The 'primates' of Venetian Ithaca: A first sketch of the local administration with a list of sindici (1649–1796)

This article attempts a reconstruction of the system of local government in Ithaca during three centuries of Venetian rule (1500–1797), based on unpublished documents from the state archives of the island. While the island’s governor was sent from Cephalonia, several offices of the local administration were filled by Ithacesians who were appointed each year by the Venetians. These officeholders undertook daily bureaucratic functions, maintained the public order, oversaw the ports to protect from seaborne disease, and kept watch of the coasts. The highest of these officers, the handful of sindici elected from the three main towns Vathy, Anogi and Exogi, were invariably prominent figures in the island’s society. The documents allow us to trace ongoing tensions between the Ithacesians, their Cephalonian governor, and the higher Venetian administrators over the right of government in Ithaca. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries the Ithacesians made several petitions for the increase of local participation, leading to several reforms expanding the involvement of Ithacesians and culminating with the establishment of a deliberative body on the island in the last years of Venetian rule. The article is accompanied by a list names of sindici from 1649 to 1796, which reveals the dominance of the three towns by a small number of powerful clans.