ABSTRACT
On 22 April 1358, Ser Gentilis de Calio, podesta of Split, demanded that the city's Major Council deliberate on several issues: where to find the revenues for the payment of the commune's salariati and the stealing of cattle by the people of Poljice. The document, taken from the minutes of the Major Council of Split, gives a complete insight into the governmental decision-making process in mid-fourteenth-century Split: the agenda, the discussion, and the vote. The chapter explores the real meaning of the entire process: was it all about reaching the optimal decision by means of free discussion and vote, with little or no interference of the podesta? Prehumanist political writers were persuaded that the community ought to have an impartial governor at the top. They saw the role of an ideal governor as that of a coordinator, mediator, and someone who guarantees that the 'common good' would prevail over the particular or factional interests.
