Wine was one of the key foodstuffs in medieval society in the 13th and 14th centuries. This was particularly true in the communes of the Adriatic coast, which is extremely rich in vines. The influences of Roman tradition, Christianity and the geographical location contributed to the development of the wine trade. The wine trade, not least because of its importance and value, is characterized by contracts of sale and purchase, which were the subject of my thesis.
The importance of wine is already attested to by references in the statutes of medieval communes. Wine is frequently mentioned in the Statute of Korcula, the Statute of the City of Dubrovnik and the Statute of the Piran Commune. Wine is also frequently mentioned in the surviving notarial records of both Piran and Dubrovnik, which further testifies to its importance.
In the communes, the city authorities sought to protect the internal market by restricting imports and encouraging exports when there was a surplus of domestic wine. Most wine transactions took place in taverns. In the case of larger wine sales, the buyers even went into debt with all their possessions.
I decided to research and review wine purchase contracts because of my interest in the Middle Ages and legal history. The most difficult part of my work was the foreign languages, as many of the texts and records I was working with were not translated into Slovene or English. Thus, Latin and Croatian made my work quite difficult, but I enjoyed it, despite the frequent difficulties.
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