pretensions it is safer to oppose a bold front than to make concessions \ Such a people as the Hungarians were at the time of their conquest of Dalmatia in 1102 were not likely to bring with them new artistic ideas to influence the art of a people who were superior to themselves in the arts of civilized life : and though their luxury and extravagant living of which we hear in the middle of the thirteenth century ^ may imply some advance towards refinement of manners, we find them after their country had been desolated by the Tartars dependent on artists from France and Germany for the reconstruction of their principal buildings. Villars de Honnecourt, architect of the cathedi^l of Cambrai, was in Hungary directly after the retreat of the Tartars, and is supposed to have built the cathedrals of Gran and Kaschau and the church of S. Elizabeth at Marburg^. French in- ' ' Quandoquidem Hungaris tutius est vel pervicaciter obluctari quam eorum cedere coutumaciae. Quoniam naturae ut plerique Scjiiharum magis ferocis quam fortis animi sunt.' Lud. Cervarius. Tubero, vol. i. p. 180. ^ Thomas Archid. vid. supra, p. 65. ' He tells us on one leaf of his sketch-book, 'when I was drawing this, I was sent for into Hungary, and therefore I like it all the better;' and on another page containing a sketch of Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 217 fluence may be detected in several other churches of Hungary, and the west portal, as well as sundry details of the, curious church of Jak, has a look of French design about it. Elsewhere throughout Hungary the influence of German Romanesque is plainly seen in the earlier architecture, and that of German Gothic in the later, and it is difficult to trace any of the artistic ideas of Hungarian archi- tecture to a distinctly Hungarian source ^ But, if the Hungarians were not an artistic people themselves, they gave abundant employment to artists from other countries, and it is probably to the influence of these foreigners, from whatever country they came, that the peculiarities of Dalma- tian architecture should be attributed when they cannot be traced to Italian sources. One pecu- liarity, however, must be accounted for by the con- ditions and sentiment of the Dalmatians themselves, and that is their persistence in the Romanesque style long after it had passed into Gothic in most parts of Europe. In France and England round- arched gave way to pointed architecture at the end of the twelfth century ; in Germany the new ideas took root more slowly, but Gothic architecture a pavement, lie says, *I was once in Hungary, and remained there many a day. There I saw a church pavement made in such a manner as this.' Sketch Book of Villars de Honnecourt, plates 19, 29, &c. ^ Elaborate drawings of several Hungarian churches may be seen in the Mittelalteliche Kunstdenkmale des Osten-eichischen Kaiserstaates, by Heider, Eitelberger, and Hieser. Stuttgardt, 1858. As to Hungarian architecture vid. chapter xiv, infra. 2i8 Dalmatian Architecture. [Ch. ii. began to supersede Romanesque about 1 230 or 1 240 ; in Italy churches arose between 1220 and 1300 at Assisi, Venice, Verona, Siena, Orvieto, and Florence, in which Italian Gothic reached its fullest develop- ment ; but in Dalmatia we find the people con- tentedly working on at Romanesque architecture through the whole of the thirteenth and well into the fourteenth century before any signs of transition to the pointed style begin to manifest themselves. This singular unchangeableness may be due to several causes, among which it is natural to place first the backwardness of a remote and poor country, hemmed in on one side by semi-barbarous kingdoms, and subject to distant powers, which, whether Vene- tian or Hungarian, never showed any disposition to encourage and promote the well-being of the pro- vincials for their own sake. Something also may be put down to the influence of Italy, a country in which the round arch was never entirely abandoned, especially in the brick buildings of Lombardy. Nearly half a century after the Gothic west front of Siena was completed the campanile of St. Got- tardo at Milan was erected in a round-arched style, diflering but little from the earlier Romanesque. But the principal reason was no doubt the actual preference of the Dalmatians for the earlier style, and the influence which never failed to impress them of Diocletian's mighty building at Spalato. Down to the last they built their doorways with the straight lintel below a semicircular arch and tympanum, of which the Porta Aurea and the Porta Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 219 Ferrea furnished the prototypes, and they never tired of imitating with various alterations and modifications the round waggon roof of the temple of ^sculapius. From this it may be gathered how difficult it is to gTiess with anything like certainty the date of any Romanesque buildmg in Dalmatia, and how largely the evidence of the building itself, which in other countries is a better guide even than docu- mentary evidence, requires in this to be fortified and confirmed by records. Fortunately Dalmatian architects have been tolerably liberal in the matter of inscriptions and shields with armorial bearings ; and as the heraldry of the country has been well studied and illustrated, a clue is often obtained in that way to a date which is surprisingly different from what the building itself would have suggested : but even this is sometimes wanting, and nothing but vague traditions exist to help the puzzled anti- quary out of his difficulties. The Romanesque architecture of Dalmatia bursts suddenly into life with the splendid campanile and chapter-house of the convent of S. Maria at Zara, the work of King Coloman and his repudiated wife the abbess Vekenega between 1 102 and mi. They correspond in style with the contemporary Roman- esque of Lombardy and Germany. The church of S. Grisogono at Zara, which, though its date is disputed, seems to belong to the latter part of this century and to have been consecrated in 11 75, is a very refined and highly finished piece of Lombard 2 20 Dalmatian Architecture. [Ch.ii. architecture resembling the churches at Lucca. At the end of the twelfth century we have the magni- ficent campanile of Arbe, with the three other steeples its satellites in the same style, a triumph of Romanesque architecture. Contemporary with this are the duomo and other buildings at Veglia, in which Byzantine feeling is still perceptible. The duomo of Zara, which belongs to the thirteenth century, has an archaic look that would mislead the unwary to attribute it to the eleventh or twelfth ; and the cathedral of Trail, with its superb portals and sombre nave, which was building at the same time as that of Zara, is round-arched and Roman- esque, though in beauty of design and technical merit it does not lag behind the Gothic work of its age. I shall have occasion to point out the corre- spondence of this building with examples of archi- tecture in Hungary (vid. chapter xiv). The great work of the fourteenth century is the campanile of Spalato, which was begun probably soon after 1300, and was not finished when the century expired, the work having been interrupted for a long time after the death of Maria of Hungary, the widow of Charles II of Naples. This wonderful tower, begun some thirty years later than the angel choir at Lincoln, and barely finished before Brunel- leschi started upon his dome at Florence, is through- out of good honest Romanesque work that might have been put together in the twelfth century, with columns carried on the backs of lions, Corinthianiz- ing capitals, billet moulds, and acanthus foliage, as Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture, 221 if the architect had never heard of any other style. It is remarkable also how many of the ornamental details are copied from those of Diocletian's work, in the midst of which the tower stands. Contemporaneously with this round-arched work the pointed arch begins to appear occasionally ^ and with the beginning of the fifteenth century came the final Venetian occupation of Dalmatia, and Roman- esque architecture finally melted away and made room for the contemporary art of the mistress city. The upper central parts of the fronts of the duomo and S. Grisogono at Zara are probably the latest instances of the expiring round-arched style, which actually prolonged its existence into the fifteenth century, when on the other side of the Adriatic the Italian Kenaissance had fairly set in, and round-arched architecture had once more come into fashion. Venice, however, did not accept the Re- naissance so soon as central Italy, and the archi- tecture which she brought with her into Dalmatia was that form of Gothic which she had in- vented and refined, and which as a domestic style has never been surpassed. The streets of every Dalmatian town on the sea-board or islands are filled with the same graceful semi-oriental ogee windows and the same lovely balconies that meet the eye at every turn in the mistress city, the churches are fitted with rich tabernacle work that ^ It should be observed that the earliest buildings in Dalmatia in which the Gothic style was thoroughly developed are the con- vents of the mendicant orders. 222 Dalmatian Architecture. [Ch .ii, recalls the choir of the great church of the Frari, and it does not need the ever-present symbol of the Evangelist to remind us that we are treading the soil of an ancient Venetian province. It is, how- ever, chiefly in private buildings that Gothic archi- tecture prevailed in Dalmatia ; besides the earlier part of the duomo of Sebenico (1430) there are but few churches in that style, and the most important public building is the palace of the Kectors of the Bepublic of Ragusa, which was begun in 1435 ^7 ^ Neapolitan and not a Venetian architect. The sculpture in this palace is of a very high order, and will be fully described and illustrated in its proper place. Gothic architecture, however, had but a short reign in Dalmatia ; it was adopted very late, and abandoned very early for the Renaissance, a style for which the Dalmatians showed a natural and almost precocious liking. Its introduction is due to Giorgio Orsini, or Giorgio Dalmatico as his ad- miring countrymen like to style him, the scion of a Zaratine family which claimed descent from the princely Roman house, and an architect of original genius who may fairly be styled the Brunelleschi of Dalmatia. In 1 44 1 he was entrusted with the completion of the duomo of Sebenico, which had been begun by another architect in a style of very good Italian Gothic. Giorgio at once threw over the plans of his predecessor, and built the eastern part of the church in a picturesque variety of the early style Ch. II.] Dalmatian ArchitecUtre. 223 of the Renaissance, which he treated with great originahty. Thorns and brambles, as he might have said, of the old Gothic art clung to him, and among his classic columns and in his windows and vaults is to be found tracery-work that belongs rather to the style he had abandoned than that he adopted. But in spite of these incongruities Giorgio has produced a masterly design, and no one who has seen his church will easily forget it. His greatest triumph was achieved by the roofs, which consist of waggon vaults of stone, visible outside as well as inside ; an idea perhaps sug- gested by the semicircular vault of the little temple at Spalato which was in the same way visible ex- ternally, but which when carried out as it is at Sebenico, on so vast a scale, at so great a height, and with such comparatively slender materials, may fairly be considered original, and cannot fail to excite surprise and admiration^. The handiwork of Giorgio will be met with else- where in Dalmatia, and notably at Kagusa, where in 1 464 he repau^ed the front of the Kector's palace, placing the round arches of the present arcade with their festoons of leaves and ribbons upon the old colonnade of Onofrio de la Cava. He was highly honoured by his fellow-citizens and entrusted by them with an embassy to Kome, and in the old quarter of Sebenico may still be seen the doorway ^ I assume here that the idea of roofing the church in this way is to be attributed to Giorgio, although he did not live to see the vaulting completed ; vid. infra, Sebenico, chapter ix. 2 24 Dalmatian Architecture. [Ch. il. of the house he built for himself, with the bear of Orsini on the lintel, and the mallet and chisel of his sculptor's craft on the door-posts surrounded by- clusters of flowers. Contemporary with Giorgio was another Dalma- tian architect, whose fame attracted the attention of one of the leading princes of Italy. In 1468 Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, set about building that palace in his capital which is one of the gems of Renaissance architecture; and having searched Italy, and in particular Tuscany ' the source of architects,' for an artist worthy of the occasion, he finally selected Messer Lutiano of Lau- rana or Vrana, in the territory of Zara, to whom the work was entrusted and by whom the oldest remaining part of the palace was designed and erected. I am not cognizant of any work by Lu- ciano di Laurana in his native country. He settled at Urbino and died at Pesaro about 1481^ When we observe that Giorgio's ' Benaissance ' work at Sebenico in 1441 preceded that of Leo Bat- tista Alberti at Bimini by nine years, and was contem- porary with the Gothic Porta della Carta at Venice, we shaU be struck with the willing reception of the new art in Dalmatia, and with the prominent posi- tion to which Giorgio is entitled as a leader of the new movement. The early Benaissance work of Pietro Lombardo on the Chiesa dei Miracoli at Venice is forty years later, and the Cancelleria at Borne, which marks the turning-point of the Be- ^ Vid. infra, under descriptio.n of Vrana, chapter viii. Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 225 naissance from its semi-Gothic to its purely classic phase, was not built till sixty years afterwards in 1 500. In France the Renaissance did not begin to affect the current Gothic art till about 1508, nor in England till about 1520, while the castle of Heidelberg, in the Renaissance style of Germany, was not built till 1556. Once established in Dalmatia the new style soon prevailed over the older Gothic art for all buildings of importance, though it would seem that private houses were still built in Venetian Gothic. An Albanian architect, Andrea Alecxi of Durazzo, was employed at Trail Spalato and Arbe, and the names of a few Italian architects from Venice or Florence, and occasionally of a German, have come down to us. It is singular, however, that though the Dalmatians adopted the style of the Renaissance almost as soon as it appeared, they did not advance it like the Italians to pure PaUadianism. Of the cold severe formal architecture of that school Dalmatia hardly contams an example ; the pic- turesque freedom of Gothic which continued to inspu-e the earlier phases of Renaissance art, and which give it its life and charm, never forsook the style in Dalmatia till the seventeenth century was well advanced, when the art suddenly sank into the slough of the ' Barocco,' in which it was fatally en- gulphed. The following chronological list of the principal buildings in Dalmatia of which I have been able to ascertain the dates, or to conjecture them with VOL. I. Q 226 Dalmatian A rchitecture. [Ch. it. anything like certainty, will I hope be of use to the student of the architecture of the country. I have added a few Istrian buildings to complete the regular sequence of examples. A.D. 284-305. Fourtli or fifth century. EOMAN PERIOD. Spalato. Palace of Diocletian. Salona. Basilica and Bap- tistery. Destroyed 639. Irregular classic. Old columns, &c. used up secondhand. Classic passing into Byzantine. BYZANTINE PERIOD, 535-1102. 535-543- 546. 571-586. c. do. c. do. 857- Ninth to eleventh century. Parenzo. Duomo. Pola. S. Maria di Canneto consecrated (now destroyed) . Grado. Duomo of patriarch Elias. Cattaro. Original duomo of Andreasci. Cattaro. La Collegiata (since rebuilt). Zara. S. Donato. Pola. Duomo of Handegis (since rebuilt). Zara. S. Pietro vecchio. Nona. S. Nicol6. do. S. Croce. S. Lorenzo in Pasenatico, duomo. Trieste. Duomo (southern part perhaps older). Zara. S. Lorenzo. do. Baptistery. do. S. Orsola. Spalato. S. Trinitk. Pure Byzantine as at Ravenna, do. do. do. do. do. do. but some fi-agments of old buildings used secondhand. Only fragments remain. Inter- lacing knots and barbarous animals. Original plan probably re- tained. Byzantine. Grand but rude domed church with old fragments em- ployed. Fragments remain of Byzan- tine design. Barbarous. Made up of frag- ments of older buildings. Plain and rude. In plan By- zantine. Small cruciform church with cupola. do. do. do. do. Details original.' Basilican in plan. do. do. do. do. A few original details. Byzantine. Cupola surrounded by apses. do. do. do. do. do. do. ' By this I mean that the sculpture was designed and worked originally for the biiilding, not used up secondhand from older buildings. ch. ir.] Dalmatian Architecture. 227 A.D. Ninth to eleventh, century. 1026-31. Zara. Apse and crypt of Duomo. (Eest rebuilt.) Ragusa. S. Stefano. do. S. Giacomo in Feline. Trati. S. Barbara. Zara. S. Domenica. Arbe. Baldacchino in duomo. Muggia vecchia. Arbe. S. Giovanni Battista. Aquileia. Poppo's rebuilding. Plain rude work, certain.) (Date un- do. Scale very small, do. do. do. Byzantine. More original in details, showing an advance in art. do. do. do. Byzantine. Knotwork and animal grotesques approach- ing Romanesque. Building rude. Knotwork, &c. in screens approaching Ro- manesque. Basilican nave, but Roman- esque apse and ambulatory, showing transition. Byzantine passing into Ro- manesque. Capitals finely executed. VENETIAN AND HUNGARIAN PERIOD, 1 102-1409 1 105 and Sala Capitolare Tomb of II II. do. do. Vekenega. 1 1 23-1 166. Cattaro. Duomo rebuilt. 1175. Zara. Apse and south wall of S. Grisogono 11S6-90. Veglia. Duomo. c. 1 200. Arbe. Great campanile. 1 21 3. Trail. South doorway finished and probably nave of Cathe- dral generally. 1 214. Spalato. West doors (wooden) of Duomo by Guvina. Stalls of same date and probably by the same hand. Also the marble pulpit. 1240. Trail. West portal finished by Radovan. c. 1250? Zara. Nave of Duomo (con^ secrated 1285) 1 251. I Parenzo. Canonica. 1277. do. Baldacchino in du- omo. 1287. Arbe. Duomo mostly rebuilt. Q 2 Lombard or German Roma- nesque, well designed and executed. do. do. Clustered or articulated piers alternating with columns. Romanesque, rude. Lombard Romanesque, highly finished. Byzantine passing into Roma- nesque. Romanesque, excellent work- manship. do. do. Transitional or refined Roma- nesque, highly finished. Transitional Romanesque, ex- quisitely finished. Ruder than the above. Old capitals occasionally used up. Piers and columns alter- nately. Lombard Romanesque. Arches bluntly pointed. Capi- tals Byzantine. Byzantine in character. Plain. 228 Dalmatian Architechire. [Ch. It A.D. c. 1300-23. 1306. c. 1312O) c. 1317- 1324. 1330-1385- 1332- c. 1348. I360-I4I6. 1365- 1380. 1394-95' c. 1407. 1420-50. 1422. 1427. 1430. 1435- 1437- 1438-65- 1441. Spalato. Two lower stages of campanile. Eagusa. Dominican church, do. Sponza, two lower storeys of court, do. Franciscan cloister by Mycha di Antivari. Zara west front (upper central part is still later). Trieste. Central nave of duomo. Zara. Baldacchino in duomo. Kagusa. Dominican cloister and convent. Spalato. Upper part of campa- nile by NicolS Tverdoj. Aquileia. Duomo remodelled by patriarch Marquard after earthquake. Zara. Silver ark of S. Simeone. By Trancesco di Milano. Zara. Stalls in S. Francesco. By Giov. di Borg. S. Sepolcro. Zara. Central upper parts of west fronts of duomo and S. Grisogono. Romanesque. Italian Gothic. Plain early pointed work. Transitional Romanesque. Romanesque. Italian Gothic. Pointed arches, but capitals Romanesque. Romanesque mixed with Ita- lian Gothic. Details later in character than general design. Romanesque like the lower part. Pointed arches of Italian Gothic. Venetian foliage. Poppo's capitals retained. Italian Gothic. Venetian Gothic. Romanesque, but attenuated and meagre. VENETIAN PERIOD, 1 409-1 797. Zara. Choir stalls in duomo. To the same style and period belong the stalls at Cherso Lesina, Parenzo, Mezzo, S. Maria in Zara, Trau, and Ai'be. The last-named is dated 1445. Trati. Campanile above portico byMatteoandStefano. (Top part later.) Spalato. Altar of S. Doimo by Bonino of Milan. Sebenico. Earlier part of nave with the arcades, aisle vaults, and two principal doors by Antonio di Paolo. Ragusa. Palazzo Rettorale re- built by Onofrio de la Cava. A great deal remains. Ragusa. Public fountains by Onofrio de la Cava. Curzola. Campanile. Sebenico. Eastern part, upper vaults, and cupola begun by Giorgio Orsini. Venetian Gothic, resembling that of the woodwork in the Frari at Venice. Good Italian Gothic, well- moulded and elaborated. Italian Gothic of excellent workmanship. Fine Italian Gothic. Giottesque in character. Fine Italian Gothic. Sculp- ture of a very high order. Round arched below. Elabo- rate Gothic belvedere above. Renaissance of an early type, but mixed with Gothic details. Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 229 A. D. 1447. 1448. 1452. 1457- 1460. 1464. 1465-98. 1467. 1468. 1477- 1490. 1520-36. 1543- c. 1540-50. 1571-4- 1600. 1643-59. 1642-59 1667. 1671-1713. 1699-1715. 1715- Trail. Sacristy. Spalato duomo. Altar of S. Auastasio by Giorgio Orsini. Sebenico. Sacristy by Giorgio Orsini. Eagusa. Chiesa delle Dan6e. Zara. Silver pastoral staflf of archbishop Valeresso. Eagusa. New arches to front of Rector's palace by Mi- chelozzo and Giorgio Orsini. Ossero. New duomo (? by Giorg. Orsini). Trail. Baptistery by Andrea Alecxi of Durazzo. Trail. Chapel of S. Giovanni Ursini by Andrea Alecxi. Curzola. Cloister of Badia. Arbe. Duomo, west door. Ragusa. San Salvatore. Zara. Porta di Terra firma by Sammichieli. Lesina. Loggia by Sammi- chieli. Lesina. Three campanili and restoration of churches. Zara. Facade (unfinished) of S. Rocco. Savina. Church plate in Greek convent, brought from Bos- nia. Ragusa. Cattaro. Ragusa. do. do. Chiesa del Rosario. Western towers. New duomo. Chiesa dei Gesuiti. S. Biagio. Italian Gothic. Italian Gothic, but Giorgio was directed to make the altar like that of S. Doimo, V. sup. 1427. Renaissance of an early type. Italian Gothic, do. do. Renaissance of an early type. Renaissance of an early type. Renaissance. Early in cha- racter with 'pointed barrel vault. Renaissance. With round vault, rich in figure sculp- ture. Venetian Gothic, passing into Renaissance. Renaissance. do., but mixed with Gothic features. Classic renaissance fully de- veloped. do. do. but treated with freedom. Renaissance, but mixed with some Gothic features. Classic fully developed. Byzantine ; resembling but for a few suspicious details the work of the sixth or seventh century. Barocco. do. do. do. do. CHAPTER III. Zara. Description of the city. History. Eoman remains. Zara is naturally the place where the traveller will first touch Dalmatian soil, and first be intro- duced to the people, the scenery, and the arts of South-Eastern Europe. Though it may be reached either from Ancona or Fiume the more usual route is by way of Trieste and Pola, and the exigencies of the time-table generally bring the steamer into port early in the morning, so that the traveller begins his new experiences just as the day is breaking and the sleeping city awaking to fresh life. And no lack of new experiences will be felt by those who have never before crossed the Adriatic and trodden the border lands of European civilization. It excites a thrill of interest to find oneself for the first time within reach of the Turk, at whose dread coming four centuries ago Christendom trembled, kingdoms fell, and the last fragment of the Roman Empire crumbled into ruin. Though driven out of Dal- matia he has left his mark on many a ruined castle and half-deserted town ; and as the steamer ploughs Ch. III.] Zara, 231 her way in the morning stillness along the Canale di Zara, and the dawn brightens over the jagged crests of the Velebic mountains, the thought rises that behind that rugged barrier is the land where the Turk still bears rule in name, and where it was but yesterday that the despised Christian obtained equal rights with his Moslem conqueror. The Turk it is true will not often be met with in Dalmatia now-a-days, but a stranger will find enough in the Christian population to surprise and perplex him. The first sounds of the Illyi'ic tongue, the first glimpse of the gorgeous costume of those who speak it, the appearance of the Eastern form of Christianity on an equality with the Latin branch, and in southern Dalmatia almost on a superior footing, tell hun of a very different land from the well-known countries of western Europe. He will wonder at the extremes of civilization he encounters, ranging from high culture to something lower than semi-barbarism ; and, above all, he will be per- plexed by the existence, unaccountable to those who have not studied Dalmatian history, of the two elements in the jDopulation, — Latin and Slavonic, — which for twelve centuries have lived on side by side without losing their difference, and which are now forced more sharply asunder than ever by the policy of the present rulers of the country. It was with the pleasant sensation of having realized a day-dream of many years that I woke one morning to find myself steaming down the Canale di Zara, a channel perhaps three miles wide, with the 2'?2 Zara. [Ch. hi. low irregular coast of the mainland backed up in the distance by the Velebic mountains on the left hand, and the mountainous island of Ugliano on the right. Straight before us lay Zara, where we were to make our first acquaintance with a Dalmatian to^vn, and our curiosity was I confess mixed T\T.th some anxiety as to the sort of accommodation we should find ; for there are no Dalmatian guide-books, and the reports that had vaguely reached us of Dalmatian inns were not encouragfino;. Zara makes little show from a distance, and, before we well knew we were there, we were entering the historic harbour where the French and Venetians landed after the galleys of St. Mark had burst the chain that closed the entrance. We saw nothing indeed of the mighty walls whose strength made the crusaders wonder at their own success, for they were long ago removed to make way for the more modern fortifications of the Vene- tian engineer Sammichieli, and these in their turn have on the sea front of the town been demolished to form the handsome promenade of the Riva nuova, much to the advantage of the city in point of airiness. Toward the harbour however the bastions and curtains of Sammichieli remain standing, with a wide quay, at which the steamers are able to lie close to the shore in deep water. We entered the town by the Porta San Grisogono, above which the Lion of St. Mark still keeps guard, though the town is his to guard no longer. The streets along which we followed our porters were narrow and smoothly flagged for foot traffic like Ch. III.] Zara. 233 those at Venice, and might very well have been on the island of the Rialto ; a church we passed was in the familiar Romanesque style of Italy; and many a window met the eye with the well-known ogee arch and billet moulding of Venetian architecture. At first sight the town itself is thoroughly Italian, and one is inclined to be disappointed to find so little novelty m it ; but the crowds that throng the busy little streets are strange enough to Western eyes and soon bring home the fact that the Adriatic lies between Zara and the shores of Italy. The native Zaratini to be sure are Italian in language, garb, and habits, but the country people of whom the to^^Ti was full when we first saw it, just at vintage-time, show plainly in all three particulars that they belong to a different race, which has not yet lost the pictu- resqueness of the Middle Ages in the humdrum of the nineteenth century. The splendour of their em- broidered garments, and the wealth of silver orna- ments and coins displayed on their persons, may perhaps smack slightly of semi-barbarism, but they are not the less interesting on that account to those who like to see civilization in the making ; and though the native Dalmatians of the Latin stock object to these gay costumes being considered national, a foreigner may enjoy their picturesqueness, in which point it must be admitted the advantage is aU on the side of the Croatians. The men wear trousers of blue cloth gaily worked at the pockets, tight to the leg and often fastened up the back of the calf by a row of silver hooks and eyes ; and they 2 34 Zava. [Ch. hi. are shod with the opanka, a kmd of sandal well adapted to the sharp rocks they have to encounter, made of a sole of thick leather turned up and stitched to form a toe, and laced over the instep with knotted and twisted thongs of leather. In the markets and bazaars the peasants may be seen bar- gaining for the sole leathers, which are cut for them then and there from the hide and sold by weight ^. Above the opanka they wear a kind of spat of gay embroidery reaching a little above the ankle. The waistcoat is buttoned across on one side, and has a wide border of braid or needle- work, and the jacket has stripes of bright colour on the lappets, and an abundance of knots and tassels of coloured wools. The true Morlacco fashion is to have the hair plaited behind into a pigtail, and to wear the shirt outside the trousers, but this is less commonly to be seen in the towns now than formerly ^. On gala days the jacket of the true Morlacco is still more splendid, made of scarlet or blue cloth richly worked with birds and flowers in coloured threads at the seams and shoulders, in the same place as the uniform of our hussars or horse-artillerymen, which is but a ^ Wheler gives a di'awing of a Morlacco or Dalmatian peasant from which it seems that the costume has changed a good deal since 1675. But the opanka was the same then as now; '^for shoes they have only a 2>iece of Leather or sometimes of a dried Skin fitted to, and hy thongs, or strings, going crossways over the back of the feet, are tyed fast to their soles' Wheler's Journey into Greece, p. 9. ^ The ' gamins ' of Zara amuse themselves hy shouting ' izvadi kosulj'a,' ' out with your shirt,' after those gentlemen who are known to be partisans of the Croat movement. €h. III.] Zara. 235 distant and vulgarized copy of the national garb of the Slav. A jaunty and becoming little scarlet cap with a bluntly pointed crown and a tuft of black fringe over one ear completes the costume. Both jacket and waistcoat are thickly hung with silver ornaments ; zwantzigers of Maria Theresa and her husband dangling at the end of a link, buttons of filagree work or plam metal ranging from the size of a nut to that of a small hen's q^^, and smaller studs sewn thickly together and several rows deep. The women wear a smock of homespun linen fastened at the throat with a filagTee button, and embroidered in front and at the shoulders and wrists ; a waistcoat of blue cloth open in front ; a short petticoat of the same ; and an apron worked in coloured wools so solidly as to be as stiff as a piece of carpet ; and they have opankas and embroidered spats like the men, the latter often continued as leggings half way to the knee, and having the effect of trousers. The un- married girls wear a scarlet cap like that of the men, but covered with embroidery and spangles, and on festivals hung round with a fringe of pendent coins. Married women change this for a large white hand- kerchief of homespun linen beautifully worked at the corners and edg-es, which covers the head, is tied under the chin, and hangs over the back and shoulders. The women are not behind the men in the profusion of their silver ornaments, and round their waists they often wear several coils of a leather band thickly studded with bright metal knobs, and sometimes with coarse stones set in brass. They 236 Zara. [Ch. iii. wear large golden or silver gilt earrings, and on their fingers large rings of filagree, and on grand occasions their heads are thickly set with pretty filagree- headed pins. They would rather go without bread than part with their jewelry, and consequently it is not often that any of it comes into the market. Those among them who are too poor to afibrd silver ornaments have imitations of them in tin and brass, and some are reduced to deck themselves with cowrie-shells instead of studs and buttons, which they sew thickly over their ragged garments for want of something finer. Among the crowd were many figures so ragged, unkempt, and filthy, as to seem more than half-way to savagery. Zara occupies a level peninsula, slightly raised above the sea, lying parallel to the mainland, and embracing a natural harbour of deep water with its entrance towards the north-west. Sites of this kind, convenient for maritime pursuits and easily secured against attacks from the landward side, abound on the coasts of Istria and Dalmatia, and were eagerly seized upon by the early colonists. Of all the Dal- matian ports however none were found to combine so many advantages as that of Zara, and none were so jealously guarded by the Venetians or thought so necessary to the security of their marine. Cattaro, in the innermost recesses of her winding ' bocche,' was a secure haven for her friends, and difiicult of attack by her enemies, but she was inconvenient of access ; the harbour of Ragusa was small, and lay within the city walls ; that of Spalato was not safe Ch. III.] Zara. 237 diu-ing the storms of winter ; that of Trail, though both safe and spacious, would be untenable if an enemy occupied the island that enclosed it ; the magnificent haven of Sebenico was inadequately defended by fortifications ; but that of Zara, lying between the mainland and the long peninsula of the city, was capacious, though the mouth was not too large to be closed by a chain, and was nearer to Venice than the rest, more roomy than most of them, and more easily defended ^ A possession so valuable has always been strongly fortified. The Crusaders of 1202 speak with astonishment of the prodigious walls and towers that they were asked to attack-; and Lucio, who saw fragments of these de- fences, describes them as resembling the Koman walls of Spalato, and supposes that Zara was at the tune of the siege still enclosed by the curtains and bastions of Roman Jadera, which were destroyed by the Crusaders after their capture of the city ^. Of the mediaeval fortifications which succeeded to these one noble tower remains, the torre ' Bovo d' Antona ' near the public gardens, a picturesque pentagon with a salient angle towards what was once the open country but is now enclosed within the later lines. ^ Their relative advantages are thus summarised by Lucio, de Eegn. V. i. p. 240. ^ * Si virent la cit6 fermee de haus murs et de grans tours, et pour noient demandissi^s plus bele cit6 n6 plus fort : et quant li pelerin la virent si s'en esmaierent moult et distrent li uns a I'autre " Comment porroit estre tele cit6 prise, se nostre Sires meisme ne le faisoif?'" Villehardouin, ch. xliv. ' De Kegno, iv. p. 155. 238 Zara. [Ch. III. The existing fortifications were designed by Sammi- chieli, and were constructed between 1543 and 1570 when Zara was considered to be in danger from the Turks. They consist of earthworks faced with masonry, and were protected by a ditch cut across the peninsula in 1409 when the Venetians for the last time recovered the city ^ One gate alone com- municated with the terra-firma, and this gave Sam- michieli an opportunity of showing himself an archi- tect as well as an engineer. It is a grand piece of simple architecture, with a spacious central arch and two lateral doorways of rusticated Doric ; but its effect has been seriously injured by the filling up of the ditch which formerly washed the walls. The lower part, which is now hidden, was of fine masonry bevelled and raised in diamonds, forming a solid basement to the upper part, which now seems deficient in this respect. I am told by those who remember the gate in its original state that at least one third of its height is concealed. It used to be reached by a long bridge of wooden beams on stone piers which approached it obliquely, and not like the present road directly ; and it is said the archi- tectural effect has suffered by this change of ap- proach. Over the arch is the Lion of St. Mark, and an inscription records the erection of the gateway in 1543'- ^ * Isthmum, quamvis e saxo, perfodere, marique immisso Civi- tatem in Insulam redigere decreverunt.' Lucio, 1. v. c. v. p. 263. ^ Michele San Michele was born at Verona in 1484, and was much employed by the Venetians and their General the duke of ch. III.] Zara. 239 By these fortifications Zara remained enclosed till a few years ago, when their inutility under the altered conditions of modern warfare became evident ; those towards the sea have now been entirely removed, and those toward the port laid out as a public garden, which affords one of the most agreeable lounges in Dalmatia. The town which was formerly very close and airless, a network of narrow streets hemmed in on all sides by earth- works that overtopped most of the private buildings, has benefited very greatly by the change. Two main thoroughfares intersect the town, the Calle larga, leading from the Porta di Terra firma to the Piazza dell' Erbe, and the Corso parallel to it, leading from the Piazza dei Signori to the duomo. As in all ancient municipalities the piazza is the heart of the city and the centre of its life. Here are the public clock tower, the Communal palace, not now architecturally remarkable, and the loggia where the judges used to sit, and where the public acts were ratified. The latter is a dignified building of classical architecture, once open on two sides with a series of lofty arches, Urbino as a military engineer. After repairing and renewing their forts on the Italian side, he was sent to do the same with those in Dalmatia Cyprus and Caudia, and being unable to do all himself he left the execution of his plans to his nephew Giov. Girolamo, who, according to Vasari, carried out the work at Zara. The nephew died in Cyprus in 1558 or 1559, perhaps by poison, and was buried at Famaj^jsta, and the uncle died in 1559 of grief at the extinction of his family, according to Vasari. Yita di San Micheli. 240 Zara. [Ch. hi. but now enclosed with glazed sashes and turned into a town library, endowed by the munificence of a citizen of Zara, and named after him the Bibblioteca Paravia^ In the interior may still be seen the stone bench and table of the Venetian judges with the Lion of St. Mark on the wall above. In this piazza is the principal caffe, with two rows of tables in front under an awning, between which flows the full tide of the life of Zara. Morlacco peasants with hand trucks and wine skins and sometimes even carts, Austrian officers in full uniform, contadini gay with em- broidery and silver ornaments, civilians of Zara, ladies and gentlemen, in ordinary European garb, rural police in scarlet jackets like the peasants, but laden to an incredible extent with buttons and even balls of massive silver, priests of the Latin Church in black, Franciscan friars in brown, Greek priests with wide blue sashes round their cassocks, shovel hats, and flowing beards, all pass in a never-ending procession through the two lines of guests who sit breakfasting or drinking coffee in front of the Calie agli Specchi, and form a never-failing source of interest and amusement to the traveller who takes his place among them. The military bands play at night in the piazza, which is then crowded with the townsfolk, while ^ I must express my sense of the obligations I am under to the authorities of the Bibblioteca Paravia for the liberal use allowed me of their collection, which contains many books rarely to be found beyond the limits of Dalmatia. Ch. III.] Zara. 241 perhaps the moon lights up one-half of the square and falls brilliantly on the Torre dell' Orologio, and one may sit and listen and be reminded of Florian and the arcades of the Procuratie of St. Mark. A short way eastward from the Piazza is the Campo di San Simeone with a single Koman column standing in the open space, and beyond that are the public gardens, and the cinque pozzi which supply the city with water. They were constructed by Sammichieli, and are supplied with water from sources outside the city which passes through an elaborate system of filtering beds before reaching the wells from which it is drawn ^ Branches are led from this supply to other parts of the town, but for the most part I believe the inhabitants depend on the water that runs from then- own roofs. The sky is the only source from which fresh water is obtained in the smaller towns of Dalmatia, and especially on the islands, where there are neither springs nor streams ; and as even in this dry country the supply rarely fails, one may believe what has been said of the sufficiency of the water from our own roofs in England for all our domestic wants. In the courtyards of the houses and in the cloisters of the convents the whole area is excavated to form an immense cistern ; a wall is built round it, and the bottom and sides are pud- dled with clay ; a cylinder of dry masonry or ^ Sammicliieli's plans have been engraved, and the contrivance they show of filtering beds and subterranean channels is curious, A copy is in the possession of an architect living at Zara. VOL. I. R 242 Zara. [Ch. hi. brickwork is raised in the middle as high as the ground level ; and the area of the cistern round the cylinder and within the puddled walls is filled with sand which is wetted repeatedly till it has sunk to the utmost. The yard is then paved over, and holes are left in the paving to allow the water from the surrounding roofs to soak into the sand, through which it finds its way, filtered from all impurities, into the central cylinder, which is in fact the well from which it is drawn. On the top of this well is set the well-known Venetian ^ j^ozzo ' of marble or Istrian stone, which adorns the centre of every campo and the cortile of every house in Dalmatia as it does in Venice, where the same mode of constructing cisterns and filtering the rain water has prevailed for centuries \ It is only necessary to change the sand periodically in order to ensure a supply of water which is probably safer and purer than any derived from springs or rivers, although the latter are not ex- posed to contamination as they are with us, for in Dalmatia so far as I have observed there are no house drains. Following the Corso westward we arrived at the Duomo, a building which in point of design and execution need not fear comparison with the Lombard churches of Italy which it resembles, and which as the first great church we saw in Dalmatia raised our expectations of the architecture ^ Wheler describes the construction of cisterns on this plan at Venice in his time. Journey into Greece, p. 13. Ch. III.] Zara. 243 of the province. Near it is the other great square, the Piazza dell' Erbe or vegetable market, the best place in Zara to see the Croatians and Mor- lacchi in their picturesque costume. Here there is another isolated Roman column with a tablet and cross of Byzantine workmanship attached to the front of it, beside which dangle some chains with hinged rings to clip the neck hands or feet of culprits condemned to the ' herlina ' or pillory, who sat here in the fetters of the Law with the Gospel cross over their heads. These grim in- struments have swung in the wind so long that the arcs they describe at the end of then- chains are graven deeply in the marble of the column. From the Piazza dell' Erbe the outer or seaward shore of the peninsula is now reached directly, all the fortifications having been removed on this side. In their place vast many storied-buildings are rapidly rising, such as are to be seen in the new quarters of any Italian town. A really magni- ficent promenade with rows of acacias is being formed along this shore, which when finished will be a very agTeeable addition to the resources of the place. The channel of the sea which it borders is here perhaps three or four miles wide, and the opposite shore is formed by the long narrow island of Ugliano, which rises into a chain of miniature mountains, one of which is crowned by the ruins of the castle of S. Michele, which played an import- ant j)art in the history of Zara. The history of Zara is in fact the history of R 2 244 Zara : History. [Ch. hi. Dalmatia, for Zara was throughout the middle ages the most important city of the province, and the principal object of dispute between the Venetians and the Hungarians. It is, therefore, unnecessary to do more than recapitulate briefly the principal events and revolutions of which Zara was the scene, referring for details to the general history of the country already given. Jadera, already in alliance with Rome, received a Boman colony in the year 78 B.C. Its prosperity under the Emph-e may be conjectured from the remains of splendid buildings that are still to be seen there, but it was probably eclipsed by the older capital Salona. It may be safely conjectured that Jadera did not escape the Avars, but perished like the other cities of the coast ; and the conjecture is supported by the story of Archidiaconus that some refugees from Salona found their way to the harbour of an ancient but ruined town which they inhabited and named ladria after their own river lader, whose delicious waters bathed the walls of their deserted Salona \ Zara, however, recovered from her ruin, and received again the Latin population that had fled to the islands, and in 752, when the Lombards took Ravenna, the Byzantine fleet was removed ^ Thomas Ai'chid. c. ix. I must not omit an equally original derivation of the name of Zara by Constantine Porphyrogenitus. ort TO Kaarpov rav Aiabci^pay Kokelrai rf] 'Pco/iaicoj/ dioKeKTOi lafi fpaTj orrep €pp.TjveveTai. anapri rjTOV' 8t]\ov6ti, ore rj 'Paprj eKTiadr), TrpoeKTCapevov ^v TO ToiovTov KadTpov' ((TTi Be TO KauTpov p-eya. fj be koivt] (jvvt]6eia KoXet avTo AiaBupa. J}e adm. Imp. c. 29. Ch. III.] Zai^a: Hisfojy. 245 to Zara, which became the capital of the province and seat of the Byzantine duke. Her submission to Pietro Orseolo II in 998 did not interfere with the nominal sovereignty of the Empire, which was only broken down by the Hungarian conquest of 1 105. The Venetians recovered Zara in 1 1 1 6, and from that time forward the retention of that city was the mainspring of then- policy in Dalmatian Four times the Zaratini rebelled ; the first revolt was in 1 1 78, when they threw themselves on the pro- tection of the Hungarians, and were not reconquered till 1202 ; they rebelled a second time in 1242, but were recovered with little bloodshed after a few months ; in 1 3 1 1 they rebelled a third time, but were forced to submit in 1313 ; and their fourth revolt, in 1345, was crushed in 1346, in spite of the assistance of Lewis of Hungary. In 1357, however, the Hungarians were treacherously ad- mitted within the walls by the abbot of S. Michele, and in the following year the j)eace was signed at Zara by which Venice ceded to Hungary all her rights in Dalmatia. In 1403 Ladislaus of Naples was crowned at Zara king of Hungary with all its dependencies, and on the failure of his attempt in 1409 he sold Zara with Pago Novigrad and Vrana to the Venetians, in whose possession it remained till the downfall of the Republic in 1 797. Thus during the eight centuries that followed the expedition of Pietro Orseolo Zara was only ^ Vid. sup. History, cluipt. i. pp. 51-72. 246 Zarai Roman remains. [Ch. IIT. eio-hty years in all out of the possession of the Venetians. Of Roman architecture there are abundant traces at Zara, though for the most part they consist of fragments. There are the two antique columns in the piazze, of which the most important is that in the Piazza dell' Erbe, which according to one theory is actually standing where the Romans placed it, though Professor Hauser believes it to be an antique column set up by the Venetians where we now see it, to carry the Lion of St. Mark, whose image adorns the top^. It is a fine Corin- thian column, more than four feet in diameter and thirty-four in height, not fluted, still retaining its defaced capital, and it evidently belonged to the peristyle of a temple of considerable grandeur and magnificence. Wheler, who visited Zara in 1675, speaks of a second column standing with this one-, which confirms the theory of its being in its original place. The column in the Piazza di S. Simeone, or ' della colonna,' at the opposite end of the town, is a fluted Corinthian column less perfect than the other ; it has been sawn into lengths, and the lower part is missing, so that the flutings run out on the modern base without being properly stopped. ^ Vid. Hauser e Bulic, II tempio di S. Donato in Zara, pp. 6, 16. Sp. Artale. Zara, 1884. 2 'Near the Greek church dedicated to Saint Helie are two Corinthian Pillars, whose first Chapters and Bases are of very good work.' Wheler, p. ii. Ch. III.] Zara: Ro7nan remams. 247 This also no doubt once carried the Venetian lion. Close by this column I was fortunate enough, in 1884, to see exposed the base of a Roman building which seemed to have been a triumphal arch of considerable grandeur. The pedestal, or rather basement, of one side of the arch remained, and on it were lying in disorder various fragments of the architraves and other members of the upper part. The excavations had not been carried down to the base, but the original level of the ground on which the arch stood could not have been less than eight or nine feet below the present level of the jDiazza. This interesting fragment of Boman magni- ficence was only exposed for a short time, and on my return a few weeks afterwards I found it had been covered up again. Another piece of Roman antiquity is the gateway, or rather fragment of a gateway, now forming the inner face of the Porta S. Grisogono, though evi- dently brought there from elsewhere. It consists of an archway flanked by Corinthian columns, whose lower half is imperfect, which carry a horizontal entablature. The frieze bears this inscription : — MELIA ANNIANA IN MEMOR. Q. LAEPICI. Q. F. SERG. BASSI MARITI SVI EMPORIVM STERNI ET ARCVM FIERI ET STATVAS SVPERPONI TEST. IVSS EX IIS DCDXX. P. R.^ ^ Prof. Bulic interprets the last words ex sestertiis DC deducta vigesima Populi Romani. That is to say, there was a handsome market-place adorned with statues formed at the cost of about 248 Zara : Roman remains, [Ch. ill. There is a tradition that this gateway was brought to Zara from the old Roman town of Aenona nine or ten miles off. It would be curious if it should prove instead to have belonged to the tri- umphal arch near S. Simeone. In the public gardens are to be seen several old Homan inscriptions and fragments of classic work, and there are many others in the museum that has been formed in the disused church of S. Donato. But perhaps the richest and certainly the most curious collection of Homan remains is that which recent discoveries have brought to light under the very walls of that church, and which we shall presently describe. They have been traced by the industry of Prof Hauser to at least four distinct buildings, all of a magnificent character, and two of them on a mag^nificent scale. There are also pedestals among them of elaborate workmanship, which must have carried seated statues either for worship within the temples or for adornment of the public squares. All this together with the remains above ground, which have been already described, shew that Jadera must have been a city of wealth and consideration, adorned with handsome buildings, and not unworthy of comparison with some of the great provincial cities of Italy. 600,000 sesterces. Wheler by the simple confusion of sestertii and sestertia makes the cost ' six hundred and thirty Sestertia, which is a piece of money that weigheth about Two fence haJfjieny, and amounts to near Tu)elve jjounds sterling ; which was a great deal of money in those days' CHAPTER IV. Zara. The cliurclies of S. Douato, S. Pietro vecchio, S. Lorenzo, S. Domenica, S. Orsola, the cathedral of S. Anastasia, the church of S. Grisogono, the convents of S. Maria and S. Francesco, the church and silver ark of S. Simeone, etc., etc. Zaka possesses a tolerably complete series of archi- tectural examples of every period from the eighth cen- tury downwards. It is particularly rich in buildings of the earlier styles, although with one notable ex- ception they have to be hunted for and discovered under various disguises as magazines hay-lofts and cellars ; but that one exception, the Church of the Holy Trinity, now known as S. Donato, is not likely to be overlooked by the most casual visitor. From the interior of the town this church is not much seen it is true, being enclosed by the cathedral on one side and the houses of the Piazza dell' Erbe on the other ; but from a distance the lofty central drum with its pyramidal roof is the most con- spicuous building that appears above the walls. During the past hundred years it has been put to a variety of uses. In 1 798 it ceased to be used for religious purposes, the pictures were dispersed, the 250 Zara : S. Donato. [Ch. iv. altars sold, and the Austrian government turned it into a military store, inserting a floor to divide it into two stories. In 1870 it was restored to the authorities of the cathedi^al who let it to the ' So- cieta enologica di Zara.' In 1877, chiefly in con- sequence of the attention directed to it by the publications of Professor Eitelberger, it was rescued from the neglect into which it had fallen ; the modern floor was removed, and the building is now devoted to the purposes of a museum for the nu- merous objects of antiquity discovered at Zara, which had previously no home. S. Donato (vid. Plan, Fig. i ) ^ is a round church of the same type as that of S. Vitale at Ravenna and the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, though it differs from both in many particulars. It has a circular space in the centre surrounded by a circular aisle, and from the aisle three apses project eastward, of which the middle one is larger than the other two. This principal apse does not open to the church as at S. Yitale by a lofty arch of the height of the central space, but all three apses are vaulted at the lower level of the cu-cular aisle. Above this aisle and the apses is an upper story like a triforium, opening to the central space, and it is to this upper gallery or triforium, which has three apses of its o^vn over the others, that Constantine Porphyro- ^ For my plan, Fig. i, I have reduced to the same scale and put together the plan of S. Donato by Prof. Hauser, and that of S. Anastasia by Prof. Eitelberger, and supplemented them by additions and corrections of my own. Ch. IY.] Zara : S. Donato. 251 genitus refers when he says there was a second church over the firsts The ascent to this upper ZARA MRNiiRiHi«i)tfVTfQBS9P«r*'*n>, fiera kiovcov npacrlvoov Koi Xeu/cwj', oXos elKoviaf.i.evos eg vXo- ypatpias apxa^as' o fie Trdros avTov eariu ano crvyKonTJs davfiaarris. Const. Porpb. de adm. Imp. c. xxix. The church of the QforoKos in Chalcoprateia, a district of Constantinople, was originally a syna- 268 Zara : the Diiomo. [Ch. IV. ino and white marble which he mentions may perhaps still be doing duty in the nave arcades, and fragments of the famous mosaics are still to be seen in the floor mixed with the jDavements of a later age ; but the heavy cushion capitals in the nave resembling our earliest Norman work, the alter- nation of clustered piers with single columns dividing the nave into double bays, and the arcading which covers the west front and runs along the north side recalling the duomo of Pisa, all belong evidently to a later period than the Byzantine, though they might still be taken for work of the twelfth century. It seems, however, tolerably certain that the present building was not begun before the thirteenth, and as that century opened with the capture and partial destruction of Zara by the crusaders it is natural that tradition should connect the rebuilding of the cathedral with the ruin of the city at that time. According to one story therefore the crusa- ders, prompted by remorse for their destruction of a Christian city and the reproaches of Innocent III, rebuilt the duomo, or rather, we must suppose, left funds behind them for rebuilding it, for they sailed from Zara after four months' stay. But although it is true that Innocent in his letter to the Doge Henrico Dandolo accuses him of having destroyed churches, on the other hand we have the statement gogue granted to the Jews by Constantine, and was consecrated as a church 130 yeai's later by Pulcheria. Theophanes, p. 158, ed. Bonn. It is curious to find in npdcrivos an equivalent to the Italian ' cipolliuo.' Ch. IV.] Zara: the Duomo. 269 of Thomas Archidiaconus, who was an eyewitness of the rebuilding of Zara, to the effect that the crusaders ' left nothing but the churches standing,' from which it would seem that the old cathedral survived that disaster \ Whatever uncertainty, however, may exist as to the reason of the rebuild- ing and the date when it was begun, we know for certain that the new cathedral was consecrated by Archbishop Lorenzo Periandro, a native of Zara, in the year 1285-, and taking into account the slow ^ ' Diruerunt enim omnes muros ejus et turres per circuitum et universas domos iutriusecus, nil nisi solas Ecclesias reliuquentes.' Thorn. Archid. ch. xxv. Lucio says, ' Ecclesias etiam intactas relictas ipsarum antiqua structura adhuc incolumis declarat/ de Eegno. iv. p. 154 ; but we do not know by what rule he measured their antiquity. The extent to which the city was destroyed seems to have been exaggerated. Dandolo simply says, ' maritimos muros circumquaque dirui fecit et ibidem hj^emare disposuit.' Had the city been so far destroj^ed as to have been made uninhabitable, it would hardly have been represented as suitable for the army to winter in. ' Et lors vint li dus as contes et as barons, et leur dist: " Seigneur, nos avons ceste ville conquise, la merci Dieu et par la vostre ! or est yvers entres, et nos ne poons mais de ci movoir devant la Pasque, quar nous ne troverions mie chevance en autre leu, et cette ville si est moult riche et moult bonne, et de tous biens garnie," ' &c. Joffroi de Villehardouin, c. xlix. "^ Lorenzo writes thus in 1285 to Gregorio, Bishop of Trail, ' Cum pridie, seu noviter, quando placuit vobis consecrationi eccle- sias nostrae personaliter interesse, praesentibus venerabilibus patre domino fratre J. archiepiscopo Spalatense, et vobis cum aliis suflPra- ganeis ejus, atque nostris ' . . . Farlati says the rebuilding was entirely the work of Lorenzo, who conceived the project as soon as he was made archbishop in 1247, 'vetus quippe . . . erat male materiata et ruiuosa neque magnitudine neque structura neque elegantia dignitati sedis archiepiscopalis respondebat.' The new church was built on the same site as the old. Illyr. Sacr. Tom. v. pp. 8, 80. 270 Zara: the Dtwmo, [Ch. IV. rate of building during the middle ages, and more especially in a poor country like Dalmatia, we may safely assume that the work was begun at least forty or fifty years, if not more, before that date, and perhaps not very long after the opening of the century. The plan of the cathedral (Fig. i) isbasilican still, though the age of basilicas was gone by on the opposite shores of the Adriatic ; but the traditional proportions of the ancient basilicas are forgotten or neglected, for the nave is three times as wide as the aisles. Piers with semi-attached shafts alternate with cylindrical columns, forming double bays, two in the aisle to one in the nave. There are four of these double bays with a single bay beyond at each end, and they are defined by flat pilasters at each pier run up as high as the string course over the triforium. The half-columns attached to the piers have heavy cushion capitals, but the columns in the centre of the pair of arches of each double bay are of beautiful antique marble, and have capitals either of debased Roman Corinthian work or imitated from it, which probably belonged to the former basilica. The pier at the entrance of the choir is now disguised by a stucco casing carrying a stucco arch, added absurdly in modern times to mark the division between choir and nave. This pier is richer than those in the nave, and has on three of its sides two attached columns instead of one, while on the fourth side towards the choir was a single attached column with a Corinthian capital as was ascertained during Ch. TV.] Zara : the Diioino. 271 M^'' my visit by opening the stucco pier. This column and a similar one on the pier farther east ran up like vaulting shafts, though it is clear no vaulting was ever contemplated. The capitals are either of debased Koman work, or rude imitations of it in later times. They are all Corinthian in type, and have the strong Gothic abacus fully developed. In the last double bay westward the marble columns are fluted spirally. Above the nave arches is a string course carved with a curious leaf ornament (Fig. 5), which occurs also at Spalato and Trail, but is, so far as I know, peculiar to Dal- matia. Above this is a regular triforium of small arches spring- ing from square piers of stone, in front of which were once coupled colonnettes supporting the moulded unpost^ The Httle arches have alternate voussoirs of white stone and red breccia marble, and in then- openings is a balustrade with a deceptively early look. The upper part of the walls with the roof and ceiling- are modernized. A spacious apse ends the nave eastwards. It is lined with red breccia marble to half its height ; a marble seat for the clergy runs round the wall, and ^ In 1885 the stucco mouldings -svliicli disguised these piers were being removed under the direction of Professor Smirich, exposing distinct traces of a pair of little columns in front of each square pier. They seem to have had square capitals and no bases. 272 Zara: the Diiomo. [Ch.iv. in the centre, raised on five steps, is the bishop's seat, a marble chair of Byzantine character, ornamented with round arched panels divided by coupled shafts. The apse is lighted by six very narrow round-headed slits splayed both inside and out, so that here, as in the adjacent church of S. Donato,and several others in Istria and Dalmatia, the central space is occupied by a pier and not by a window, an arrangement some- what strange according to our northern notions, but suggestive of the use of the wall rather than the window as a field for decoration in southern Europe. The paintings which once adorned the apse have now disappeared. The exterior of the apse is now disguised with smooth yellow stucco, and has lost all traces of anti- quity; Professor Smu^ich, who has seen it uncovered, tells me the masonry is not of smooth ashlar but hammer-dressed, and if this were restored to view it would not only be a great improvement artistically but might lead to some interesting discoveries. The ruder construction of this end of the church and the smallness of the windows suggest that the apse may be a relic of the older basilica. Below the apse is an extensive crypt, to which two flights of steps descend, one on each side of the nave. The plan of the crypt is irregular, for while the apsidal end coincides with the apse walls above, the rest is much narrower than the choir, and varies in width in three places. The capitals of the stunted columns are plain, fudged out simply from the round shaft to the square of the impost, except one which Zara. T.G.J Interior of Duomo Ch. IV.] Zara: the Duomo. 273 is carved in the style of the ninth or tenth century. Old bases of debased Roman work are used up again, and one base rests on a slab carved with interlacing knot-work laid flat on the ground, an evidence that that part at all events of the crypt is not so old as the Byzantine basilica. Another slab of the same kind, much worn, is laid in the southern flight of steps which ascends to the nave. In the crypt is an altar formed of an imperfect slab with a relief of S. Anastasia bound to two stakes between palm trees, emblematic of her martyrdom. Her name is inscribed in Lombardic lettering of the thirteenth century, and although this may of course have been added afterwards, the style of the figure which has the feet, neck, and other parts well and naturally modelled, seems to me to point to that century rather than to an earlier one. The choii' is splendidly furnished with stalls on either hand and a magnificent marble baldacchino over the high altar, and though the rest of the interior is somewhat bare of architectural detail, this part of the church is fully worthy of the metropolitan see of Dalmatia (vid. Plate IV). The baldacchino is on a grand scale, loftier, as the Zaratini boast, than the famous one in St. Mark's, and though it dates only from the fourteenth century it preserves all the chaste severity of an earlier style. It rests on four columns of beautiful cipoUino marble which are ornamented something after the manner of our Elizabethan chimneys, the front pah' being VOL. I. T 2 74 Zara : the Duomo. [Ch. iv. richly diapered with sunk work, and the back pair fluted, one of them spirally and the other in zigzags. Their capitals are imitated from classic ; and one of them has little half-length figures cleverly enough contrived in the place of caulicoli. The four arches are pointed, and enclose a quadripartite vault with diagonal ribs, and the whole is crowned by a hori- zontal cornice of acanthus leaves ^ The execution and detail of this splendid canopy are worthy of all praise. An inscription in Lombardic lettering on the front records its erection in the year 1332 in the archbishopric of Giovanni di Butuane (Fig. 6). ■H i^Roie-'Dfii -/iK)- efoe:- mQaq>>