Wills from Late Medieval Venetian Crete, 1312­1420

Dumbarton Oaks
edited by Sally McKee
ISBN: 0884022455
price: $65.00   paperback

The 790 wills from the 14th and early 15th centuries presented in this edition were recorded in the protocols of notaries working in Venice's largest and longest-held colony, Crete. They are the earliest examples of such documents to have survived the transfer of the colony from Venetian rule to that of the Ottomans, who completed their conquest of the island in 1669.
One of the principal values of the wills is that the 431 female and 359 male testators represent a broader social spectrum of the colony's population than the local feudatory families. Crete's three principal ethnic groups­Greek, Latin, and Jewish­are also well represented.
In addition to providing insight into notarial practice, perhaps the chief appeal of the Cretan wills is the fact that they enable us to perceive the shape of an individual's life. Although encased in formulae, the bequests of each will are the unembellished wishes of a person aware of his or her mortality. Their historical value extends beyond the shores of Crete all the while their fascination derives from the particular social conditions out of which they emerged.
Texts of the wills are in Latin. An extensive index of 181 pages provides several lines of access to the material in the wills.