Family Alberto (Bono) in Dubrovnik in the late Middle Ages

Abstract

In this study, on the basis of the documents preserved in the Archives of Dubrovnik, the author has described the activities of the family Alberto (Bono) in Dubrovnik, in the Serbian lands and Venice at the end of the 14th and during the first half of the 15th century. The founder of the family was ser Alberto Bono, chancellor by vocation. He came to Dubrovnik from Venice in 1388 and worked as a clerk in the city municipality until the end of his life (1407). However, his sons and a grandson were engaged in intermediary commerce, connecting the lands in the hinterlands of Dubrovnik, Serbia and Bosnia, with the Mediterranean. Thanks to the commerce of precious metals from the Serbian lands, the family became very rich and outstanding. The members of the family, as the citizens of Dubrovnik, were included both in the economical and social life of the city. It could be seen, among other things, that they all, like many other rich and distinguished citizens of Dubrovnik, were elected into the ranks of the Antunini, that they were given lands in Konavle and in the Dubrovnik settlements (commercial colonies). In the Serbian lands some of them, even very often, were elected into judicial commissions. Nevertheless, the members of the family Alberti maintained all the time business and family relations with their land of origin.