Ragusan nobility genealogy

Post date: Dec 02, 2011 4:32:44 PM

Overview

Network Dataset

The dataset name is Ragusa, and includes the following:

• • Ragusan.ged: a GEDCOM genealogy file containing 5,999 vertices (members of the Ragusan nobility from the 12th to the 16th century), 9,315 arcs (parent-child relations; if opened in Pajek with Options>Read/Write>Ore: 1-Male, 2-Female links checked, Father- child relations hav line value 1 and mother-child relations have line value 2), 2,002 edges (marriages, line value is 0), no loops. Note that this file also contains the (known) years of birth, marriage and death, which Pajek automatically stores as vectors on reading the GEDCOM file.

  • Gondola_Petrus.ged: a GEDCOM genealogy file containing descendants of one nobleman, Petrus Gondola, 336 vertices (persons), 450 arcs (parent- child relations), 113 edges (marriages, line value is 0), no loops. This is a selection from Ragusan.ged.

Background

Ragusa, which is now known as Dubrovnik (Croatia, Europe), was settled on the coast of the Adriatic Sea in the 7th century. For a time, it was under Byzantine protection, becoming a free commune as early as the 12th century. Napoleon, having destroyed the Venetian Republic in 1797, put an end to the Republic of Ragusa in 1806. It came under Austrian control until the fall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918.

In Ragusa, all political power was in the hands of male nobles older than 18 years. They were members of the Great Council (Consilium majus) which had the legislative function. Every year, 11 members of the Small Council (Consilium minus) were elected. Together with a duke, the Small Council had both executive and representative functions. The main power was in the hands of the Senat (Consilium rogatorum) which had 45 members elected for one year. This organization prevented any single family, unlike the Medici in Florence, from prevailing. Nevertheless the historians agree that the Sorgo family was all the time among the most influential.

The Ragusan nobility evolved in the 12th century through the 14th century and was finally established by statute in 1332. After 1332, no new family was accepted until the large earthquake in 1667. A major problem facing the Ragusan noble families was that by decreases of their numbers and the lack of noble families in the neighboring areas, which were under Turkish control, they became more and more closely related - marriages between relatives in the 3rd and 4th remove were frequent. It is interesting to analyze how families of a privileged social class organized their relations by marriage and how they coped with the limited number of potential spouses for their children.

References

• • Irmgard Mahnken (1960): Das Ragusanische Patriziat des XIV. Jahrhunderts. (PhD dissertation, @).

  • V. Batagelj, 'Ragusan families marriage networks' in A. Ferligoj & A. Kramberger (Eds.), Developments in Data Analysis (Ljubljana: FDV, 1996, 217-228).

  • Dremelj P., Mrvar A., Batagelj V.: Analiza rodoslova dubrovaČkog vlasteoskog kruga pomoću programa Pajek. Anali Dubrovnik XL, HAZU, Zagreb, Dubrovnik, 2002, 105-126.

  • W. de Nooy, A. Mrvar, & V. Batagelj, Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), Chapter 11.

History

• • Original author: Irmgard Mahnken (Preußen-straße 46, 66111 Saarbrücken, 2002?).

  • Data compiled into GEDCOM file by Polona Dremelj (diploma thesis, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1999).