Les Catalans à Dubrovnik et dans le Bassin Adriatique à la fin du Moyen Âge

Abstract

Although the distance between the cities of the catalan coast and Dubrovnik is several hundred miles, these cities maintained, during the last centuries of the Middle Ages, intense economic relations. A great number of Catalans were leaving Barcelona, Tortosa, Tarragona and other impor­tant towns in the first place of the coast but also in the hinterland, in order to settle in Dubrovnik on the adriatic coast. This article deals, firstly, with the economic exchanges between the catalan towns and Dubrovnik,. but also with individual destinies of people from Catalonia who chose to live in the slavic town of Dubrovnik, far away from their homeland. The author has investigated essentially in the Archives of the Crown of Aragon, in Barce­lona, and in the Notarial Archives of the same city, as well as in the Archi­ves of Dubrovnik, in order to study the export of catalonian products to Dubrovnik (wool, in the first place) and the import from Dubrovnik to Catalonia (slaves, precious metal, timber, etc.). He also deals with lives of Catalans in Dubrovnik (their integration, their conflicts, etc.). The study is based on documents which allow good statistical evaluations on the nature and the tempo of exchanges.