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The article aims to present the main features of the character of the Morlachs living in the Venetian Dalmatia during the Fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries. The research approach focuses on Venetian sources, published and unpublished, therefore the portray of the Morlachs built up in this study is an external one. According to it the Morlachs appear as nomadic people who develop occasional or permanent activities in the Venetian hinterland of Dalmatia. Either they are presented by the sources as shepherds, soldiers, immigrants, merchants, criminals or in many other situations, the Morlachs became agents of coexistence in the permeable area of the Venetian-Ottoman border. This is why, one of the ideas promoted by this study is that the survival of the Morlach`s presence in Dalmatia was assured by the political instability.

This paper aims to present various types of documents referring directly or indirectly to the Morlachs and the Uskoks, in order to answer to questions such as which main activities these people developed, and how they influenced daily life in Dalmatia. A significant characteristic and paradox of both the Morlachs and Uskoks is that their names are conventions and denominations found mostly in external sources. Frequently mentioned in sixteenth-century Venetian documents, despite the little additional information provided, the archival material investigated nevertheless offers the opportunity to understand these very active, mobile and adaptable populations, especially with regard to their role as cross-cultural and transimperial subjects.

Baili, civitani e banieri: queste erano le figure, espressione della società locale cipriota, impegnate nel governo di realtà secondarie nell’isola, dove la Repubblica non inviava dei propri rappresentanti patrizi. Prendendo come riferimento la contrata Carpathi, situata nella parte nord-occidentale dell’isola e sottoposta all’autorità del capitano di Famagosta, questo contributo intende analizzare le modalità con cui questi protagonisti minori erano eletti, le loro responsabilità nei confronti della comunità locale e dei referenti veneziani nell’isola e, infine, il loro ruolo all’interno dell’amministrazione della giustizia nella periferia del regno.

W połowie XVI stulecia prowincja Trogir, podobnie jak cała Dalmacja, odczuwała znaczący spadek gospodarczy i demograficzny. Opuszczone ziemie i wsie regionu przygranicza, oddzielające posiadłości Imperium Ottomańskiego i Republiki Weneckiej stały się nowym domem dla półkoczowniczych pasterzy Morlaków. Niektórzy spośród wcześniejszych właścicieli opuszczonych posiadłości wyprowadzili się w czasie konfliktu z Ottomanami do miast na wybrzeżu i zdecydowali się wydzierżawić swoje ziemie Morlakom, którzy przybyli tu spoza granicy. Tak stało się w przypadku wsi Radosich, Triloque i Suchi Dol, wydzierżawionych rodzinom Morlaków, które – w świetle dokumentów państwowych – musiały wywiązać się z obowiązków nałożonych na dalmatyńskich właścicieli. Rodzaje powinności, które miały być świadczone przez Morlaków na rzecz weneckich panów, jak również ottomańskich władców, nie różniły się tak bardzo od zobowiązań wypełnianych przez inne społeczności wołoskie zidentyfikowane w środkowej części Półwyspu Bałkańskiego. Biorąc pod uwagę fakt, że zadaniem wenecko-ottomańskiego regionu pogranicznego było utrzymanie pokoju między nimi na terenie Dalmacji, wenecka decyzja o wydzierżawieniu ziem ottomańskim poddanym jawi się jako rozwiązanie korzystne dla wszystkich zaangażowanych stron: mieszkańców Dalmacji, władz ottomańskich na Bałkanach i półkoczowniczych Morlaków.

The Turkish offensive in the Balkans often determined various human groups to search for a new life outside the borders of the Ottoman Empire. In the Dalmatian hinterland, administrated by Venice since the beginning of 16th century, the Morlachs are those who, together with Serbs, Croatians, Bosnians, etc. chose to accept the Venetian protection against the non-Christian danger. On its side, St. Mark′s Republic needed more and more new people to repopulate various regions that had hardly been affected by wars, plagues and drought. During the 16th century Serenissima established the rules of internal migrations (from one region to another of Stato da Mar ) and its settlement policy for the poorly inhabited areas and their new colonists. The encouragement and the development of the population transfer from Dalmatia to Istria represented an aspect of the Venetian policy in balancing the demography of the state. Arrived from the inner Balkans, the Morlachs accepted quite often to settle in south – western Istria, because the benefits and the exemptions offered by the Republic were not to be ignored: exemptions from fees for using public pasturelands, the right to build settlements in empty spaces, exemptions from fees for transport or reductions from some of the administrative taxes. Even if these benefits were temporary or permanent, they used to increase the number of Morlach migrations from Dalmatia in Istria. In effect, as the documents attest, during the 16th century plenty of Morlach settlements appeared in the hinterland of the Istrian cities, like: Rovigno, Umago, Pinguente, Montona, Cittanova, Villanova, Raspo, Parenzo etc. Despite the fact that sometimes the Morlachs chose to leave the new settlements and turn back in Turchia , the numerous settlements colonized and inhabited by them justify, up to some extent, the existence of an Istrian Morlacchia.