Provveditore


The Italian title proveditore, "he who sees to things", was the style of various local district governors in the extensive, mainly maritime empire of the Republic of Venice. Like many political appointments, it was often held by noblemen as a stage in their career, usually for a few years.

Adriatic home territory

Some were Venetian possessions much earlier, but no data on the style of their governors exist; most were lost to the Ottoman Empire.

Eastern Adriatic

  • On the Istria peninsula, a further territorio, e.g. Pola
  • Further south, in Dalmatia - cfr. infra
  • Cattaro, see List of Venetian governors of Kotor

    Individual Ionian Islands

  • Cephalonia, 1700−1799
  • Cerigo, full style castellano e provveditore, the first part referring to the citadel, cf. infra, 1698−1799
  • Santa Maura, 1700−1797
  • Zante, 1698−1807

    Venetian coastal fortresses in continental Greece

  • Coron, 1693−1715
  • Modon, 1697−1715
  • Patrasso, 1687−1715
  • Preveza, 1721−1791
  • Vonitsa, 1719−1797

    Provveditore generale

The provveditore generale, or governor-general, was the style of Venetian state officials supervising a whole region of the dogal sway:
  • Venetian Dalmatia
  • Morea, seat at Nauplion
  • Provveditore generale da Mar, seat at Corfu
  • Provveditore generale di Candia, seat at Candia

    Special local titles

  • On the Ionian island of Corfu, the equivalent Venetian governorship was styled Baili
  • Cerigotto maintained its own feudal rulers, styled Moite, accepting Venetian suzerainty since 1309
  • Style not known for the Venetian fortresses in present Greece at Parga, nor for Aegina island
  • In Cyprus, the governorship was split between a civilian luogotenente and a military ''capitano''

    Later Napoleonic use

Under French rule, Dalmatia was styled a provveditorate generale, or in French inspection générale in 1808, when it was integrated in the Napoleonic Italian kingdom, with three military subdivisions, Zara, Spalato, Bouches-du-Cattaro, soon joined be the absorbed Ragusa, but on 14 October 1809 abolished and annexed into France's Illyrian provinces.