a difference. in opinions is a necefiary confequenee-.of '.the '.barbarity
o f thofe times.
In ,.or about the year 1.130, Guido Folani, ion o f the Doge Pietro,
was proclaimed count o f Ofero by the people ; and a fon of
the Doge Vitale Michieli was eleded count riot long after the year
1156.. Frem the high rank o f thefe counts, it is natural to
conjedure, that the Venetians looked on this kind of ibvereignty.
as a matter o f dignity and importance. Lucio (]. 4. e. 8.) in-
finuates, fomewhat malieioufly, that the Venetians often defied
thofe counts, and not the people o f the iilands.. I can aflert,
however, as a certain fad, that, from the year 11.80 to 1304, the
ifland in queftion, was.poflefled, as an hereditary county, by.
the noble family of Morcfni, to which it came by Daria Mi~
cbieli, who married Ruggiero Morofni, fon o f Domenico, count
o f Zara, and nephew o f the Doge.
This Ruggiero Morofni.had, before his marriage, the irivefti-
ture o f the caftle o f Cheffa, and its diftrid, fituated on the ifland.
o f Pago, which was then under the Venetian dominion, the
inftrument ftill exifts made by the Doge Seba/liano Zianiin I174.
In 1202 Daria Morofni, o f the Micbieli family, by the grace o f
God countefs o f Ofero, propofed to the people o f Arbe, to renounce
her right to the caftle o f Keffti Veterana, and i tV dependencies,
011 condition, among other things, that they ihould eled her
Ton Robert count o f Arbe. And in 1203, Ruggiero, the huiband
o f Daria, is ftyled, in a ducal letter o f the Venetian hero Enrico
Dandolo, who manifeftly aded as having high dominion over the
iilands, Count o f Ofero,. Abfarenfis. Comes.
Marin»
'Marino Morof'rii did homage .to the D o g e .Dandolo in -i ¿B.o,
and the a d is ftill extant, as well as the .others .alluded to,; and
in 1283, the fame'.Count Marino, in a writing o f fettlement with
the inhabitants o f Cherfo, is called count and lord o f the diftrid
o f Cherfo. T h is Marino, who .commanded in the war o f Jjlria,
with a valour correfpondent to the ifiue o f it, was the daft hereditary
Count j a f Ofero and Cherfo.- H e died in 1304, or a few
months before. T h e people o f Ofero petitioned the repiilftick to
fend them a count-or governor every .ytekrtfj'• and Andrea
Daurio, or Dero, was the firft who went there in that character.*
Since that period, the ifland has not fullered any conliderable
change; only it was greatly mo\efte& by th t XJfoechii during the
war which the Venetians were obliged to carry on ag&inftiithofe
robbers. .And here I cannot help obferving, that M. dela Mar-
tiniere has not performed the part o f a faithful hiftorian, .in .faying,
that this ifland was given to the repUblick'ofj-Vemceh Only
in 1410 ;. about which year, indeed, there are many records which
feem to indicate the -.dedition; but they appear ratfter-to prove
only a confirmation or repetition o f the refpfedive ads o f fu b jed i-
on and dominion, as may be reafonably luppofcd from what I
have already mentioned..
O f the Divifiok of-the ffiand. -Its ‘I ’oiDtrs'and' Viildges.-- ■
Cherfo. and Ofero ought indeed rather to b e called t;wp iflanda-
united, than one ifland a lo n e ; but tjre^pliiinnel o f the; fea, that;
divides them, is fo very narrow, tha t it can.fc.arcely be reckoned
any feparation a t a l l . Some authors,, and particularly Farnabius
as-
* All the above mentioned documents* and many more» ftill exift entire in th«r
private and publick archives of the ifland fome of them are alfo jxrinted in the-
w o rk of Lucio.