Obrtnici i općinsko predgrađe Dubrovnika krajem 13. stoljeća / Artisans in Dubrovnik's Communal Suburb in the Late Thirteenth Century (original) (raw)

Obrtnici i općinsko predgrađe Dubrovnika krajem 13. stoljeća / Artisans in Dubrovnik's Communal Suburb in the Late Thirteenth Century

2019, ARTISANI ET MERCATORES...: Collected Papers from the 2018 International Biennal Conference, Volume 8

This paper aims to identify the real estate possessed by artisans in Dubrovnik’s communal suburban area at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century. Artisans’ residence and economic activity in the suburban area will be traced in relation to town planning, political and legal circumstances, family structure, types of crafts, migrations and residential mobility. In addition to contributing to our knowledge of the life of artisans in Dubrovnik, this research may shed light on urban development in the thirteenth century.The most active business and residential zone were streets connecting the eastern and western city gates to the area in front of government and administrative buildings. A new municipal suburban area, the later Saint Nicholas sexterium, developed in the thirteenth century north of today’s Placa, which would become the main residential (and business) area of Dubrovnik’s artisans. This paper addresses the selected properties owned or used by artisans in the municipal suburban area and analyses their grouping into particular zones of the said territory depending on family and professional connections and the overall development of this part of the city. Locating the place of residence is another key to understanding the networking, the economic activity and the identifcation of artisans, i.e. an important element to understanding urban development.