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principles. With the organisation of supplies of olive oil from Spain, the Roman state administration was actively favouring the Mediterranean cultural identity of the state apparatus. In light of this fact, it must be considered that together with clothing, language and settlement patterns, eating habits represented a complex cultural demarcation line between the Roman and barbarian worlds. In this respect, olive oil consumption is a visible symbol of Romanisation, i.e. subordination of the latter.
Inscriptions on amphorae undoubtedly played an important role in political life, where illiteracy was considered to pertain to the barbarian world, sinking in strong gusts of Romanisation. The border between the two worlds ran along the thin demarcation line of literacy of the Roman administration staff and the Romanised Celtic population on one hand, and on the other hand the lower classes of the illiterate native population, in the political sense mostly representing third class peregrines. Together with oil consumption and Mediterranean eating habits, literacy, therefore, indicated an evident class division in the Roman Empire.
These facts proved that the olive oil trade by all means exceeded economic principles and market demand as viewed through the optics of today's capitalist society. Therefore, the authors unveiled a wide political and anthropological context, which in the Roman Empire was defined by olive oil. To a huge extent, this alimentary product, of course, surpassed the abstract function it has today.
The work is based on an extensive textual-critical apparatus, a comprehensive catalogue of stamps and numerous tables, statistical calculations, and graphs.
Due to courageous anthropological interpretations especially, the book is a great achievement, and a rise to a higher, more complex research level within the context of amphoral materials. The archaeological materials served solely as a tool for anthropological and cultural analyses and interpretations. Undoubtedly, this set new standards for future ceramological research.
Verena Perko
Paolo Naldini: CERKVENI KRAJEPIS ALI OPIS MESTA IN
ŠKOFIJE JUSTINOPOLIS - LJUDSKO KOPER (Ecclesiastical Topography or a Description of the Town
and Diocese of Justinopolis - Popularly Koper). Knjižnica Annales Majora. Koper, Zgodovinsko društvo za južno Primorsko - Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče Republike Slovenije Koper - Škofija Koper, 2001,pp. 343
In accordance with the basic goals of the History Society of Southern Primorska and the Science and Re-
search Centre of the Republic of Slovenia in Koper, set both within the framework of basic as well as applicable research, historiography, as a dominant humanistic science, holds a prominent position, which contributes to a continuous preservation and emphasis of the Southern-Primorska region, i.e. Slovene Istria as one of the most distinctive and typical Slovene bordering areas which has been developing its distinct shape through the historical intertwining of social and cultural events. Within narrow and broad geographical contexts, its shape reflects in numerous historical works, in particular topographies, which can be traced as early as in the period from the first half of the 15th and to the 18th centuries. Beyond doubt, topographies enable us to comprehend basic methodological orientations of historiography, or better - polyhistoricism, of that time inspiring the authors with the historical past. As a consequence, they offer a colourful portrait of the ways historical sources were used and interpreted. Apart from historical elements, they also unveil a strong presence of several modern components in today's Italian, Slovene, Croatian as well as German historiography, i.e. strong tendencies to prove that specific geographical areas, for its multicultural and multiethnic character Istria in particular, belong to the individual national or state community. Due to the connections of a major part of Istria with the Romance or Italian cultural milieu, it becomes clear why most topographies were written by Italian speaking foreign and local authors.
The book Stari krajepisi Istre (Old Topographies of Istria), published in 1999 in the collection Library Annales Majora, presented the Slovene public with extracts from 12 topographies of Istria from the 15th to the beginnings of the 18th century for the first time. Not all known Istrian topographies have been published in the Slovene language, and therefore this publication has by no means filled in numerous gaps in Istrian historiography. However, with it the initiative proposed by the Ministry of Culture in 1993 successfully came to reality. The initiative suggested that, due to a poor knowledge of Istrian history, old works especially be translated into Slovene and published, in order to present some basic works of Istrian historiography to the Slovene readership, experts, scientists and history lovers.
In the book mentioned above, its editor-in-chief and the author of the majority of articles it contains, dr. Darko Darovec anticipated the translation and publication of some primary works, in particular the prominent "Corografía ecclesiastica" of Bishop of Koper, Paolo Naldini. The translation and publication have certainly been aided by the 300th anniversary of the publication of the original and the 1400th anniversary of the Diocese of Koper. By organising a rich scientific symposium, held in October 2000 in the premises of the Museum of Koper, the History Society of Southern Primorska and Science and Research Centre celebrated both anniversa-
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ries, too. These venerable anniversaries, the 1400th anniversary of the Diocese of Koper and this year's 700th anniversary of the Minorite Monastery in Piran, have provided us with an opportunity for detailed and extensive research of ecclesiastical history, which we so far have missed.
Among a series of topographies, Naldini's topography of the Diocese of Koper dated from 1700 can be defined as one of the most complete and consistent ones, also according to modern historiographical principles of scientific methods and approaches used to deal with specific events and processes. In opposition to the common practices of that time, bibliography and references are quoted in the text. At the same time, Naldini opposes previous writers, and lists arguments that were later mostly confirmed by modern historiography.
Naldini's topography can be defined as a comprehensive inspection that demanded a lot of time, as well as exhausting and accurate work. Since the year 1686, when he was consecrated the bishop of Koper, and until the publication of his work in 1700, he visited and described almost all churches and monasteries in the Diocese of Koper. In addition, he described in detail all ecclesiastical institutions and the state of religion in the whole Diocese, which comprised the vicariates of Piran, Izola, Kubed and Krkavce. Naldini conceived this new administrative structure after the synod called in 1690. Borders of the Diocese of Koper remained unaltered in comparison with the medieval ones: on the north, the Diocese extended as far as St. Peter's church in Gazela (the territory of today's Ankaran). From there it ran southwards along the coast, passed Koper, Izola, Strun-jan, Piran and Secovlje, reaching the Savudrija peninsula, where it touched the territory of Umag, i.e. that of the Diocese of Novigrad. Here the border turned east and ran along the Istria and Savudrija Karst to reach Kastel. Then, going north, it passed Krkavce and Kostabona (here again it touched the outskirts of the Diocese of Novigrad), and from here it went to Ma-rezige, Lopar, Truske, Popetre and as far as Socerga, where it turned north again, to Movraz, Smokvica, Gracisce, Hrastovlje, Kubed. It ascended Tinjan and continued to Dekani, Sveti Anton and along the Rizana river to the sea. The Diocese of Koper extended over a territory with a circumference of 60 miles, and was divided, as mentioned above, into four vicariates. These were further divided into parishes, 17 in total in the whole area.
Naldini's complete work is divided into 6 books, which are further divided into chapters: the first book is entitled "O koprski stolnici, skofiji, skofih in kapitlju" (About the Koper Cathedral, Diocese, Bishops, and Capitol). The second book is "O svetih in redovnih cerkvah ter dobrodelnih zavodih v Kopru "(About Holy and Monastic Churches and Charity Institutions in Koper). The third book describes the first, i.e. the vicariate
of Piran, and the fourth book the vicariate of Izola. The fifth book offers a description of the vicariate of Kubed, and the sixth book the description of the last, that is the Krkavce vicariate. The Diocese of Koper extended almost across the entire territory of the former commune, partly overlapping with that of the present municipality of Koper, with the exception of some villages lying under the Karst Edge (the parish of Osp and Loka, and the village of Rakitovec in the parish of Buzet), which until the year 1788 belonged to the Diocese of Trieste, the village of Sterna, south from the Dragonja river, which belonged to the Diocese of Novigrad, and in conclusion, the municipalities of Izola and Piran. Naldini's work therefore offers a complete portrait of Slovene Istria in terms of its history, religion, ecclesiastical administration, history of art, ethnology, society, linguistics, and last but not least, ethnicity. This especially might be of great interest to a Slovene reader. In contrast with other Italian writers, Naldini ascribed great importance to the Slavic population of Istria and treated it correctly and objectively. Even tough they were not autochthonous inhabitants of Istria; it was Naldini who, besides Giacomo Filippo Tommasini, the bishop of Novigrad, referred to Slavs as good and hard-working farmers or colons. This is in compete opposition with viewpoints
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expressed by some members of the Koper Accademia dei Risorti, which in the 18th century, under the leadership of renowned Koper illuminist Gian Rinaldo Carli, were rejecting the Slavonic character of Istria. Carli himself felt and considered the Slavonic element to be nothing but an intruder in the Romance tradition of Istria, which he considered a vital element of the embryonic national consciousness of the Italians. After the downfall of the Roman Empire, he thought, Istria fell into a period of decadence he felt as a fall of civilisation values. However, he did not take into consideration the analysis of causes, discussed by several of his contemporaries. He made a rigorous distinction between the aristocratic-bourgeois and the provincial classes, seeing the former as the only protagonist of historical development and carrier of humanistic values. He contraposed the Koper bourgeois to the countryside Slav colons, referring to the latter in a contemptuous and arrogant tone. It should be noted, however, that Carli's attitude in that period was far from being an exception. Some predecessors of Istrian humanism, e.g. Pietro Coppo and Giro-lamo Muzio, had already expressed before the same views. In terms of his viewpoints as well as his acts, Naldini therefore belonged to a progressive cultural and social environment, which as early as in the periods preceding Carli had witnessed rejections of superficial and subjective assertions, very common in the Venetian aristocratic mentality of that time. For that reason it cannot be surprising that in the period of Naldini's pastoral activities, in the countryside and in the Koper Gregorian Monastery holy masses were held in the Slavonic language, while the year 1710 with the establishment of the "Illyrian Theological Seminary" in Koper, which continued to operate until 1810, represented a climax of his efforts.
Apart from the bishop's findings that revealed the essential need for the education of Glagolitic priests for the predominantly Slavonic countryside, his decisions were probably triggered by the establishment of the "Collegia dei Nobili" in Koper in 1675, which consolidated education as a privilege of the upper classes of the society. In the first period Somascans taught at the Col-legio. Bishop Naldini held their work in high opinion, while the attitude of the citizens of Koper towards them was far from being positive. In 1699 Somascans were replaced by their school brothers Scolopi or Piarists: due to the facts that best representatives of this order were being sent to this area by the Roman church and that the population deeply trusted them, with their arrival the reputation of the Collegio rose considerably.
In accordance with aspirations for religious and spiritual regeneration after the Council of Trent, Nald-ini's efforts in fact were not isolated. Notwithstanding the penetration of illuminist ideas, aiming at strong intellectual influence in religious and social life, the majority of bishops in the territory of the Venetian Republic
neither excelled with exceptional reformation spirit nor with the wish to free the church from political and authoritative influences. However, they were aware of the need for better education and for more active priests, they reorganised public aid, and emphasised the social utility of religion as a basis of every society and the only source of individual and collective morals.
Therefore, Naldini's work can be set within a wider social framework on the verge of the 18th century. Apart from general characteristics of similar works, it also excels with a number of specific characteristics. For that reason it is not only a first-rate historical source, also in view of the fact that since the period in which it was written many sources it quotes have disappeared, but also an exceptional witness of time; not only of churches, villages, squares and cities, the ecclesiastical and secular administration, customs and habits, the economical and social position of the population. It also unveils the spirit of the time, and last but not least, the situation and orientation of historiography of that time.
As a result, Naldini's work is part of valuable historical literature which in an interesting and popular scientific tone in the best possible way portraits the image of the time, people and area of the Diocese of Koper of that time. It also is an indispensable reference book for a variety of experts dealing with research of Istrian history, history of art, and ethnology. The Slovene translation will make this monumental work closer to a wider circle of readers, and thus enable a wider expert and general public to get acquainted with major characteristics from the historical, traditional and cultural heritage of Slovene Istria. In this way it will allow further in-depth research of this in many respects specific territory of the Slovene popular and national body.
Salvator Zitko
Egidio Ivetic: LA POPOLAZIONE DELL'ISTRIA
NELL'ETÀ MODERNA. LINEAMENTI EVOLUTIVI. Collana degli Atti, n. 15. Trieste - Rovigno, Centro di
ricerche storiche - Rovigno, 1997, pp. 450; L'ISTRIA MODERNA. UN'INTRODUZIONE AI SECOLI XVI - XVIII. Collana degli Atti, n. 17. Trieste - Rovigno, Centro di ricerche storiche - Rovigno, 1999, pp. 221 ;
OLTREMARE. L'ISTRIA NELL'ULTIMO DOMINIO VENETO. Memorie, classe di scienze morali, lettere ed arti, vol. LXXXIX. Venezia, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 2000, pp. 470
Negli ultimi anni la storiografia dell'Istria si e arric-chita ulteriormente con i lavori di ricerca di Egidio Ivetic, giovane ricercatore di Carnizza (Pola) che da di-versi anni si occupa proficuamente dello studio della
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