Port · Commune of Venice · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Pola

The Roman colony at the southern tip of Istria, with its amphitheatre and a fine harbour.

In 1145 Pola undertook to protect Venetian merchants, to send a galley to each Venetian expedition and to free Venetians from export duties; it revolted in 1149, 1153 and 1193, and was briefly taken by a Pisan fleet during the war for Zadar (1192 in Italian Wikipedia, 1195 in English Wikipedia) before Venice recovered it. In 1198 it accepted a Venetian rector, Ruggero Morosini, count of Osor. Its commune is first recorded in 1177.

On 1 January 1200 it is under Venetian lordship, a restless port that has changed sides before.

Who holds it

Name
Ruggero Morosini, count of Osor, accepted as rector in 1198 (tenure on 1 January 1200 not pinned)
Title
Venetian rector of the commune of Pola
Confidence
medium

Lord in 1200

Venice, through the rector Pola accepted in 1198, Ruggero Morosini, count of Osor; the commune (recorded from 1177) keeps its own life; its bishop is a Church map record.

How things stand that morning

Under a Venetian rector since 1198 (tenure that winter not pinned).

Charter

Pact with Venice, 1145 (renewed after the revolts of 1149 and 1153); commune recorded from 1177; Venetian rector from 1198.

Council

Consuls (not pinned for 1200).

Trade and crafts

Harbour, oil, salt, stone.

Where the sources disagree

  • The Pisan seizure is dated 1192 by Italian Wikipedia (Pola) and 1195 by English Wikipedia (War for Zadar).

Evidence: Treccani (Istria) for 1145, the revolts, the 1177 commune and the 1198 rector; Italian Wikipedia and English Wikipedia (War for Zadar) for the Pisan episode.

Primary sources for Venice

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • History of the bishops of Salona and Split, by Thomas the Archdeacon, Thomas of Split (about 1266). Written two generations later by a Split churchman born about 1200. Read online
  • History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
  • The Conquest of Constantinople, Robert de Clari, knight of Picardy (about 1205 to 1216). A rank-and-file crusader's account that begins with the preaching of the crusade and the taking of the cross in 1199 to 1200 by the counts of Flanders, Blois and Champagne and by the Picard lords, among them Peter of Amiens, Robert's own lord, then the negotiations with Venice. Read online
  • The Conquest of Constantinople (Villehardouin), Geoffrey of Villehardouin (about 1207 to 1213). Opens with the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly and the tournament at Ecry (28 November 1199) where Theobald III of Champagne and Louis of Blois took the cross, then the taking of the cross by Baldwin of Flanders, Hugh of Saint-Pol, Geoffrey of Perche and others through early 1200, the assemblies at Soissons and Compiegne in 1200, and the six envoys sent to Venice in the winter of 1200 to 1201. Read online
  • The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
  • Charters of the kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia, volume 2, 1101 to 1200 (documents of 1101 to 1200, edited 1904). The Croatian and Dalmatian charters to 1200: the acts of Duke Andrew as lord of Croatia and Dalmatia (1197 to 1204), the Hungarian kings' grants, the Templars and the bishops of Zagreb, Split, Zadar and Trogir, the communal statutes of the coastal towns, and the papal letters of 1200 to Emeric about Ban Kulin of Bosnia and heresy. Read online
  • Documents on the Early Commercial and Political History of Venice, including the Partitio Romaniae of 1204 (documents 814 to 1299, edited by G. L. F. Tafel and G. M. Thomas, 3 vols (Vienna, 1856 to 1857)). Volume 1 (814 to 1205) prints Venice's treaties with Byzantium, the chrysobull of 1198 to Venice with its list of imperial provinces, the Venetian treaty with the crusaders of April 1201, and the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae of late 1204, which divides the Empire by its fiscal districts and so records the provincial structure (themes, episkepseis, estates) that was in place in 1200. Read online
  • Greek Acts and Documents of the Middle Ages, Sacred and Secular (documents of the 9th to 15th centuries, edited by F. Miklosich and J. Muller, 6 vols (Vienna, 1860 to 1890)). Volume 3 (Acta et diplomata res Graecas Italasque illustrantia, 1865) prints the imperial chrysobulls to Venice, including Alexios III's of November 1198 with its list of the provinces and towns of the Empire where Venetians traded, the best single picture of the imperial provinces as they stood on 1 January 1200, together with the Pisan and Genoese privileges. Read online

1 more in the sources library for Poland, Hungary and the Adriatic.

Sources and studies

  1. Pola (Italian Wikipedia)
  2. War for Zadar (1181-1202) (English Wikipedia)
  3. Istria (Enciclopedia Italiana, Treccani)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.