Pietro Kandler
Prominent Istrians

ietro Kandler was born in Trieste on May 23, 1804 into a Scottish family (Chandler), which moved to Vienna and then in the XVIII century, to Trieste.

He attended elementary school in Trieste and high school (gymnasium) in Koper (Capodistria)

historian and archeologist

born in Trieste
1804

His first works with Istria as their theme were published in 1834 in the publication Osservatore triestino whose collaborator he remained until the final days of this publication. He initiated the publishing of the journal Atti Istriani, but due to financial problems he managed only to publish two volumes ahout municipal statutes of Pula and Poreč.

From 1842 until his passing, Pietro was Procuratore Civico for the city of Trieste. His main activities consisted of collecting published historical and other material about Trieste and Istria. These included archeology, epigraphy, political/cultural and industrial history, geography, linguistics, ethnology, demographic and industrial statistics, as well as meteorology/climatology.  In Trieste, he created an intellectual climate, which has in the mid XIX century spurred the development of the science of history as well as general culture.

In 1843, he issued the Medieval Statute of Pula in Italian,  in 1843, in 1846 that of Porec, in 1849 that of Trieste, in 1850 that of Buje, and then Novigrad and Rovinj in 1851.

In 1845 he started puhlishing the L'Istria as a feuilleton (an extension) of the journal Osservatore triestino, later as an independent journal, which included a series of documents and articles that became significant sources on Istrian history. He established, edited and issued the weekly magazine L’Istria from 1846 (or 1845) to 1852 and after that La Provincia dell’Istria from 1867 to his passing, where he often, without signing his name, wrote short polemics discussing history and contemporary life of Istria and Trieste.

He corresponded with many intellectuals of his time, as well as those from Istria. In 1851 he was appointed as an honorary member of the Society for Yugoslav History and Antiquities (did that name exist in 1851?) in Zagreb. He traveled through Istria and the back country around Trieste collecting information about the local residents and comparingtheir information with source documents, and he also documented the geographic and morphological characteristics of the area. He corresponded with T. Mommsen about epigraphic information for Corpiis Unscriptionum Latinarum.

He wrote for magazines and newspapers La Favilla under the pseudonym Giusto Traibor, Oservatore Triestino, and L’Eco di Fiume. One of his most significant undertaking was issuing a collection of books of diplomatic sources, Codice Diplomatico Istriano, from 1846 till 1852 (published between 1853 and 1864) encompassing material from Roman times until 1526 (republished in Trieste in 1987). Other important works included: Indicazioni per riconoscere le cose storiche del Litorale (1855), an accumulation of various historical sources about Istria and Trieste, Notizie storiche di Trieste e guida per la citta' (1851), Storia del Consiglio dei Patrizi di Trieste dall'anno MCCCLXXXII all'anno MDCCCIX con documenti (1858).

He was an honorary Kaiser’s conservator for Primorje (Conservatore Imperiale per Litorale) and in this capacity he wrote small articles in Trieste’s weekly and daily papers in the epistolary form with very rich text in history, archeology and epigraphy. He also left very rich archival texts in the State Archive in Trieste and other places, which were issued posthumously in the following monographs: Notizie storiche di Montona (1875), Notizie storiche di Pola (1876), and Pirano - monografia storica (1879). He also created very important topographic/archeological maps of Trieste and Istria. Trieste’s historical/political elite considered him an Austrophil and an enemy of irredentism and because of that he was in a sort of intellectual isolation towards the end of his life. However, the modern Italian historiography recognized him as a dedicated and objective collector of rich and diverse material about history and contemporary life of Istria and Trieste, which established the foundation for the development of the regional historiography.

He died in Trieste on January 18, 1872. There is a bust in his honor in the public garden Muzio de Tommasini in Trieste.