engleski

The Family Records of Andreas de Pozza from 1569-1603

The first private Ragusan genealogies originate from the fifteenth century, this fashion being especially popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Noblemen, proud of their ancestors, searched for information in the surviving notarial documents and other records and combined it with the family legends and tradition. Some of them are lineage trees in the true sense, as for instance the genealogy of the Gondola family, which begins with the names of the magistrates from the oldest documents as early as 1014. Besides the Gondola, the Gozze lineage tree from the early seventeenth century has also survived, along with the genealogical recall of the Basilio, Bona and Georgio families. The main purpose of the traditional genealogies was the collective memory of the lineage’s history. They had become symbols of the lineage and patrimony which was handed down through generations. It was more important to determine the lineage borders and draw the agnatic descent from the common ancestor than to establish the relationships with other lineages. This explains why the traditional lineage trees have no women entered. Similarly, male members who failed to reach adulthood were also omitted, for they neither entered political life not left any heirs. That is why the lineage trees descend from the common ancestor, and not ascend from ‘myself’. They display the essential significance of the male descending line which guaranteed the legacy of the status, name and property. The private family books such as this of Andreas de Pozza reveal a somewhat different genealogical interest. They do not descend from the ancient ancestry of the eleventh and twelfth centuries but start from “ego”, and show equal concern and respect for the male and female lines ascending to an individual, the author of the book. Apart from genealogies, they provide other information their authors considered worth noting. Although the modest wording of these books cannot compare to the vivid depictions of the era afforded by the ricordanze of Florence, they provide an insight into the goals of an individual, class and era—kinship, land and faith. Each entry and each activity Andreas opens with an invocation †Yesus Maria. He greets his children into this world with the words Con nome di Dio and parts from them accepting their and his human destiny with the belief: I Dio sia lodato. By attributing great importance to land and his estate, Andreas may be said to have been a paragon of his time. Retreat to the country estates, withdrawal from business, different education was a process which marked the nobility throughout Europe, and also the Dubrovnik Republic in its specific way. The book of Andreas de Pozza is a genuine family memorial which records everything he considered of importance for his family: births and deaths of his children, genealogies, marital contracts, division of property, acquisition of real estate, court decisions, valuable household items, estates, household expenses, and debts. Rare sources such as these allow us to step into the private life of an individual and his day.

Middle Ages; Dubrovnik; nobility; family; private family records

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