Ragusa Soldati and Uniformi

Dubrovnik Annals 20 (2016): pp.
109-148 109
Original paper
UDC: 616.981.45(497.5Dubrovnik)(091)16
UDC: 94(497.5Dubrovnik):61]16
DOI: http://doi.org/10.21857/yrvgqtplw9
A CITY FACING THE PLAGUE: DUBROVNIK, 1691*
RINA KRALJ-BRASSARD
ABSTRACT: This article focuses on the circumstances surrounding the

outbreak and spreading of the last urban plague that struck the area of
Dubrovnik in 1691. Attention is given to the main sources of the disease in
the city, adoption of plague control measures, as well as the persons who took
part in the defence against plague. Some plague victims have been identified,
and their social networks reconstructed. Noble families who were isolated on
suspicion of the disease have been identified. Also examined are the conflict
situations that occurred as consequence of the implementation of the plague
control measures in the city. Lastly, governement expenditures related to the
anti-epidemic measures are analysed, along with the representation of the
epidemic conditions in the several letters of the Senate.
Keywords: Dubrovnik, plague, 17th century, plague control measures, government

expenditure, maidservants, nobility, social networks, urban history
Introduction
The 1691 epidemic known as peste delle serve (plague of the maidservants)
was the last pestilence on the territory of the Dubrovnik Republic that spread
* This research has been supported by a grant from the Croatian Science Foundation (no. 5106).
Rina Kralj-Brassard, member of the Institute for Hisotrical Sciences of the Croatian
Academy of Sciences and Arts in Dubrovnik. Address: Zavod za povijesne znanosti
HAZU, Lapadska obala 6, 20000 Dubrovnik, Croatia. E-mail: rinafran@gmail.com
An expanded version of this article has already been published in Croatian under the following
title: Grad i kuga: Dubrovnik 1691. godine. Anali Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u
Dubrovniku 54/1 (2016): pp. 115-170. Translated by Vesna Bae.
110 Dubrovnik Annals 20 (2016)
within the walls of the urban centre of the small East Adriatic state.1 Outbreaks
of plague in the area of Dubrovnik with a severe outcome have also been
recorded later, the last being in 1815-1816,2 on the eve of the famine pandemic
in 1817, but they always hit smaller rural communities on the periphery. The
outbreaks of this dangerous disease were particularly heavy and frequent on
the Ragusan territory bordering the Ottoman Empire.
Although the tiny aristocratic state of the East Adriatic paid tribute to the
Ottoman Empire, in practice it managed to maintain political and economic
independence, and it built its economic strength on intermediary trade and
shipping. Over the centuries, Dubrovnik Republic had developed a sophisticated
anti-epidemic system which, thanks to good organisation, broad-based public
engagement on this task, as well as substantial government support, succeeded
in coping with the waves of this contagious disease.
The fact that Baro Bettera, member of the citizen elite, dedicated almost one-
fifth of his short description of the abolished Dubrovnik Republic to the plague
control measures is an eloquent testimony of the importance attached to the
protection against this disease. His report was to brief the Austrian General Todor
Milutinovi, governor of the Ragusan district which, after the abolition of the
Republic in 1808 and French occupation, became part of the Habsburg Monarchy
1
I am grateful to Tatjana Buklija for her useful comments and suggestions on the final version
of this article. The aim of this article is not to discuss the nature of the disease to which the sources
refer as plague. Ragusan peste delle serve would fall within the second of the three great pandemic
waves that reached Europe. The second pandemic wave of the past started with the Black Death
in 1347. For discussion whether all plague epidemics of the past were actually the same disease,
and whether they were all caused by Yersinia pestis see: Samuel Cohn, Epidemilogy of the Black
Death and Successive Waves of Plague. Medical History 52, Supplement S27 (2008): pp. 74-100;
for controversial views, see also: Ole J. Benedictow, What Disease was Plague? On the Controversy
over the Microbiological Identity of Plague Epidemics of the Past, Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2010.
Bibliography on plague is extremely voluminous. For a succinct introduction to the social history
of plague in Italian, English, French and Spanish literature and sources, see: Paul Slack, Plague:
A Very Short Introduction, Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. For a bibliographical
listing on plague in Croatian, see: Rina Kralj-Brassard, Grad i kuga: Dubrovnik 1691. godine.
Anali Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 54 (2016): note 1, pp. 115-116.
2
Within one month and a half, the plague killed 34 people in the villages of Kuna, Podroje
and Pijaviino on the Peljeac Peninsula, while a total of some 100 people died as victims of plague
in epikue, Slano and upa dubrovaka, settlements in the surroundings of Dubrovnik. See Nenad
Vekari, Kuga u epikuama 1815/6. godine. Zbornik Dubrovakog primorja i otoka 2 (1988):
pp. 135, 138. See also the report of the contemporary physician on this plague: Luca Stulli, De
peste quae in exitu anni MDCCCXV. in circulum Rhacusanum irrepserat. Bononiae: ex Typographo
Annesii Nobilii et Soc., 1828: pp. 5-25.
R. Kralj-Brassard, A City Facing the Plague: Dubrovnik, 1691 111
in 1815. In his text, Bettera fails to mention any possibility of the epidemic
spreading into the city. The anti-epidemic system was represented as impenetrable.3
Ragusan response to plague developed as a compromise between two practices:
complete traffic halt of the people and goods, initially widely adopted in West
Europe, as contrasted to free traffic of people and goods irrespective of pestilence,
a practice mainly adopted in the Ottoman Empire. The Ragusans were not the
first to impose temporary prohibition of entry of persons from the disease-stricken
areas. This measure was first adopted in Milan and Mantua in 1374. The Ragusans
did not set up the first sanitary cordon either. It was introduced in Milan in 1400.
Nor did the Ragusans set up the first lazaretto, as it was originally founded in
Venice in 1423.4 Yet, the Ragusans proved highly advanced in setting up the
structures for efficient implementation of plague control measures designed to
secure a fragile balance between profit-making and the risk of great mortality.
In Dubrovnik, the first regulation on quarantine was passed in 1377, and the first
permanent health office was established in 1390.5
With plague epidemics constantly raging in the immediate neighbourhood,
the Ragusans, with time, considerably improved the system of measures aimed
at confronting plague. During the epidemic of 1691, the system was carefully
developed and applied to the smallest of detail in order to rule out any kind of
surprise in fighting against this deadly disease. On the Ragusan territory of
3
Bogdan Krizman, Mmoire Bara Bettere austrijskom generalu T. Milutinoviu o Dubrovakoj
Republici iz 1815. godine. Anali Historijskog instituta JAZU u Dubrovniku 1 (1952): pp. 423-464;
Slobodan orevi and Katarina Cari, Podaci o radu i organizaciji zdravstvene slube u
Dubrovakoj Republici prema zapisima Bara Betere. Acta historica medicinae pharmaciae
veterinae 3/1-2 (1963): pp. 110-124.
4
Zlata Blaina Tomi and Vesna Blaina, Expelling the Plague. The Health Office and the
Implementation of Quarantine in Dubrovnik 1377-1533. Montreal-Kingston-London-Ithaca: McGill-
Queens University Press, 2015: pp. 134-135.
5
On quarantine and the founding of health office in Dubrovnik see: Giuseppe Gelcich, Delle
istituzioni marittime e sanitarie della Repubblica di Ragusa. Informazione storica documentata.
Trieste: Stab. Tipogr. Di Lod. Herrmanstorfer, 1882; Risto Jeremi and Jorjo Tadi, Prilozi za istoriju
zdravstvene kulture starog Dubrovnika, vol. I. Beograd: Centralni higijenski zavod, 1938: pp. 104-
111; Vladimir Bazala, Pregled povijesti zdravstvene kulture Dubrovake Republike. Zagreb: Dubrovaki
horizonti, 1972: pp. 30-42; Mirko Draen Grmek, Le concept dinfection dans lantiquit et au
Moyen-Age, les anciennes mesures sociales contre les maladies contagieuses et la fondation de la
premire quarantaine Dubrovnik (1377). Rad JAZU 384 (1980): pp. 9-54; Pero Savin, Dubrovaki
lazareti i karantena. Acta historiae medicinae stomatologiae pharmaciae medicinae veterinariae
23/1-2 (1983): pp. 5-11; Zlata Blaina-Tomi, Kacamorti i kuga. Utemeljenje i razvoj zdravstvene
slube u Dubrovniku. Zagreb-Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 2007:
pp. 81-111; Z. Blaina Tomi and V. Blaina, Expelling the Plague: pp. 105-137, 238.
the time plague was not endemic and there were no local sources of infection
But if the epidemic spread in Dubrovnik from other areas, the Ragusans learnt
how to be a step ahead of the plague. Archival material on the peste delle serve
testifies to the implementation of a mature and accomplished system of protection
against plague which the Dubrovnik Republic developed over a period of more
than three centuries on the densely populated urban area. The sources reveal,
among others, the people who were in charge of the protection against plague,
the identity of those who were infected and the facilities in which they were
isolated, the size of basic expenditures disbursed for the plague control measures.
The purpose of most records related to anti-epidemic measures was of purely
practical natureto provide expenditure records of the health officials, cazamorti
and their countless assistants. It was necessary to keep accurate record of the
decisions and follow their implementation, and above all, oversee with utmost
scrutiny the spending of the government money. The authors of these records
have left behind an unexpected additional value, as the records of plague control
measures uncover the data on the urban space and the population of Dubrovnik
some twenty years after the disastrous earthquake of 1667 that greatly altered
the citys face. Hence the twofold objective of this research. On the one hand,
it examines the organisation and operation of the protective system against
plague and the restoration of its consequences, and on the other, brings to the
fore the observations of the city and its inhabitants through the prism of plague
control measures.
Years of pestilence
The entire land border of the Dubrovnik Republic was at the same time a
frontier between a territory well-governed in terms of anti-epidemic measures
and a space in which these measures were not systematically adopted. Beginning
with the Black Death of 1347, the pestilence of the second pandemic wave
continuously recurred on the territory of the Ottoman Empire across a period
of at least five centuries. From European perspective, the Ottoman Empire was
considered a major exporter of plague, and highly ineffective in dealing with
the public health issues.6 Yet, the population of the Ragusan hinterland had
6
Nkhet Varlik, New science and old sources: Why Ottoman experience of plague matters.
The Miedieval Globe 1 (2014): pp. 204-205.
some basic knowledge in the protection against disease.7 Sanitary measures,

such as airing or burning of the potentially infectious garments, more frequent
change of clothes and regular personal hygene, resettlement to the areas with
fresh air were resorted to once the plague had broken out, however, they proved
insufficient to stop the spreading of the disease.8 The Ragusans tried to anticipate
the potential source and direction of the spreading of the epidemic, and for that
purpose the health office received updated reports on the sanitary conditions
in the neighbourhood, but also in the remote areas, e.g. North Africa. The
authors of these briefings were Ragusan envoys, dragomans (interpreters),
parish priests of the Trebinje-Mrkan bishopric, messangers, foreign and domestic
merchants, soldiers and frontier guards. This broad intelligence network included
all Ragusan citizens of confidence, while the health officials and cazamorti
reported the news to the Senate.9 Each plague that reached the land border
through the daily traffic of people and goods would have simply spilt over into
Ragusan territory had it not been for the systematic anti-epidemic measures.10
Ottoman cities had become major sources of plague, as they were incessantly
exposed to new epidemics. In some urban centres, great populations of rodents
probably represented an independent and continuous infectious pool. On the
other hand, land and sea connection of the early-modern Ottoman cities with
the immediate and remote inland contributed to continuous contacts between
the rural and urban areas affected by plague. A plausible link between those
two potential sources of plague may have been the semi-nomadic herdsmen
and their goods. The nomads whose cattle pastured on the mountain slopes,
7
For examples of plague control measures undertaken in the mid-seventeenth century on the
Ottoman territory in Ragusan hinterland see: uro Orli, Kuga u Herceg-Novom 1648 godine.
Srpski arhiv za celokupno lekarstvo 83 (1955): pp. 118-120. There were even attempts at expelling
the plague by means of sorcery, or rather at diverting its wave to the neighbouring territory of
Dubrovnik. Ragusan agent in Herceg Novi (nowadays Montenegro), Miho Kuveli, warned about
the cases of infected goods being planted in a kerchief in the vicinity of the villages of Duba and
Strava in Konavle (. Orli, Kuga u Herceg-Novom 1648 godine: pp. 121-122). For the study
of the occurrence of plague in Herzegovina on the basis of church sources see: Robert Joli, Zarazne
bolesti u Hercegovini u doba turske vladavine. Hercegovina. asopis za kulturno i povijesno
naslijee 1 (2015): pp. 191-203.
8
Vesna Miovi-Peri, Na razmeu. Osmansko-dubrovaka granica (1667-1806). Dubrovnik:
Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 1997: pp. 118-119; Z. Blaina-Tomi, Kacamorti
i kuga: p. 42.
9
V. Miovi-Peri, Na razmeu: p. 119; Z. Blaina-Tomi, Kacamorti i kuga: pp. 113-114; Z.
Blaina Tomi and V. Blaina, Expelling the Plague: p. 140.
10
R. Kralj-Brassard, Grad i kuga: Dubrovnik 1691. godine: Table 1.
the natural reservoirs of the disease, came into contact with the urban population,
especially that of the poor outskirts, either as merchants, seasonal labourers or
part-time soldiers. They supplied the city textile and leather manufacturers
with wool, skins and dyes. They provided also donkeys, horses, mules, oxen,
bulls and camels, animals known as transmitters of plague. Istanbul had
witnessed at least 230 outbreaks of plague during the second pandemic, or one
nearly every 2.2 years. In Thessalonica the plague broke out 143 times, or an
epidemic every 3.5 years. Plague is also known to have recurrently hit other
great urban centres, such as Alexandria, Cairo, Aleppo, Damascus and Trabzon.11
Plague spread into the Ottoman-governed hinterland of Dubrovnik along
the caravan routes from other provinces of the Empire, via Sandak (nowadays
Eastern Bosnia and Western Serbia) or Albania. The sea routes most responsible
for the spread of plague led to the Greek and Albanian ports under the Ottoman
rule. Outbreaks of plague went hand in hand with the massive military movements,12
famine, droughts, floods and wars. The causes of plague were hidden in infected
goods, hides, wool, fleece, blankets, carpets, furs, furcoats and raincoats brought
by soldiers or merchants. Aiding the plague to spread were also irregular armed
gangs of uskocs and hajducs (brigands), who seized contaminated goods and
men. Pilgrims from Alexandria or Syria also carried the disease. Plague
accompanied Ottoman dignitaries who arrived from large cities, in which the
disease was constantly present. In terms of season, plague commonly broke
out in the latter half of the year. During favourable climatic conditions the
diseases proved less fatal. In times of famine and war, deadly plague epidemics
occurred in three-year cycles. Plague was usually followed by famine as a
consequence of untilled land after the first year of pestilence. Weakened immune
system of the undernourished people created perfect conditions for the recurrence
of the disease. The great Ottoman Empire that stretched from the Middle East,
North Africa to Central Europe suffered from severe plague epidemics in the
seventeenth century: in 1626, 1636, 1643, 1660 and 1698. Bubonic plague raged
11
N. Varlik, New science and old sources: pp. 206-207, 210.
12
The Ragusans did their best to prevent the passage of the infected Ottoman troops through
Konavle, fully aware of the potential spreading of the disease in this way. If the pasha was dissatisfied
with the Ragusan argument that the people of Konavle were impoverished and unable to provide
for him and his entourage, a bribe had to be offered. At the same time, the movements of the local
population were strictly monitored and heavy fines were imposed for the offenders (Djuro Orli,
Dubrovake vijesti o epidemijama u Bosni i Hercegovini u XVII vijeku, in: Gradja Naunog
drutva NR Bosne i Hercegovine 2 (1956): pp. 59-60). The passage of the Ottoman troops across
the neutral territory of Dubrovnik was just as unacceptable from the political point of view, yet
the plague was submitted as argument.
in 1613, 1615, 1648, 1649, 1690 and 1691. Every single of these epidemics had
reached the borders of Dubrovnik.13 The plague of the maidservants was the
only epidemic that managed to bypass Dubrovniks sanitary cordon and spread
into the urban fabric of the Republic.
Worthy of note is a parallel between the territory of the Dubrovnik Republic
and that of the Dalmatian cities, especially in the seventeenth century, when
Dalmatian urban centres experienced at least ten plague waves, and the city
of Dubrovnik only one. Ottoman inland, part of the huge Empire that included
areas in which plague is an endemic disease even today, was apparently unable
and reluctant, though not exclusively due to internal state needs, to undertake
effective isolation measures. Apart from wars, climatic conditions, notably
drought in Herzegovina as in the last decade of the seventeenth century, gave
way to famine, making the war-exhausted population less immune to the
disease.14 In terms of climate, Dalmatian cities slightly differed from the
Dubrovnik area, having at their diposal all the devices of the developed anti-
epidemic system of Venice. Protection against epidemics on the territory of
Venetian Dalmatia was the responsibility of the Health Commission (Collegium)
in Venice. At the incidence of plague, that office would dispatch a special health
overseer whose duty was to undertake certain protective measures.15
When a severe outbreak of plague struck Zadar in the autumn of 1630,
Antonio Civran, provveditore generale of Venetian Dalmatia, was in charge
of the plague control measures from a galley anchored in the city port. By his
order, a Health Commission of ten officials was established. Supervison of the
implementation of these measures was dispersed to every village, in which an
offical had been appointed for that specific purpose. Certain island and mainland
villages were isolated, while the city was guarded by armed boats. By the
wooden fences (stangate) posted at the city gates, a priest controlled the persons
entering the city from the inland. Bill of health (Fede di sanit) was mandatory,
and the movement was restricted. Ottoman subjects were allowed to trade only
at the entrept of St Marc. City paupers, who were obviously considered more
13
Bogumil Hrabak, Talasi kuge na bosanskohercegovakom upravnom prostoru 1463-1800.
Acta historica medicinae stomatologiae pharmaciae medicinae veterinae 29/1 (1989): pp. 19, 31;
Dj. Orli, Dubrovake vijesti o epidemijama u Bosni i Hercegovini u XVII vijeku: p. 48; V.
Miovi-Peri, Na razmeu: p. 119.
14
B. Hrabak, Talasi kuge na bosanskohercegovakom upravnom prostoru 1463-1800.: p. 27.
15
Duko Kekemet, Zatita od epidemija u Splitu i okolici u prolosti, in: Sanitarni kordon
nekad i danas, ed. Janko Vodopija. Zagreb: Zbor lijenika Hrvatske and Zavod za zatitu zdravlja
grada Zagreba, 1978: p. 75.
susceptible to the disease and could easily transmit it to others, were relocated
to the islands, where the local judges provided for their approriate shelter. The
sick and the persons suspected of being infected were isolated into a lazaretto
on a small island near the coast. The persons who had to abandon their homes
under suspicion of plague received relief from the lazaretto bursory in bread
and money. Plague victims were buried into special pits, and the corpses were
covered with quicklime. In order to prevent any contact between healthy
individuals and those who died of plague or with infected goods carried out of
the city, the funeral procession was headed by a person armed with a stick who
made sure that the streets were cleared from people. A stick was also used to
clear the way for the grieving procession of those who were forced to leave the
city either because of their illness or suspicion of it.16
Judging by the frequent recurrence of plague in the Dalmatian cities in the
seventeenth century, anti-epidemic measures were evidently ineffective. The
plague broke out more often than in the area of Dubrovnik. Plague control
measures applied in the eighteenth century proved just as inadequate. Physician
Juraj Bajamonti, disheartened by the plague that swept away every fourth
citizen of Split, in 1786 published a book on that traumatic event. In his opinion,
despite all the protective measures undertaken by the government, it was simply
impossible to prevent the devastating epidemic from spreading into Dalmatia
from the Ottoman inland. Bajamonti quotes a couple of reasons. The lazaretto
of Split, for example, was situated too far from the border, since it was built
when the Veneto-Ottoman frontier was much closer to Split. Protective measures
were carried out negligently and unprofessionally, and the population in the
hinterland showed a marked lack of discipline. For reasons of concealment,
reports on the occurrence of plague in Bosnia were deliberately delayed. Major
problem according to Bajamonti were the hajducs,who show most brazen
despise towards consideration for public health. Bajamonti holds that the
homogeneous population, notably the Christians on either side of the Veneto-
Ottoman frontier, in which foreigners could not be easily distinguished, also
proved a hindrance to a consistent implementation of the plague control measures.17
The reasons underlying the ineffectiveness of anti-epidemic measures in the
surroundings of the Dalmatian cities may also be sought in the (un)stable demarcation
16
Roman Jeli, Zadarske kuge i lazareti u prolosti, in: Sanitarni kordon nekad i danas, ed.
Janko Vodopija. Zagreb: Zbor lijenika Hrvatske and Zavod za zatitu zdravlja grada Zagreba,
1978: pp. 93-94.
17
D. Kekemet, Zatita od epidemija u Splitu i okolici u prolosti: pp. 80-83.
line and the relevant issues concerning the lack of education and cooperation on
behalf of the local population unaccustomed to the application of quarantine
measures. In the seventeenth century, for the cities of Dalmatia the border line
with the Ottoman Empire was at the same time the first line of the battle front.
Implementation of anti-epidemic measures in the Dubrovnik area, according
to Grmek, owes its effectiveness to the interwoven economic and political
interests of the business-minded Ragusan nobility.18 In a city of merchants who
bear the noble title,19 the measures of public hygene were established at a fairly
early date,20 good organisation being also observed in the continuous work of
the Ragusan hospitals, unlike those in the Dalmatian cities.21 Therefore, successful
application of anti-epidemic measures in the Dubrovnik area should be viewed
within a broader context, taking into account its small size of population and
small territory, long-term political stability under local government,22 economic
prosperity,23 along with accentuated charity and a sophisticated ability of the
elites to resolve conflict situations in a tactful and prudent manner.
The challenges of the second half of the seventeenth century
Peste delle serve was to crown a series of misfortunes that befell the population
of the Dubrovnik Republic in the extremely difficult five decades marked by
demographic decline, violence, brigandage and famine. The state had less than
18
M. D. Grmek, Le concept dinfection: p. 49.
19
Filip de Diversis, Opis slavnoga grada Dubrovnika, ed. and transl. Zdenka Janekovi Rmer.
Zagreb: Dom i svijet, 2004: p. 65; Zdenka Janekovi Rmer, Grad trgovaca koji nose naslov
plemia: Filip de Diversis i njegova pohvala Dubrovniku, in: Filip de Diversis, Opis slavnoga
grada Dubrovnika, ed. and transl. Zdenka Janekovi-Rmer. Zagreb: Dom i svijet, 2004: p. 15.
20
M. D. Grmek, Le concept dinfection: p. 48.
21
Tatjana Buklija, Medicine and Society in the Medieval Hospital. Croatian Medical Journal
49/2 (2008): pp.152-153; Irena Benyovsky and Tatjana Buklija, Bratovtina i hospital sv. Duha
u Splitu u srednjem i ranom novom vijeku, in: Raukarov zbornik. Zbornik u ast Tomislava
Raukara, ed. Neven Budak. Zagreb: Filozofski fakultet Sveuilita u Zagrebu, FF-press, 2005: pp.
646-647; Rina Kralj-Brassard, Djeca milosra. Naputena djeca u Dubrovniku od 17. do 19. stoljea.
Zagreb-Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 2013: p. 37.
22
On stability, see: Lovro Kunevi, O stabilnosti Dubrovake Republike (14.-17. stoljee): geopolitiki
i socijalni faktori. Anali Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 53 (2016): 1-38.
23
On thriving Ragusan economy see: Vladimir Stipeti, Population and Gross Domestic Product
of Croatia (1500-1913) in the Light of Angus Maddisons Book The World Economy: A Millennial
Perspective. Dubrovnik Annals 8 (2004): pp. 163-166; Oleh Havrylyshyn and Nora Srzenti,
Economy of Ragusa, 1300 1800. The Tiger of the Medieval Mediterranean. Zagreb: Croatian
National Bank, 2014: pp. 33-48.
26,000 inhabitants.24 This grim period of violence, which mirrored in the

domestic circumstances,25 and the anxiety on the Ragusan borders spanned
from the beginning of the War of Candia in 1645 to the end of the Morean War
in 1699.26 Following the disastrous earthquake in 1667 and conflict with the
Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa between 1677 and 1682, the Ragusans were to face
serious difficulties as result of the war between the Habsburg Monarchy and
Poland against the Ottoman Empire (1683-1699). The Republic of Venice also
joined the allies.27 The Venetians soon advanced into Dubrovniks immediate
hinterland. As the threatening pressure of Venice mounted, the Ragusans were
preparing themselves for the worst, in hope of the Habsburg protection.28
Although the territory of Dubrovnik was not implicitly the scene of war operations,
the population was exposed to constant hostilities which included raids and plunder
that was incited or at least tolerated by one of the warring states. This made the
implementation of the quarantine measures a truly challenging task.29
In 1690, the provveditore generale of Dalmatia dispatched warships to
Ragusan ports at Gru and Slano in order to block the food supply. Hajducs
were to cut the supply of grain from Dubrovnik to the Ottoman territory.
Blockades on land and sea threatened to halt trade or seriously increase its
costs. The Venetians imposed transit fees for Ragusan vessels. Underlying the
blockade of Dubrovniks territory was the obstruction of food supply of the
Ottoman inland, that is, the war tactic of famishing the enemy to surrender. A
24
Nenad Vekari, The Population of the Dubrovnik Republic in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries. Dubrovnik Annals 2 (1999): p. 26.
25
Nenad Vekari et al., Vrijeme enidbe i ritam poroda: Dubrovnik i njegova okolica od 17. do
19. stoljea. Zagreb-Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 2000: pp.
11-12; R. Kralj-Brassard, Djeca milosra: pp. 267-268.
26
On most extreme circumstances on the Ragusan frontier and organised crime see: V. Miovi
Peri, Na razmeu: pp. 167-209.
27
Vinko Foreti, Povijest Dubrovnika do 1808, vol. II. Zagreb: Nakladni zavod MH, 1980: pp.
151, 174; Robin Harris, Dubrovnik. A History. London: SAQI, 2003: pp. 341-345. On conflict with
Kara Mustafa see: Vesna Miovi, Dubrovaka diplomacija u Istambulu. Zagreb-Dubrovnik: Zavod
za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 2003: pp. 141-167.
28
In the summer of 1688, all men fit to carry arms were enlisted and a flag with the coat of
arms of the Dubrovnik Republic on one side and the imperial eagle crest of the Habsburgs on the
other was commissioned for this purpose (Grga Novak, Borba Dubrovnika za slobodu 1683-1699.
Rad JAZU 253 (1935): pp. 28, 34, 45).
29
V. Miovi-Peri, Na razmeu: p. 131. For detailed discussion see: Vesna Miovi-Peri,
Brigandage on the Ragusan Frontier During the Morean War (1684-1699). Dubrovnik Annals 3
(1999): pp. 41-54.
hidden target, or at least a welcome side effect, was the destruction of Ragusan
autonomous trade so that all east-Adriatic ports would fall under the unique
control of the Republic of Venice.30
In the late summer of 1690, hajducs and soldiers on the borders of the
Dubrovnik Republic violated the quarantine regulations, the Senate informed
the Imperial Court of Vienna through Mato Lucijanov Pozza. The Venetians
behaved irresponsibly and could easily transmit plague from Bosnia to Dubrovnik.
Ragusan warning issued to the Austrian authorities particularly concerned the
potential danger from the infected prisoners from Bosnia.31 The Senate also
directly appealed to Alessandro Molino, Venetian provveditore generale of
Dalmatia and Albania, about the increasing irresponsibility of the Venetian
subjects.32 Lack of regard for the quarantine measures on behalf of the hajducs
was also criticised by Bajamonti a century later. As the petitions had little effect
on the change of hajducs conduct along the Ragusan border, those among them
who acted contrary to the quarantine measures and raided houses contaminated
by plague were forbidden access to the Dubrovnik Republic.33
The plague of the maidservants
In a series of adverse conditions, the outbreak of plague in the Ottoman-

governed hinterland of Dubrovnik in 1690 seemed but the final straw. War was
raging, accompanied by famine. Franciscan Nikola Lavanin testified to severe
hunger in Bosnia in 1690. In Sarajevo people ate the bark off the trees, vine
leaves, cats and dogs. Cases of canibalism were recorded.34 Hajducs continued
their raids along and across the borders. In June, plague broke out in the village
of Trnovica, in the borderland of the Dubrovnik Republic, some thirty kilometres
west of Dubrovnik. Isolation of the village prevented the spreading of plague
further into the territory of the Dubrovnik Republic.35 At the beginning of June
1690, the bey of Trebinje fell victim of plague, while in early August, Trebinje
30
V. Foreti, Povijest Dubrovnika do 1808, II: p. 189.
31
Dubrovaka akta i povelje, vol. IV/2, ed. Jovan Radoni. Belgrade: SKA, 1942: pp. 29-30,
40-42.
32
Dubrovaka akta i povelje, vol. IV/2: pp. 44-46.
33
Dubrovaka akta i povelje, vol. IV/2: pp. 73-74.
34
Vladimir Bazala, Calendarium pestis (II). Acta historica medicinae pharmaciae veterinae
2/2 (1962): p. 76.
35
R. Jeremi and J. Tadi, Prilozi za istoriju zdravstvene kulture starog Dubrovnika, I: p. 100.
in southern Herzegovina saw approximately 14 deaths from plague a day. In

the first seven months of the year 1690, the plague killed around three thousand
people in the Ottoman hinterland, mostly Muslims who lived in urban areas,
and to a lesser degree, the chiefly rural Christian population. In August the
disease crossed the Veneto-Ottoman frontier and occurred in Knin, Drni and
ibenik in central Dalmatia. In September it spread to Carina, important trade
centre in the Neretva valley. In November of 1690 the epidemic was raging in
Mostar, itluk, Gabela, Ljubuki, Stolac, Dubrava. Venetian health official
suspected the incidence of plague in Makarska and in Opuzen. By the end of
October and early November the epidemic devastated the village of Orahovac,
located between Perast and Dobrota in the Ottoman part of Boka Kotorska.36
Anti-epidemic regime aimed at the defence against plague outside the state
borders was also in effect on the territory of the Dubrovnik Republic. It was
soon superseded by the highest degree of epidemic defence when the deadly
disease had already crossed the frontier. A description of the protective system
has been provided by Baro Bettera, who at the end of the eighteenth century
personally testified to its implementation. The whole Republic territory was
at first divided into smaller units. Appointed into each of the plague defence
centres was the head sanitary assistant, a nobleman aided by the health assistants,
citizens posted in the villages. Head assistant (kacamorat veliki), was inferior
to the city health office, composed of five to seven senators. It was the duty of
the cazamorti to inspect the villages. The roll-call of all members of housholds
was conducted several times a day, and if any person was missing, the house
was sealed off and an investigation was carried out. In doing this, the health
assistant used the list of household members. Cazamorto had the authority to
punish the offenders.37 He issued permissions by which the villagers could
leave the village. Together with two soldati and the village guards, he controlled
all entries into the village. Cross-border trade was permitted under surveillance
twice a week in the district centres, in the areas designated for this particular
purpose. Goods less susceptible to infection were exchanged under precautionary
measures. Food items were washed or treated thermally. Butter was melted,
36
B. Hrabak, Talasi kuge na bosanskohercegovakom upravnom prostoru 1463-1800: pp.
26-27; Bogumil Hrabak, Kune rednje u Bosni i Hercegovini 1463-1800. Istorijski zbornik 2
(1981): pp. 22-24, 37.
37
On penal authority of the cazamorti see: Nella Lonza, Pod platem pravde. Kaznenopravni
sustav Dubrovake Republike u XVIII. stoljeu. Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU
u Dubrovniku, 1997: p. 71.
poultry, eggs, meat, green vegetables, fruit and vegetables were waterwashed.
Beans had to be baked on embers, while the cheese cut into small pieces had to
be singed. Wood and items made of metal were shortly exposed to fire. Plague
susceptible goods, such as wool, cloth and cotton were sent to the lazaretto at
Ploe for disinfection, a process that may have taken from 45 to 60 days. During
the peste delle serve an example of an 80-day disinfection of goods has been
traced.38 Of course, no direct physical contact with the Ottoman subjects was
allowed. The authorities were fully aware that trade was essential for the inhabitants
needs without which famine would be inevitable. This prompted the ration of
food from the state warehouses, which helped curb the need for smuggling.
Successful application of the sanitary measures largely relied on the cooperation
of the population on either side of the frontier. Compliance with the Ragusan
quarantine measures was also secured through the central authority in the Ottoman
Empire.39 Betteras description of the plague control measures, for the most part,
corresponds to the measures adopted at the close of the seventeenth century.
Ragusan authorities kept a vigilant eye for the epidemic wave that was
approaching the Republic borders, of which they also informed their neighbours.
Information on plague was always collected from several sources. Thus the
news on the spreading of plague in Bosnia and Herzegovina reached Dubrovnik
also via the Ragusan consul to Ancona. In a letter of 29 July 1690, Giuseppe
Storani informed the Senate of having received bad news from the nunciature
and from the Health Office of Venice. In the summer of 1690, the Republic
strived against the spreading of plague on its territory. Despite considerable
costs, maximum surveillance of the land border and ports was organised. All
accesses were sealed. The Senate informed Rome on the measures undertaken.
Dubrovnik Republic acted according to good customs, exchanging information
and fully cooperating as, for example, was the practice widely adopted in the
Italian states. When the plague managed to spread in the Republic, of this the
Senate informed all states with which the Ragusans traded.40
38
Ordini e terminazione sulla peste 1691-1712 (henceforth: Ordini), Sanitas, ser. 55, vol. 7, f. 39v.
39
B. Krizman, Mmoire Bara Bettere: pp. 438-443; S. orevi and K. Cari, Podaci o
radu i organizaciji zdravstvene slube u Dubrovakoj Republici: pp. 113-118; V. Miovi-Peri, Na
razmeu: pp. 120-122.
40
Dj. Orli, Dubrovake vijesti o epidemijama u Bosni i Hercegovini u XVII vijeku.: pp.
61-62. On 11 January 1691, the Senate instructed the Minor Council to inform Venice, Rome and
the Kingdom of Naples of the occurrence of plague in the suburb. See: Acta Consilii Rogatorum
(henceforth: Cons. Rog.), ser. 3, vol. 131, f. 86r (SAD).
The first victim of plague entered in the register of the health officials was a
small novice, son of the governess of the Hospital misericordiae. He died on
Tuesday, 9 January 1691, at the Hospital misericordiae near the Church of St
Francis.41 Recorded as the first source of infection was the building of the Hospital
misericordiae, state foundling hospital, which, judging by the mention of the
Franciscan church, was again using the property within the city walls, the second
source being a house in the Pile suburb, in which a maidservant fell ill.42 A link
between these two sources of infection was established subsequently. A third
source has been traced in the suburb of Ploe.43 The Senate reacted promptly by
appointing five senators among fifteen candidates as additional cazamorti. Three
hundred ducats were disbursed to cover the costs of these offices. Two of the
five sanitary officials, Frano Sigismundov Gradi and Vladislav Sekundov Bucchia,
accompanied by the chancellor who kept record, immediately launched an inquest.
Physicians and a surgeon were dispatched to Pile to examine the maidservant.
The symptoms of plague were confirmed in her case. Chosen to the duty of the
additional (della sopragionta) cazamorti were the patricians Mato Marinov Bona
and Rado Lukin Gozze.44 On 12 January, cazamorti Orsat Sorgo and Mato Bona
tried in vain to avoid the burden of this demanding office.45
With each new case, a similar procedure was applied. Following the report
on a suspicious disease or death, an inquest was carried out which, besides the
cazamorti, included medical expertsphysicians and surgeons. It was of essential
importance to question all those who had communicated with the infected, since
that was the only way to prevent the disease from spreading. In order to establish
the source of infection and foresee the possible spread of the disease, the social
network of the sick person was reconstructed. The principle of caution was
applied. The circle of suspects was rather large, as it did not only include those
who had come into contact with the infected, and were thus potentially exposed
to the disease, but also all those who had communicated or in any way came
close to the persons who were in contact with the infected, although without
discernible signs of illness. Greatest caution was taken when handling the belongings
41
Ordini, vol. 7, f. 2r. The outbreak of plague was also recorded by the Jesuit chronicle, stressing
that the plague (peste) broke out in the city (dentro la citt) with the death of a boy in the foundling
home (nell ospedale de Bastardelli). See: Ljetopis dubrovakog kolegija (1559-1764). ed. Miroslav
Vanino [Vrela i prinosi, vol. VII]. Sarajevo: Nova tiskara, 1937: p. 39 .
42
On location of the foundling homes see: R. Kralj-Brassard, Djeca milosra: pp. 45-59.
43
Ordini, vol. 7, f. 13v.
44
Ordini, vol. 7, f. 1r.
45
Cons. Rog. vol. 7, f. 87r-87v.
of the persons who were suspected of infection. Cazamorti carried out isolation
measures, bearing the worst scenario in mind, as if the disease was widespread,
and it was not until a certain period of time that gradual admission to the healthy
community was allowed. An infected house was promptly isolated, along with
all the persons who came into contact with the infected and the persons who
came into contact with them. Centuries-old experience in the suppression of
plague has shaped the measures that clearly show how knowledgeable people
were about the infectious nature of this disease.
Investigation had to be carried out without delay, so as to prevent any further
contact with the infected and the quick spread of the disease. Early diagnosis
was essential because, as testified by Bajamonti, if the infection escalated from
several sources, its suppression was virtually impossible. This lesson was well
absorbed over the centuries of the anti-plague practice. With the epidemics
from the earlier periods, it usually took several weeks to identify the infectious
disease with certainty.46 Indeed, it was not an easy task, since the first symptoms
of plague, fever and indisposition, may have been ascribed to any other illness,
e.g. various fevers which, like today, were widespread among the population
in winter. Another potenial difficulty in the early diagnosis of plague was the
concealment of the infected. It was not easy to sacrifice oneself for the welfare
of the community, as the isolation measures were all but comfortable.47 In
addition, the stigma carried by the potentially infected person was deeply
rooted. The persons who survived plague were also stigmatised and aroused
suspicion in the healthy community due to the adopted resistance, if temporary,
to the disease. The survivors could not transmit the disease through personal
contact, yet their infected clothes may still have been a potential source of
infection. According to a sixteenth-century record, resanati (the recuperated)
wore a scarf around the neck as a sign of warning.48
In a densely populated urban area it was difficult to hide the infected, as
for the lack of privacy any suspicious absence would have been immediately
detected, and through well established channels that information would soon
reach the authorities. True, a suspicious disease could easily be detected, yet
46
B. M. Nedeljkovi, Pravna organizacija Dubrovake Republike za vreme morije iz 1437.
godine: pp. 47-48.
47
On account of several plague victims at Ploe, confined dwellers were threatened with the
shots from arquebus if they dared leave the house or garden (Ordini, vol. 7, f. 13v).
48
Z. Blaina Tomi and V. Blaina, Expelling the Plague: pp.190.
its spreading proved an enormous challenge because the urban space was
relatively undersized considering the number of inhabitants, and the bustle of
city life produced a multitude of social contacts, especially during feast days.
The plague of the maidservants broke out in the festive atmosphere starting
with Christmas Eve on 24 December to the Holy Innocents on 27 December,
and a series of solemn masses during which the pious received massive communion
in the crowded churches. The time of lively social contacts and communication
continued through the month of January, in which the feast of Circumcision
was celebrated on the 1 January, and Epiphany on the 6 January. The winter
feast days ended with the solemn celebration of St Blaise, protector of the city.49
Plague disrupted this festive sequence, so that in 1691, instead of in February,
St Blaise was celebrated on 5 July, feast day of the Arm of St Blaise.50 For
reason of the spread of plague in the city, public ceremonies were postponed
and massive gatherings were avoided.51 The solemn funeral of Rector Junije
Cerva was postponed to a later date, his body being immediately buried.
Commemoration of the catastrophic earthquake that struck Dubrovnik on 6
April 1667 was postponed to the second day of the Pentecost.52
The circle of suspects at the Hospital misericordiae
The staff and wards of the Hospital misericordiae were instantly taken to
the lazaretto at Ploe, as they had been in immediate contact with the infected
novice. The latter was not identified by name in any document, but by family
affiliation and by status of the novice in divinity. The registers of the cazamorti
make no record of the boys mother, only her occupation, abadessa dei spurii.
The governesss identity is known from the accounting records of the foundling
home. Anica Andrijina Luketi,53 governess of the Hospital misericordiae,
49
Nella Lonza, Kazalite vlasti. Ceremonijal i dravni blagdani Dubrovake Republike u 17.
i 18. stoljeu. Zagreb-Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 2009: pp.
335-337.
50
R. Jeremi and J. Tadi, Prilozi za istoriju zdravstvene kulture starog Dubrovnika, I: p. 101;
N. Lonza, Kazalite vlasti: pp. 291-292.
51
The work of the Jesuit Collegium was discontinued on 10 January 1691, only to be reactivated
on 11 June 1691. See: Miroslav Vanino, Isusovci i hrvatski narod, II. Zagreb: Filozofsko-teoloki
institut Drube Isusove u Zagrebu, 1987: p. 99; Ljetopis dubrovakog kolegija (1559-1764): p. 39.
52
N. Lonza, Kazalite vlasti: pp. 291-292.
53
Libro Maestro dellanno 1683, ser. 46, vol. 8b, f. 1r (SAD).
together with two internal wetnurses who lived in the foundling homeNika
Andrijina from Ston and Vica Boova from Platcared for the abandoned
children of various age, from infants to children aged three and above. The
number of children cared for at the foundling home cannot be accurately
established. According to later data, the building might have accommodated
between less than ten and more than twenty children.54 On 2 January 1691, the
wetnurses received their usual salary of 7:6 perpers.55 The last pay out to warden
Anica Andrijina was dated 6 January 1691.56 As the names of the warden and
internal wetnurses do not subsequently appear in the registers of the foundling
home, it is possible that they fell victim to plague.
Apart from the governess and wetnurses, the list of suspects extended to
other persons who frequented the foundling home during the illness of the
small novice. Their names were recorded in a separate note which is not extant.57
One of the persons from this list is the maidservant from the Domus Christi
hospital. She bought meat at 3 grossi for the governess that very morning when
her son died from plague, because of which the Domus Christi was sealed off.58
On Epiphany (6 January), three days before the novices death, entered
chronologically into the ledger of the foundling home were many payments.59All
persons whom these reimbursements concerned may have been included on
the list of suspects. The occurrence of plague in the Hospital misericordiae
and isolation of the entire staff who resided in the building did not stop the
foundling home from operating. External wetnurses, who cared for the foudlings
at their own homes most commonly in the outlying villages, continued to
receive payment for their service.60 The Senate provided regular monthly support
of 300 perpers for the foundling home.61 New breastfeeding contracts were
54
R. Kralj-Brassard, Djeca milosra: p. 311.
55
Libro in cui sono annotati i salarii delle balie al servizio dell Ospidale degli esposti del 1683
fin al 1703, Misericordia, ser. 46, vol. 16, f. 174r (SAD). The colon is followed by grossi. One perper
had 12 grossi.
56
Libro in cui sono annotati i salarii, vol. 16, f. 178r.
57
58
59
Libro in cui sono annotati i salarii, vol. 16, ff. 176r-178r. For the list of persons see: R.Kralj-
Brassard, Grad i kuga: Dubrovnik 1691. godine: Table 2, p. 139.
60
See for example: Libro Maestro dellanno 1683, vol. 8b, ff. 124r, 138r, 140r-154r, 158r-159r,
161r, 164r.
61
Cons. Rog. vol. 131, ff. 82r, 99r, 110v, 123v, 141r, 156v, 170v.
also entered.62 A certain halt in the activities may be discerned in the delayed
entry of the death of a foundling in the breastfeeding contract, where the
incidence of plague is mentioned.63 No baptismal records have been preserved
in the register of the baptised foundlings of the first half of 1691.64
The little novice was diagnosed with plague by the physicians Ottavio Camilli
and Santanicollo, and surgeon uro Miscoschi. They measured the boys pulse
and used the ventose (cupping glass) to draw the blood to the surface of the skin
by means of vacuum. Cazamorti deemed that the procedure was dangerous in
terms of the disease transmission, and thus ordered the preventive sealing of the
doctors houses. Public health measures of isolation, that is, assessment of the
transmission risk, were imposed by the government officials and not by medical
experts. Quarantine was lifted on 20 February 1691, following the law-regulated
forty days of isolation.65 The circle of the potentially infected persons also included
the priest who heard the dying-boys confession. Priest Ivan was to remain
confined in his house at Pile until the end of February.66 The investigation showed
that a certain Rade from Pile washed the clothes formerly used by the novice, as
result of which her house was sealed off but not earlier than 12 January.67 The
boys body was washed by another poor woman, Marija umanova, who lived
at the Antunini hospice. She was given boys clothes which she stored in her room
at the hospice. On 14 January she was at the lazaretto, where she died.68 Nobleman
Rafael Lukin Gozze was at the foundling home on the morning when the little
novice died, his home being sealed off, too. That same day, isolation was decreed
for the house of the noblewoman Jelena Palmota, maiden name Sorgo, because
she happened to be at the house of Rafael Gozze, as well as the homes of the
patricians Marko Tomin Bassegli and Ivan Gozze.
Investigation tried to establish how the little novice picked up the disease. A
witness testified that the boys mother, hospital governess, suspected her son to
have become infected by a blanket previously used by the maidservant of a certain
Trumbene. The mentioned woman used to bring various things to the Hospital
misericordiae. Her death was associated with herb and wine trade with the Vlachs
62
Libro dellHospitale Della Misericordia 1690, ser. 46, vol. 8c, ff. 39r-55r (SAD).
63
Libro dellHospitale Della Misericordia 1690, vol. 8c, f. 35r.
64
R. Kralj-Brassard, Djeca milosra: pp. 284-286.
65
66
67
68
from the Ottoman hinterland.69 The maid died of plague, so that on 13 January
quarantine was imposed on four houses in the suburb of Gru, whose dwellers
carried her in the funeral. As none of those persons fell ill, household members
were allowed free movement as of 20 February 1691.70 Apparently, as proven in
the weeks to come, the cause of the novices disease led to the maidservant. The
epidemic was rightly termed the plague of the maidservants because in the
records of the cazamorti they dominate among the victims.
Maidservants the victims of plague
Maidservants may have been more susceptible to plague due to undernutrition

and greater exposure to the disease. Namely, the nature of their occupation required
daily communication in the public spaces, where they could easily come into contact
with infected persons and goods. They often visited each other, ran errands and
exchanged things.71 The plague simply followed their communication network,
which the cazamorti tried to reconstruct in their inquest. The maids social contacts
often dictated the rhythm of the isolation of patrician households. Maids disease
caused for preventive isolation of all the household members who shared the
common space regardless of the rank, the nobility and the servants alike.
In all likelihood, the physicians who on 9 January 1691 examined the son
of the Hospital misericordiae governess also examined the domestic of Ivan
Findela, who showed signs of the deadly disease. On Wednesday evening of
10 January, the domestic died. Ivan Conerdeli, a guard posted in front of
Findelas house, immediately informed the sanitary officials of her death.72
That same day, the whole quarter in the western suburb of Pile was sealed off,
from the house of Ivan Findela to the Pile Gates.73 Full isolation of all households
69
Ordini, vol. 7, ff. 27v-28r.
70
71
On Ragusan maidservants see: Slavica Stojan, Vjerenice i nevjernice: ene u svakodnevici
Dubrovnika (1600-1815). Zagreb-Dubrovnik: Prometej; Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u
Dubrovniku, 2003: pp. 95-131.
72
Ordini, vol. 7, ff. 2r, 13v.
73
Although the dwellings of the sick or of the persons suspected of being infected by plague are
repeatedly mentioned in the sources, the mapping of the disease (a standard in historical epidemiology)
is not possible due to inaccurate description of the dwellings. On use of maps as a new tool in the
study of disease see: Tom Koch, Disease Maps. Epidemics on the Ground. Chicago: Chicago University
Press, 2011. For an example of graphic representation of the disease outbreak see the historic map of
cholera in Broad Street (Soho, London) of 1854, charted by John Snow: http://johnsnow.matrix.msu.
edu/images/online_companion/chapter_images/fig12-5.jpg (accessed on 7 August 2015)
was decreed until 28 January, to be subsequently reduced to only four households

whose members had come into direct contact with the infected persons.74
Among the first to die, on 14 January 1691, in a stranj (wine celler), was
Katarina, domestic of the priest Luka Zeko who lived below the Mineta Tower,
near the northen city walls. Her death prompted the isolation of the entire
quarter below the Mineta Tower to the street leading to the church of Our
Lady of Sigurata.75 On the following day, two maidservants (mazare), one in
the household of Andrija the tailor, and the other in the household of Petar
Baletin, fell ill.76 Two days later, domestic of the nobleman Marko Bassegli
died of plague.77 The house was placed in long-term isolation. It was not until
7 March that the items from the noblemans household were taken to the lazaretto
for disinfection. Noblemen Mato Jakovljev Natali and Junije Nikolin Gozze
were appointed to supervise the transport of the belongings. The noblemen
were to be assisted by the commoners Ivo Benevoli and Frano Bogaini.78 The
items were being aired for two whole weeks.79
Probably from the middle of January onwards, the cazamorti tended to confine
all the members of one household upon the slightest suspicion of the disease.
Thus by reason of the maids illness, on 14 January they sealed the house and
inn of the nobleman Miho Giorgi Bona. Isolation of the houses may have been
repeated if the circumstances required. For example, the house of nobleman Miho
Antunov Giorgi Bona was sealed on 17 January because of the maids illness.80
As she recuperated seven days later, the members of the household were no longer
confined.81 On 29 January 1691 the house was again placed in isolation because
the live-in wetnurse took a piece of raa, coarse woollen cloth, a highly infectious
material, from a potentially infected person.82 In January, the mazara also fell
ill, maidservant of Nikola Pavlov Saraca, and the isolation of this noble household
ensued. She recuperated on 25 January 1691, as confirmed by the surgeon Petar
Bogaini, which marked the end of isolation.83
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
An increasing number of the sick was accompanied by stricter isolation

measures. Underlying the isolation of the noble household of Luka Nikolin
Gozze from the end of January to the end of February 1691 was a visit of a
young woman from another house, in which the disease later manifested. On
29 January isolation was imposed on the noble household of Nikola and Sigismund
Vladislavov Menze on account of the maids falling ill. Also sealed off were
the houses of the noblemen Sigismund Marinov Tudisi and Marin Jerolimov
Natali.84 Indirect data reveal that the pestilence also manifested in the home
of the noblewoman Marija, widow of Vladislav Menze, as the items from that
household were burnt on 25 June 1691. Engaged for that unpleasant task were
the persons who disinfected wool at the lazaretto.85 It was not until 11 July that
the maidsevants from the Menze household were allowed free movement.86
The undertaken measures notwithstanding, the cazamorti failed to prevent
the spread of plague. A new wave of infected maidservants was recorded in
February 1691. Physician Cardini, together with other doctors, on 11 February
1691 informed the authorities that an unnamed domestic of the nobleman Antun
Martoliin Cerva died of plague.87 Potentially infected items from the household
were taken to the lazaretto. Before being returned, they were thoroughly aired.
Three young men were appointed for this task, yet not before June 1691.88
The reconstruction of the social network of the deceased maid of the Cerva
family took some while. An entry of 21 february 1691 notes that the house and
family of the nobleman Klement Ivanov Menze was sealed because their
maidservant visited another fellow maid who died later. On that very day the
home of the noblewoman Marija, widow of Luka Franov Bona, as well as that
of the noblewoman Lukrecija Bosdari, family friends of the Bona widow, were
sealed.89 This isolation cycle also included the house of Ivan Petrov Metkovi
from Risan, as his maid fell ill from plague.90 Items from Metkovis household
were taken to the lazaretto, to be disinfected some twenty days later.91 Items
susceptible to infection from the home of the Bona widow were taken to the
84
85
Ordini, vol. 7, ff. 37v, 39r.
86
87
88
89
90
91
lazaretto. Permission to reclaim the belongings was issued on 11 July.92 The

family of Marija Bona was isolated in Bosanka, a village overlooking Dubrovnik
on Mount Sr. The nunnery of St Peter, damaged during the earthquake of
1667, served as a quarantine station for the persons suspected of the disease.
The wetnurse of the family of Klement Marinov Menze was also sheltered
there, whose isolation continued well after 5 March 1691.93 Isolated in the
nunnery were many persons, on account of whom from the beginning of
February to the beginning of March Luka Tudisi received a financial support
of 10 ducats per month.94
March saw new cases of plague. Infection of the servants was the reason
for the sealing of the noble households of Frano Savinov Ragnina and Mare,
widow of Sekundo Jerolimov Gozze.95 By 20 April 1691, the plague had taken
18 lives in the city and around 70 in the lazaretto, notably the lives of the lowest
poor ranks (gente povera e della plebe).96
Members of patrician households under suspicion of the disease
Members of the nobility were appointed to oversee the isolated patrician

households within the city walls. By order of the authorities, Frano Sorgo Bobali
was to supervise four quarantined patrician houses, for the purpose of which a
list of the persons who happened to find themselves in confinement was made.
This list probably helped Bobali in the several roll-calls that he performed daily.
His duty was to establish the number and the health conditions of the household
members, of which he was to inform the cazamorti. According to Betteras
description, a similar procedure was applied in the villages of the Dubrovnik
Republic in the eighteenth century. A detailed list of household members such
as this was to be compiled for all the city parts in which the plague broke out,
because only on the basis of these lists the nobility and citizens stationed throughout
the city quarters could obtain an accurate number of persons and their health
condition, as required by the health officials in a decision of 14 January 1691.97
92
93
94
Ordini, vol. 7, ff. 21r-22v.
95
96
M. Vanino, Isusovci i hrvatski narod, II: p. 99; Ljetopis dubrovakog kolegija (1559-1764): p. 39.
97
The inventories thus included all household membersnobility and servants,

guests and callers. Infants were also listed. Each family from this sample had at
least three servants, in that the number of servants always exceeded the number
of household members of the patrician rank. Maids largely outnumbered their
male counterparts. The number of household members entered on the list reflects
a point in time when the house was placed under isolation. It fails to include other
family members or servants that happened to be temporarily absent at the time.
The household of the noblewoman Jelena Palmota was the smallest in size.
Besides the Lady of the house, three unnamed maids are mentioned.98 A total
of six persons happened to find themselves at the house of Rafael Lukin Gozze.
Besides Rado Gozze, also recorded were Ivan Cortois and his servant Luka,
along with three maids from the Gozze household, Pera Vlahuina, from Mrcine
(Dubravka) in Konavle, Stanula and Katarina Terza.99 Rafael Gozze was elected
for the office of cazamorti, but considering that his house was isolated, he was
replaced by Stjepan Vlahov Tudisi, who also held the office of proveditore.100
The three-member household of Marko Tomin Bassegli, consisting of the
spouses Marko and Marija and their daughter Marija, presumably of infant
age, was attended to by four servants: Petar, Marija Benediktova, Marijas
daughter Nika, iva Vlahuina and wetnurse Margarita Petrova. The servants
were separated from the masters, probably because iva Vlahuina was sick
and died of plague on 17 January.101 By permission of the cazamorti and according
to the decision of the Senate, the family of Marko Bassegli, after several days
of confinement in the house within the city walls, moved to the house of Ivan
Petrov from Risan, a member of the Lazarini Confraternity, located in the
western suburb of Pile, in the vicinity of the chapel of the Holy Cross. The
house was guarded by two unnamed soldati (soldiers) and Marketo Gudelj.102
The list of persons found at the household of Ivan Rafaelov Gozze is the longest.
Apart from the spouses Ivan and Vea, another three patricians were entered:
Mara, wife of Rafael Lukin Gozze, Slava, daughter of Marko Tomin Bassegli
and her uncle Ivan Tomin Bassegli. Four persons were noted as servants, Nikola,
Milica, Nikoleta and Jelua. Marko, peasant from Brgat, was most likely a
98
99
100
101
Ordini, vol. 7, ff. 11v, 14v.
102
villein who happened to be in the patrician household at the time. Three women
were entered without citing their occupation: Anuhla Ivanova, Katarina Iviina
and Anuhla Novaica. Katarina was accompanied by her infant daughter.103
Human resources at the disposal of the cazamorti
The implementation of plague control measures called for the engagement of

many people. The duty was not without risk, and had to be performed with utmost
care. Most important decisions were in the jurisdiction of the Senate, yet the operative
section of the defensive sanitary system was headed by the cazamorti with a fairly
broad authority. Judging by the profile of the cazamorti chosen in 1690 and 1691,
this challenging post was entrusted to most experienced persons eligible for the
office of rector. Junije Gabrijelov Cerva was chosen to the office of cazamorto on
20 February 1690. In April 1691 he was elected rector and died on duty on 22 April
1691.104 Rafael Vladislavov Gozze assumed the duty of cazamorti on 23 February
1690, and the office of rector in September 1688 and November 1690.105 Mato
Marinov Bona, was elected cazamorto on 26 August 1690, while in October that
same year he assumed rectors office.106 Two cazamorti, elected to this difficult post
in March 1691, while the city was still being ridden by plague, bore the honour of
rectorship. Pavao Vladislavov Gozze was elected rector in December 1690,107 while
Stjepan Boov Proculo assumed the office in August 1695.108 These examples
clearly show that a responsible duty of a health official paved the way to higher
positions.109 The regularly chosen cazamorti during plague epidemics were assisted
by additionally posted sanitary officials from the nobility ranks.
Cazamorti needed reliable men who would carry out concrete plague control
measures. The planning of human resources proved difficult, since the spread
of the disease could not be predicted, nor the exact number of persons necessary
for the implementation of the anti-epidemic measures, as it varied due to the
circumstances. Unexpected halts caused by the shortage of staff represented
103
104
Leges et instructiones, vol. 3, f. VIII.
105
Leges et instructiones, vol. 3, ff. IVv, VIII.
106
107
108
Leges et instructiones, vol. 3, f. IX.
109
Z. Blaina-Tomi, Kacamorti i kuga: pp. 104-105; Z. Blaina Tomi and V. Blaina, Expelling
the Plague: p. 119.
a particularly serious problem. At no cost could this interefere with the regular
functioning of other government services. In order to avoid eventual gaps,
stand-by lists of men who would be placed at the cazamortis disposal were
made. A list of this kind was compiled during the peste delle serve, most likely
after 19 January 1691. For an effective defence against plague the Republic
used all its human potentials. The list was arranged by rank into the nobility,
Confraternity of St Anthony, Confraternity of St Lazarus (elite citizen con-
fraternities), commoners (popolani), and by an additional professional criterion,
as the barbers were given special attention. Priority was given to the members
of the Major Council, adult noblemen, and further down the hierarchy. At their
disposal, the health officials had a total of 108 persons: 40 members of the
nobility, 10 Antunini, 18 Lazarini, 20 commoners and 20 barbers.110
This list is probably based on a similar prevously arranged recruitment list
from which men were selected to carry out the anti-epidemic measures. Enumerated
by status and occupation was a part of the citys male population during the
census of 1673-4.111 The source from which such a list might have been drawn
during the peste delle serve is the Specchio with regard to the nobility, and
various registers of the religious and professional confraternities with regard
to the members of citizen ranks and craftsmen. The bulk of persons whose
name stood on the list was actually engaged in the protection against plague,
since their names reappear in relation to the implementation of various decisions
and in the expenditure records of the Health Office Register.
The Health Office also engaged persons whose name was not on the list.
Jew Abraham Abuaf assumed his post at Ploe, on 14 January 1691, in order
to visit and cure the sick from contagious diseases (per visitare e curare
glinfermi del mal contaggio) on a very high salary of 3 ducats a day.112 Four
special gravediggers (pizigamorti) were responsible for the disposal of the
infected bodies. This difficult and odious work at Ploe was carried out by the
recently arrived outsiders, Karlo Francuz (Karlo the Frenchman), Santo
Sicilijanac (Santo the Sicilian) and the Vlachs Petar and Stjepan.113 The system
of anti-epidemic measures included many others who were rewarded for their
service, which will be dealt with in the section pertaining to the expenditures.
110
Ordini, vol. 7, ff. 16-18; R. Kralj-Brassard, Grad i kuga: Dubrovnik 1691. godine: Appendix
1, pp. 168-169.
111
Isprave i akti, ser. 76, n. 1809.
112
113
Ordini, vol. 7, f. 5v, a tergo.
Lazarettos
Lazarettos were the most common quarantine stations. At the east city
entrance, merchants, their goods and other travellers arriving from the areas
suspected of being infested were isolated for a limited period. During the peste
delle serve, isolation measures were imposed on a large number of city dwellers,
which resulted in the overcrowding of the lazaretto at Ploe. Bettera writes
that all suspects from one household had to be isolated in separate shelters.
This measure aimed at the prevention of the disease transmission was relatively
easily applied in the rural areas. The persons could be isolated individually
into farm buildings, such as sheds or warehouses. If there were no more vacancies
in the buildings, a simple shelter of hay114 or of any other available material
was constructed in the yard, garden or a nearby field. As the city could not
provide sufficient free space for the erection of provisional shelters, camps
were built at Ploe, Pile115 and Peskarija in the city port.116 By permission of
the health officials, the families occasioning suspicious deaths were allowed
to move outside the city, to Gru, Rijeka dubrovaka, Bosanka or the space of
the eastern suburb of St James.117 These families probably accommodated in
the country villas. Utilized as a quarantine was the monastery of St Peter, wine
cellars (stranjevi),118 family houses119 and palaces, Benedictine monastery on
the island of Lokrum, as well as the lazaretto120 on that island.
By the end of January 1691, a large group of people arrived at Lokrum. All
those suspected of the infection were forcibly relocated from the lazaretto at
Ploe to the island, along with the residents of several houses at Ploe. In order
to avoid contact between the healthy members of the ships crew and the
potentially infected passengers, the transport was carried out by two boats.
One boat was used to tow the other, aboard which were the potentially dangerous
passengers. The persons isolated on Lokrum received regular rations of food
and drink, which included wine,121 flour, vegetables and beans, oil, salt and
114
115
116
117
Ordini, vol. 7, f. 1r, a tergo.
118
119
120
121
occasionally meat. The island was to be supervised by a patrician122 at a salary

of 2 ducats a day, a citizen, member of the elite merchant confraternities (Antunin
or Lazarin) at a salary of 2 perpers a day, and 4 soldati at 4 grossi a day each.
For the delivery of letters to the island and other needs two smaller boats were
hired, driven by two men at one perper a day.123 Equal concern was given to
the spiritual needs of the isolated persons.124
Prior to being reclaimed by the Benedictines, the monastery building was
thoroughly whitewashed. Among others, the glass on the windows was repaired
and new keys were made. Whitewashing of the walls was a standard disinfection
procedure, while the repair of the windows and keys perhaps tells of the turbulent
events that ended with the apprehension of three persons. Provisional shelters on
the island of Lokrum were built from wooden boards, and once the plague receded
were relocated to Dane.125 The lazaretto of Lokrum remained in use well after the
solemn three-day celebration in the middle of June that marked the cessation of
plague. In July, at least 15 persons,126 and in September 10 were isolated there. 127
At the end of May, with the plague still raging, 26 people were isolated on Lokrum.128
Conflict situations
With time, cazamorti were given considerable authority. In order to avoid

concentration of power, the noblemen elected to this office descended from
different patrician lineages.129 Permanent anti-epidemic office, the first of its
kind in the world, was established in 1390, while from 1457 cazamorti were
salaried officials. To this demanding and often not only unpleasant but also
dangerous duty middle-aged patricians were chosen. The Senate appointed the
cazamorti to a term of one year, and most commonly two newly-elected officials
122
123
124
125
Ordini, vol. 7, separate leaf.
126
127
128
129
On clan affiliation and dissent among the noble lineages see: Stjepan osi and Nenad
Vekari, Dubrovaka vlastela izmeu roda i drave. Zagreb-Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne
znanosti HAZU, 2005; Nenad Vekari, Nevidljive pukotine. Dubrovaki vlasteoski klanovi. Zagreb-
Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU, 2009; N. Vekari, Vlastela grada Dubrovnika,
1: pp. 159-204.
would begin their term of office six months prior to their predecessors end of
office term. This secured the continuity of office and enabled smooth transition,
as the previously chosen officials could instruct their successors.130 Health
officials, like the officials in charge of wine inspection and sea customs, were
given penal authority and could impose high punishments.131 During the peste
delle serve, they were specially authorised by the Senate to pass a severe
physical punishment of up to three squassations.132 They were authorised to
restrict the movement of persons and order destruction of property. The decisions
of irresponsible cazamorti might easily not only put a persons property at stake
but his reputation as well. Office abuse of this kind was behind the claim filed
by Ivan Findela, textile merchant. Due to the maids death from plague, Findelas
house at Pile, along with the houses of two fabric dyers, were placed under
long-term isolation.133 An inquest was carried out so as to determine the source
of the disease. Apparently, the maids master became the prime suspect.
Besides a house at Pile, Ivan Findela had a house in Bosanka, where he
stored his goods. Following the inquest into the maids death, cazamorti ordered
that Findelas house in Bosanka be burnt together with all the goods stored in
it. Suspected as the source of disease were the infectious goods, either wool or
cloths. The state compensated the loss of goods of poorer inhabitants, but
Findela was not among them. According to his own evaluation, the house and
goods in Bosanka came to a damage of more than 1,000 ducats. In a claim
filed to the rector, Minor Council and later also to the Senate, the merchant
complained about cazamortis actions, moreover on two occasions, on 10 and
20 March 1691. He claims to be unjustly accused of trading illegally and that
he has suffered great damage. In his words, he observed all quarantine regulations,
burned whatever was suspicious, and aired the rest of goods according to the
law. He was unjustly accused and he feared of being further falsely accused in
case any person fell ill, or would claim to have fallen ill from the goods he had
given to be woven or spinned.134 Nobleman Ivan Markov Sorgo was chosen as
the health official in Bosanka, and the merchants claim was addressed to
130
Z. Blaina-Tomi, Kacamorti i kuga:pp. 104-105, 126; V. Miovi-Peri, Na razmeu: p. 125;
Z. Blaina Tomi and V. Blaina, Expelling the Plague: p. 123.
131
N. Lonza, Pod platem pravde: p. 71.
132
Cons. Rog. vol. 131, f. 87. On punishment of squassation see: N. Lonza, Pod platem pravde:
pp. 148-149.
133
Ordini, vol. 7, ff. 13v, 30v.
134
V. Miovi-Peri, Na razmeu: pp. 121, 324.
him.135 Findelas claim implies a possible abuse of the cazamortis wide authority,
who, for instance, by a single decision to burn the property could impoverish a
merchant overnight and at the same time ruin his business reputation. Despite Findelas
status, the damage on the merchants house and goods was compensated by decision
of the Senate in May 1691. Following an expert assessment of damage, an amount
of 656 ducats was to be paid, disbursed to Findela by Ivan Markov Sorgo.136
Conflict may also have risen from situations in which plague control measures
interefered with the noble pride. Isolation of noble families did not pass without
resistance. Nobleman Antun Martoliin Cerva hestitated for more than a week
before calling at the house of the late Vlaho Bosdari in Bosanka, as ordered
by the Senate. The son of the late Luka Bona was to remain in isolation on pain
of one-year imprisonment under locked doors and the key deposited at the
notary if he dared leave the house before the isolation period expired.137 In-class
solidarity was also taken into account, as in the case of a nobleman who
surveilled the noble families of Cerva and Bona. He was threatened with loss
of salary and prison if he acted contrary to regulations. Also established was
a fine for the soldati who disobeyed the decrees. Additional supervision of the
observance of Senates decision was enacted by a provision according to which
a person who denounced the offenders would receive a reward of 50 ducats.138
Restriction of movement was one of the measures that effectively prevented
the transmission of the disease but also gave way to major resistance, because
it interfered with business and daily life. This measure was implemented to a
drastic degree by decision of Senate of 11 February, when the cazamorti were
ordered to seal off all the houses in the city. The entire city population was
also confined to their homes at the end of April.139 The households suspected
of plague were already under special epidemic regime. Permitted to move freely
in the Placa, main street, were the members of the Major Council only and one
member from the households of the lower ranks. Also, one servant from the
patrician and elite citizen (Antunini and Lazarini) household was allowed
unrestricted movement for the purpose of household supply.140 Offenders from
135
136
Cons. Rog. vol. 131, ff. 142v-143v.
137
On prison sentences and various forms of imprisonment see: N. Lonza, Pod platem pravde:
pp. 165-182.
138
Cons. Rog. vol. 131, ff. 105v-106v.
139
R. Jeremi and J. Tadi, Prilozi za istoriju zdravstvene kulture starog Dubrovnika, I: p. 101.
140
Cons. Rog. vol. 131, ff. 104-104v.
the highest ranks were to be fined with 50 ducats and a months confinement
at the Dominican Monastery or home confinement for female offenders. A
punishment of a months prison awaited the offenders from the lower orders.141
Isolation implied non-attendance of religious services, in a time of crisis
when spiritual consolation and invocation of saints protectors was much needed.
In the first days of plague, the authorities did not forbid people to attend church
service, though under certain precautionary measures, that is, the persons were
to avoid direct contact with each other and avoid crowds. Several points in the
city were determined as places of worship. The members of the highest ranks,
including their servants, could attend service at any city church except for the
two largest ones. The churches of St Francis and St Dominic were reserved for
the lower orders. The authorities made certain that a sufficient number of
confessioners was at the disposal of the faithful day and night. Confessions
were heard under the usual precautionary measures.142
A week after the first death from plague, when the gravity of the situation
became quite evident, the Senate resorted to an enhanced spiritual device in
the struggle against plaguepenitence, prayer and solemn vows. As a sign of
penitence, female members of the highest ranks were to dress themselves in
simple clothes made of home-spun raa.143 The Senate decided to set up a
solemn votive procession on 9 January, on the day when the young novice died
of plague. Holy Mass was to be followed by a procession, in which the holy
relics of St Blaise and the Venerable Wood of the Cross would be carried,
accompanied by the Rector and members of the Minor Council carrying double
candles (duplijeri). Modelled after the spiritual defence from plague back in
1527, two services were to be held at the church of St Blaise and one at the
church of St Rock during the whole epidemic interval. The Senate also looked
ahead and pre-defined the celebration of the plagues cessation when it came.
A three-day celebration was decreed, starting with prayers, forty hours of the
Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament and a most solemn Ragusan procession,
like that held on the feast of Corpus Christi. All members of the Major Council
were to participate in the procession. On the second day, the relics of St Blaise,
city protector, Venerable Wood of the Cross, image of Our Lady od Porata and
the miraculous reliquary of St Filippo Benizzi were to be accompanied by the
senators only. On the third day, members of the Minor Council were to take
141
Cons. Rog. vol. 131, ff. 104v-105.
142
Ordini, vol. 7, f. 12r-12v.
143
Cons. Rog. vol. 131, f. 90v.
part in the procession, in which Our Lady od Porata was carried. The triduum
was to be concluded with a liturgy and the solemn Te Deum.144 The official
cessation of plague was celebrated on 10, 11 and 12 June 1691.145
Indeed, many prayers were said in the sombre plague-ridden atmosphere
of Dubrovnik, yet the persons in need of greatest spiritual consolation, since
they were suspected of plague, were not allowed to attend church service. This
prohibition proved especially discomforting to the women from the elite ranks,
whose regular church attendance not only satisfied their spiritual needs but
was virtually a unique form of their social life.146 On Ash Wednesday, by a
narrow majority of 9:8 in the fourth round of voting, the Senate decided that
the health officials permit the members of the elite ranks attendance of the
Holy Sunday Mass.147 However, a new decree on the ban of free movement of
noblewomen, female members of the Antunini and Lazarini on pain of 25
perpers was issued on 27 March 1691, during Lent. The money from the
collected fines was to be used to cover the expenses of the sanitary office.148
Ten days later, shortly before Palm Sunday, the ban was partly lifted, and the
female members of the highest ranks could still attend service.149 They were
again deprived of this right in the second week upon Easterunlike the cazamorti,
they were not allowed to attend the Holy Mass nor procession.150
The smouldering conflicts, fanned by the special sanitary measures during
plague, in one case mounted to open revolt. The scene of this conflict was
Lokrum, to which persons from the lazaretto at Ploe were relocated, presumably
due the overcrowded conditions. Men from Lastovo transported the Benedictine
friars from Lokrum to the island of ipan.151 Their departure was soon followed
by a rebellion. By decision of Senate, two health officials were to go to Lokrum
in order to carry out an investigation. A proposition by which twenty soldiers
should be sent to the island that very evening in order to arrest the rebels against
Captain Miho and the soldati was rejected by a narrow majority of 9:8.152 By
144
N. Lonza, Kazalite vlasti: p. 292. On feast days commemorating the thanksgiving for the
cessation of plague see: N. Lonza, Kazalite vlasti: pp. 267-295.
145
R. Jeremi i J. Tadi, Prilozi za istoriju zdravstvene kulture starog Dubrovnika, I: p. 101.
146
Zdenka Janekovi-Rmer, Marua ili suenje ljubavi. Brano-ljubavna pria iz srednjovjekovnog
Dubrovnika. Zagreb: Algoritam, 2007: p. 48.
147
Cons. Rog. vol. 131, f. 109r-109v.
148
Cons. Rog. vol. 131, f. 122r.
149
Cons. Rog. vol. 131, f. 125r.
150
Cons. Rog. vol. 131, f. 142.
151
152
Cons. Rog. vol. 131, f. 112.
order of cazamorti and with permission of the Order of St Marys Monastery

on Lokrum, on 6 March 1691 the soldati conducted the priest Tomo Pocalela,
the trumpet-player Dominik Bonhomo and barber Nikola Budman. The first
was locked in a prison called camara, while the other two in the dungeon
known as dragon. The prison keys were deposited in the office.153 The rebels
demanded archbishops intervention, while the Senat concluded that the archbishop
could not interfere into the matters of the state.154 By decision of Senate, Nikola
Budman was sentenced to four months of prison, and Dominik Bonhomo to
one month of imprisonment. Both had to pay the judicial costs at a total of 20
ducats. Although both offenders had already served more than one month in
prison, it was not deduced from their sentence. A proposition to petition archbishop
for the punishment of Tomo Pocalela was rejected.155
The expenses of the defence against plague
Direct and indirect expenses of the defence against plague were extremely
high. There is reason to assume that the profit losses, either individual or of the
state, due to the drastically reduced volume of trade and ban on craft manufacture
were considerable. The stigma of a plague-stricken port gravely affected the
economy well after the cessation of the disease. An exact amount of direct expenses
cannot be ascertained, since the bookkeeping of the expenditures varied in method.
The expenses of anti-epidemic measures, as recorded by nobleman Vladislav
Sekundov Buchia from 10 January to 19 March, amounted to 1,713:31 ducats.156
A sum of around 7,900 ducats entered into the account records in early March
should also be added, the money being given to various persons in order to cover
the requirements of the Health Office on the entire territory of the Dubrovnik
Republic.157 Peste delle serve burdened the bursary by approximately 10,000
ducats, ten times the expenditure of the Hospital misericordiae.158 A comparison
with the overall state expenditure in 1691 would best show the true and paramount
size of the costs pertaining to plague, yet this analysis remains to be investigated
in the future. If compared with the state expenditure from the second decade of
153
Ordini, vol. 7, ff. 22v, 33.
154
V. Bazala, Calendarium pestis (II): pp. 77-78; R. Jeremi and J. Tadi, Prilozi za istoriju
zdravstvene kulture starog Dubrovnika, I: p. 100.
155
Cons. Rog. vol. 131, f. 135r-135v.
156
157
Ordini, vol. 7, ff. 32v-33.
158
For the expenditures of the foundling home the usual amount of 3,600 perpers was decreed
(Cons. Rog. vol. 131, ff. 82r, 99r, 110v, 123v, 141r, 156v, 170v, 193v, 205r, 209r, 217r, 239r).
the seventeenth century, the costs of the plague of the maidservants fall within
one-seventh of the budget expenditures.159 The sum is equally significant if compared
with the estimated Ragusan revenue for the year 1624.160
Plague control measures proved just as devastating for the treasury in the
previous centuries. Government expenses pertaining to plague which spread
from Rome in May 1500 amounted to 1,500 ducats.161 During the great epidemic
of 1526, when the number of deaths reached more than two thousand and when
the government retired to the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Gru, the costs
approximated to 40,000 ducats. This enormous sum162 was spent on guards,
supply and charity.163 A similarly structured expenditure has also been observed
at the end of the seventeenth century.
Direct expenses of the defence against plague included the salaries of those
who implemented the anti-epidemic measures, medical treatment of the sick,164
construction, equipment and furnishing of the shelters,165 camps and lazarettos,166
food and drink for the confined persons and the sick,167 clothing,168 heating,169
illumination,170 burning of infected goods,171 cleaning,172 burial,173 messanger,174
transport,175 religious service176and other.177
159
Antonio Di Vittorio, Finanze e moneta a Ragusa nellet delle crisi. Napoli: Giannini, 1983:
pp. 47-50.
160
Grga Novak, O Dubrovakoj Republici god. 1624. Anali Historijskog instituta JAZU u
Dubrovniku 13-14 (1976): pp. 14-15.
161
Serafino Razzi, La Storia di Ragusa. Ragusa: Editrice Tipographia Serbo-Ragusea A.
Pasari, 1903: p. 113.
162
The cannon-equipped state galley known as bastarda was built in 1527 at a cost of 12,000
ducats (S. Razzi, La Storia di Ragusa: p. 122).
163
S. Razzi, La Storia di Ragusa: p. 122.
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
The costs of the defence against plague included the reconstruction of the street leading to
Bosanka (Ordini, vol. 7, f. 21v).
The salaries differed with respect to social status and the degree of responsibility.
The salaries of the health officials were very high. For example, a nobleman whose
duty was to control the persons confined on Lokrum received a daily remuneration
of 2 ducats.178 Secundo urov Buchia received 100 grossi per day (2 and a half
ducats or 8:4 perpers) for surveilling the family of Antun Martoliin Cerva, who
remained confined in their house in Bosanka after the death of their maid.179 The
time of epidemics proved lucrative for the otherwise modestly paid occupations.
The salary of gravedigger during the epidemic was 20 grossi per day, while with
the ebb of the disease it decreased to 3 ducats per month or 4 grossi per day.180 A
daily fee of the guard controlling an infected household was one perper.181 The
registers of the health officials also mention the women who attended to the sick
and quarantined.182 For his six-month service at Ploe, or 184 days to be precise,
Ragusan Jew Abraham Abuaf received a considerable sum of 552 ducats.183
The state paid 3 grossi for the daily provision of a confined person. Regular
supplies of fresh water and wood for the fire and disinfection were sent to
Lokrum.184Food for the sick represented a separate expenditure item.185 With
the epidemic over, the person attending to the sick had to change into new
clothes. At the cost of state, the constable was given a new uniform as a token,
while the cost of the gravediggers uniform was deducted from his salary.186
The decisions fail to specify the sources from which the costs of anti-epidemic
measures would be defrayed.187 During the plague of the maidservants, the
bursory of the Rectors Palace was not used to meet any larger expenses of the
defence against epidemic.188 However, the expenditure records of the Rectors
178
179
180
Ordini, vol. 7, f. 2v, separate leaf.
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
In order to meet the high expenses of the defence against plague in 1631, the Venetian provveditore
generale resorted to the budget of the lepers and the lazaretto, special taxes being raised on the sale
of various commodities, oil and meat (R. Jeli, Zadarske kuge i lazareti u prolosti: pp. 93-94).
188
Contrary to the case from the eighteenth century, when by order of the Senate of 30 October
1791, a considerable sum of 1,666:8 perpers was disbursed to the sanitary officials from the
expenditures of the Rectors Palace (Rina Kralj-Brassard, Detta presvijetlog i preuzvienog
gospodina kneza: trokovi Dvora u Dubrovniku od 16. do 19. stoljea. Anali Zavoda za povijesne
znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 52/1 (2014): p. 143).
Palace during the plague of 1691 contain several entries related to the courier
dispatches for the requirements of the Sanitary Office, per sanit. Also, the
Health Office received stationary supplies, such as paper and pens.189 Some of
the expenses pertaining to spiritual devices for the protection against plague,
display of the Most Blessed Sacrament, penitence and votive processions for
the protection against plague were met by the budget of the Rectors Palace.190
Expenses such as these, not solely related to the Health Office, always fell
within the expenditures of the Rectors Palace.
Intelligence management
In the seventeenth century, the city authorities on both shores of the Adriatic
often prohibited Ragusan ships from free passage and trade, justifying that
decision with the outbreak of pestilence in the Ottoman-controlled hinterland
of Dubrovnik. The Senate reacted to such a measure by explaining that Ragusan
maritime trade thrived despite the constant presence of various epidemics in
the Ottoman Empire, which proved the traffic ban groundless. Simultaneously,
strict anti-epidemic measures were applied to all travellers and goods arriving
in Dubrovnik from the Levant. Envoys, consuls and other persons who travelled
across the Ottoman Empire were obliged to inform the Ragusan government
of the occurrence of contageous diseases in that area. The Senate then proceeded
the information concerning health conditions to Kotor, and sometimes also to
Zadar. The news on the outbreak of plague also travelled vice versa, in that,
for example, the authorities of Kotor informed the Ragusans on the epidemic
conditions on the Montenegrin and Albanian territory.191
Ragusan authorities were determined to show that the port of Dubrovnik
was safe and protected from disease, and that Ragusan ships and port authorities
applied most strict protective and precautionary measures. The ships which
arrived from plague-stricken areas to all ports of the Adriatic and elsewhere
in Europe were subject to quarantine, this period being even doubled at times,
which interefered with the trade and resulted in great shipping and merchandise
losses. Shipping companies lost valuable weekly transports, while the owners
of goods had their capital in merchandise brought to a standstill instead of
189
Detta, ser. 6, vol. 20, ff. 45r, 45v, 47v (SAD).
190
Detta, vol. 20, ff. 53v, 56v.
191
Dj. Orli, Dubrovake vijesti o epidemijama u Bosni i Hercegovini u XVII vijeku: p. 47.
turning it over and making profit. That was the price that had to be paid for
the protection of the local population against the disease, in the short run, in
direct contradiction to the interests of merchants and shipping companies, yet
in the long run, to the benefit of all.
The government not only aimed to protect its own territory from plague,
but also to uphold the reputation of a safe and healthy community. Port authorities
exchanged information on sanitary conditions and did not hesitate to proclaim
strict precautionary measures even at the slighest suspicion of infection. Rumours
on the outbreak of the disease may have seriously threatened Ragusan economic
interests, since in that case merchant ships would avoid landing in the Ragusan
port. A drop of traffic had a most direct impact on the state revenue. The success
of Ragusan economy largely rested on the neutrality and security of the state.
A couple of months prior to the outbreak of the plague of the maidservants,
while the epidemic was already raging in the Ottoman-controlled hinterland,
in a letter of 6 August 1690, the Senate appealed to Marquis San Lauro (don
Francesco Ardia) to intervene with the Viceroy of Naples not to ban trade with
the Dubrovnik Republic. The territory of the Dubrovnik Republic was free
from the disease, the Senators emphasised, and there was no danger of its
transmission either, since most strict protective measures were implemented.
All goods and people arriving from the Levant were quarantined to a double
period.192 This diplomatic action gave no fruit, because in its letter addressed
to the Viceroy of Naples of 26 September 1690, Ragusan government repeated
its appeal for free passage of the Ragusan ships.193
Ragusan diplomacy was determined to prove that the government-issued
information on the sanitary conditions was reliable, that for centuries disease
had not been transmitted from Dubrovnik, and above all, that the port of
Dubrovnik deserved at least an equal treatment as the other ports of the East
Adriatic, under Venetian rule at the time. On occasion, for the confirmation
of such status the intervention of the papal nuncio had to be sought.194 An
illustrative example of the governments reaction to the attempts aimed to
jeopardise the vital interests of the state was the 1676 execution of Gaspar
Crivelari, a Paduan employed as the Ragusan city physician, because in his
correspondence with the Venetian provveditore generale of Dalmatia and
192
Dubrovaka akta i povelje, IV/2: pp. 25-28.
193
194
G. Novak, Borba Dubrovnika za slobodu 1683-1699.: p. 113.
Albania he mentioned the outbreak of plague on the territory of Dubrovnik,

in consequence of which Ragusan ships lost the privilege of free trade with
the Italian ports for a number of years.195
The records kept by the health officials during the peste delle serve provide the
basis for comparison between the factual state and the description given in diplomatic
correspondence. The Senate kept a most lively correspondence during the epidemic,
focusing on securing the privileges of free passage for the Ragusan ships and food
supply. In a letter of 1 March 1691, addressed to Marquis San Lauro in Naples, in
which the Senate petitioned for the import of goods by Ragusan ships, the Senate
claimed that as of 11 February not a single new case of plague had occurred in the
city.196 Indeed, no entries on the new cases of plague were recorded in the register
of the Health Office from 11 February, when the maid of nobleman Antuna Martolica
Cerva died, to 1 March, when the letter was written, as the Senate cautiously
formulated. Yet, an entry dated 23 February concerns the sick state of the maid of
Ivan Petrov from Risan. One of his houses stood at Pile, in the vicinity of the
suburban church of the Holy Cross.197 In any case, urban plague was only temporarily
suppressed, because by the middle of March several people within the city walls
died from it. The Lokrum lazaretto, camps at Pile, Ploe and Peskarija were filled
to capacity, and many houses were sealed off.
On 26 March 1691, Ragusan government sent a detailed report to Rome, to
Paolo Francesco Pierizzi, on the prevailing sanitary conditions in Dubrovnik
and its surroundings. The Senate stated that the Antunini hospital for poor women,
which cared for twenty-two inmates, was sealed off to prevent the wretched
women from wandering around the city, immediately upon the death of the son
of the Hospital misericordiae governess (9 January). By reason of prevention,
all the women from this poor house were relocated to the lazarettos. Another
three women died there. A bubon was observed on the body of one woman, while
the inquest carried out by the health officials showed that the infection was
transmitted by a woman who visited the Hospital misericordiae. The letter fails
to mention a couple of deaths among the maidesrvants in mid-January, one of
which occurred in a patrician household. The second victim of plague described
195
Dj. Orli, Dubrovake vijesti o epidemijama u Bosni i Hercegovini u XVII vijeku: pp.
60-61. The physician reported on two Ragusan merchants who died of plague. The trial was
conducted swiftly and in secret. Death sentence by strangling was carried out in prison on the same
day as the verdict. See: V. Bazala, Calendarium pestis (II): p. 75.
196
197
Ordini, vol. 7, ff. 15v, 30r.
in the letter was a fourteen-year-old boy, who died on 16 March 1691, two days
after the onset of the disease. Description of the symptoms is accompanied by
an account of the applied anti-epidemic measuresisolation of the house and
neighbourhood, and detention of the boys parents in the lazaretto. Optimistically
overtoned, all is well was the Senates definition of the situation in the city
and its surroundings. Only in Plat, a village east of Dubrovnik, there remained
an infected house, while the information from Venice according to which the
plague broke out on the islands of Lopud and ipan was false.198
An equally optimistic tone characterises the letter of 10 April 1691, in which
the Senate informs nobleman Mato Lucijanov Pozza in Vienna, to his consolation
(per vostra consolazione), that in Dubrovnik there have been several weeks
now (sono settimane) that not a single case of plague has occurred.199 The
epidemic continued into April, while the verity of this statement lies on verbal
dexterity, or rather, on a hazy distinction between an old and new case of the
disease. The Senate seemed to have been preoccupied with famine and the
lethal pressure of Venice rather than with plague.200
Careful formulation of the sanitary conditionsby which the Dubrovnik
Republic is seemingly free from the contagion (quasi libero dalla contagione)201
unless for a new case that had occurred a week before and which, one may
rightfully claim, had vanished202allowed plenty of manoeuvre space for the
Senates various interpretations in the letters sent to Naples on 18 April, so as to
obtain permission for the import of food for the hunger-stricken Ragusans. It
was not until the middle of June that the actual cessation of plague was celebrated.
Conclusion
Over the centuries, Dubrovnik Republic developed a sophisticated anti-

epidemic system that the contemporaries deemed impenetrable. In the seventeenth
century, when the outbreaks of this dangerous disease severly and almost
continuously swept the Ragusan borderland with the Ottoman Empire, anti-
epidemic measures succeeded in confining the spread of plague to the state
198
199
Dubrovaka akta i povelje, IV/2: p. 101.
200
201
202
periphery. The stability of the frontier, a developed and well-organised system

which relied on broad public engagement in the application of the plague control
measures, daily monitoring of the epidemic conditions, sufficient financial support
and relative cooperation of the inhabitants may be viewed as the reasons for a
somewhat better implementation of the anti-epidemic system on the Ragusan
territory as compared to that adopted in Venetian Dalmatia. In all likelihood, all
these elements contributed to a relatively shorter epidemic interval and lesser
number of deaths in the last urban plague that hit the territory of Dubrovnik.
The plague of the maidservants, which managed to bypass the sanitary
cordon and spread into the urban centre of the state by the beginning of January
1691, marked the end of a series of adversities that had befallen the population
of the Dubrovnik Republic at the close of the seventeenth century. Famine,
wars raging in the immediate neighbourhood, hajducs crossing the Ragusan
border with infected goods, coupled by Venetian determined attempts to disrupt
Ragusan trade and the supply of food. Given the suitable, almost ideal, conditions
for the spread of plague, the epidemic spilt over from the Ottoman-controlled
hinterland into the Ragusan territory.
The last plague that hit the city found its victims mostly among the weakest
dwellers. Detected as initial source of plague was the state foundling hospital,
Pile and Ploe. The pestilence then spread to other parts of the city, suburb and
the outskirts. All victims of plague mentioned in the registers of the health
officials came from the lowest social ranks. Maids proved more susceptible to
the disease, probably due to malnutrition and the fact that they were more often
exposed to the infection: the transmission of plague followed the pattern of
social contacts of the infected domestics.
In addition to the principle of caution, according to which the circle of
suspects was very widely drawn, the key of the success of the plague control
measures probably lay in the procedure of the reconstruction of the social
network of the person suspected of the disease, in order to establish the source,
foresee and prevent the possible spread of the infection. Isolation as a plague
control measure was also imposed on patrician households in which maidservants
were those who fell ill, yet the lists of households, as rare insights into the
household membership of several patrician homes, contain all members, nobility
and servants alike. As a rule, the latter outnumbered their noble masters. A
considerable number of suspected infections within the crowded city area
resulted in the construction of several isolation stations at Ploe, Pile and
Peskarija, in addition to the Lokrum lazaretto and the Benedictine Monastery.

Prompt and effective reaction in setting up quarantine facilities and their
furnishing for the care of the isolated persons shows how adaptable and truly
able Ragusan government was in readily coping with every new situation.
The organisation of the defence against plague has revealed a core of some
hundred loyal men, mainly, though not exclusively, from the highest ranks,
expectedly with the greatest proportion of the nobility, who were to bear the
burden of the implementation of the anti-epidemic measures. Members of the
elite citizen ranks, Antunini and Lazarini, acted alongside the patricians,
assuming their portion of responsibility. To some, participation in the protection
against plague proved a profitable opportunity, since more risky positions were
rewarded accordingly. Imposition of unpopular measures, such as restricted
movement, did not always go smoothly, and a rebellion, a serious conflict
situation which took place on Lokrum, was promptly dealt with. Direct expenses
of the plague of the maidservants roughly amounted to a high sum of 10,000
ducats. Accentuated optimism with which the Senate described the health
conditions in Dubrovnik in several of its letters sent to Rome, Naples and
Vienna in March and April that year, was to serve the purpose of securing free
passage of Ragusan ships and to help minimise indirect costs due to the epidemic
of plague.

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Dubrovnik Annals 20 (2016): pp.

A CITY FACING THE PLAGUE: DUBROVNIK, 1691*

ABSTRACT: This article focuses on the circumstances surrounding the

Keywords: Dubrovnik, plague, 17th century, plague control measures, government

some basic knowledge in the protection against disease.7 Sanitary measures,

The challenges of the second half of the seventeenth century

26,000 inhabitants.24 This grim period of violence, which mirrored in the

The plague of the maidservants

In a series of adverse conditions, the outbreak of plague in the Ottoman-

in southern Herzegovina saw approximately 14 deaths from plague a day. In

The circle of suspects at the Hospital misericordiae

Maidservants the victims of plague

Maidservants may have been more susceptible to plague due to undernutrition

was decreed until 28 January, to be subsequently reduced to only four households

An increasing number of the sick was accompanied by stricter isolation

lazaretto. Permission to reclaim the belongings was issued on 11 July.92 The

Members of patrician households under suspicion of the disease

Members of the nobility were appointed to oversee the isolated patrician

The inventories thus included all household membersnobility and servants,

Human resources at the disposal of the cazamorti

The implementation of plague control measures called for the engagement of

occasionally meat. The island was to be supervised by a patrician122 at a salary

With time, cazamorti were given considerable authority. In order to avoid

order of cazamorti and with permission of the Order of St Marys Monastery

The expenses of the defence against plague

Albania he mentioned the outbreak of plague on the territory of Dubrovnik,

Over the centuries, Dubrovnik Republic developed a sophisticated anti-

periphery. The stability of the frontier, a developed and well-organised system

Peskarija, in addition to the Lokrum lazaretto and the Benedictine Monastery.

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