The Ragusan Dataset.
Ragusa, which is now known as Dubrovnik (Croatia, Europe), was settled on the coast of the Adriatic Sea in the 7th century. For a time, it was under Byzantine protection, becoming a free commune as early as the 12th century. Napoleon, having destroyed the Venetian Republic in 1797, put an end to the Republic of Ragusa in 1806. It came under Austrian control until the fall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918.
In Ragusa, all political power was in the hands of male nobles older than 18 years. They were members of the Great Council (Consilium majus) which had the legislative function. Every year, 11 members of the Small Council (Consilium minus) were elected. Together with a duke, the Small Council had both executive and representative functions. The main power was in the hands of the Senat (Consilium rogatorum) which had 45 members elected for one year. This organization prevented any single family, unlike the Medici in Florence, from prevailing. Nevertheless the historians agree that the Sorgo family was all the time among the most influential.
The Ragusan nobility evolved in the 12th century through the 14th century and was finally established by statute in 1332. After 1332, no new family was accepted until the large earthquake in 1667. A major problem facing the Ragusan noble families was that by decreases of their numbers and the lack of noble families in the neighboring areas, which were under Turkish control, they became more and more closely related - marriages between relatives in the 3rd and 4th remove were frequent. It is interesting to analyze how families of a privileged social class organized their relations by marriage and how they coped with the limited number of potential spouses for their children.