es, &c. The "statute" was apparently drawn up when a foreign
podesta succeeded to native consuls as an assertion of the ancient
judicial custom. That of Capodistria, the earliest, is of 1238-1239;
that of Pola, 1264. As soon as the communes began to extend their work
of domestic supervision a "fontico" was established, a place where corn
was sold at little above cost price. Everything was supervised--the time
of vintage and of selling the new wine was fixed, the amount of bread to
be baked in each oven was prescribed, the justices tasted the wine
before the taverners began to sell, cut off the tails of fish unsold by
the evening, and generally looked after the strict fulfilment of the
regulations affecting food. As the vintage approached, the guards in the
vineyards were doubled, and, from August 3, dogs were tethered to a
stake to intimidate thieves. The prices of foreign goods were fixed and,
before commencing to sell, merchants were obliged to expose their wares
on the quays or in the piazza for three days. Standard measures were cut
in stone in conspicuous places, and at Albona the various imposts were
carved on the clock-tower in the piazza. Armed men were not allowed to
enter the cities, and the officials interested themselves in everything
going on, an example of which may be quoted from Pirano. When S.
Francesco was built in 1301, the podesta carried the first stone on his
shoulder, and set it in the ground before the assembled people. Venice
succeeded the patriarch as overlord of the Istrian communes in 1420, and
after this the history of Istria is merged in that of the Republic.

The ravages of the plague were fearful, and practically depopulated the
province, returning again and again till 1631. In the fourteenth century
it decimated the Brioni Islands; no less than five Benedictine convents
were abandoned--three in Pola and one near Barbana d'Arsia, as well as
that on the Brioni Islands. In Muggia an inscription states that half
the population died in 1347. In 1361 Ossero was so devastated that two
years later the bishop abandoned it and went to live in Zara. In 1371
the country round Pola was so afflicted that of seventy-two towns only
eleven preserved their names, the rest disappearing without leaving any
trace. In Cittanova in 1643 there were only ten inhabitants left, the
bishop abandoned it to live in Buie or Verteneglio, and in 1686, as
there were not enough citizens to constitute a council, they had to