The Italian title prov[v]editore (plural provveditori; also known in
Greek: προνοητής, προβλεπτής;
Serbo-Croatian: providur), "he who sees to things" (
overseer), was the style of various (but not all) 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
In the
Stato di Terraferma, the continental part of northern Italy acquired by Venice, mainly in the 15th century, they were appointed in considerable number as part of a complex hierarchical structure, including territories (the upper level), podesterias,
capitanatos,
vicariatos, ecclesiastical and private jurisdictions etc.
Overseas territories (Stato da Mar)
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 (now partly in Slovenia), e.g.
Pola (Pula)
On the Ionian island of
Corfu, the equivalent Venetian governorship was styled Baili ('Baillif')
Cerigotto (
Antikythera) 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 (
Zadar), Spalato (
Split, Spalatro), Bouches-du-Cattaro ('mouths of the river
Kotor'), soon joined be the absorbed
Ragusa (Dubrovnik), but on 14 October 1809 abolished and annexed into France's
Illyrian provinces.