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The article investigates the processes by which a particular image of slavery was created and diffused in the Mediterranean basin. It draws upon notarial records from the archives of Dubrovnik and Barcelona, whichfurnish rich descriptions of the origins, names, character traits and physical anomalies of 'human merchandise' during the Middle Ages. The constitution of a particular image of slavery cannot be dissociated from politico-economic considerations that governed the working of medieval communes, nor does the conversion of the slave through baptism bring with it an automatic change in servile status.

Although the distance between the cities of the catalan coast and Dubrovnik is several hundred miles, these cities maintained, during the last centuries of the Middle Ages, intense economic relations. A great number of Catalans were leaving Barcelona, Tortosa, Tarragona and other impor­tant towns in the first place of the coast but also in the hinterland, in order to settle in Dubrovnik on the adriatic coast. This article deals, firstly, with the economic exchanges between the catalan towns and Dubrovnik,. but also with individual destinies of people from Catalonia who chose to live in the slavic town of Dubrovnik, far away from their homeland. The author has investigated essentially in the Archives of the Crown of Aragon, in Barce­lona, and in the Notarial Archives of the same city, as well as in the Archi­ves of Dubrovnik, in order to study the export of catalonian products to Dubrovnik (wool, in the first place) and the import from Dubrovnik to Catalonia (slaves, precious metal, timber, etc.). He also deals with lives of Catalans in Dubrovnik (their integration, their conflicts, etc.). The study is based on documents which allow good statistical evaluations on the nature and the tempo of exchanges. Bien que séparées par des centaines de milles d, espace maritime, les villes de la côte catalane et Dubrovnik entretenaient, à la fin du Moyen Age, d'intenses rapports économiques. Un grand nombre de Catalans se deplaçaient de Barcelone, Tortose, Tarragone et d'autres villes, principale­ment de la côte méditerranéenne, mais aussi de l'arrière-pays, pour aller s'installer dans la ville de Dubrovnik, sur la côte adriatique. Cet article se propose d'étudier d'une part les échanges économiques entre les villes catalanes et Dubrovnik et, d'autre part, de reconstituer le destin des fami­lles catalanes et des individus, qui choisissaient de s'expatrier dans cette ville slave, loin de leur pays et de leur ville d'origine. L'auteur s'appuie sur les documents des archives catalanes, principalement des Archives de la Couronne d'Aragon et des Archives Notariales de Barcelone, ainsi que des Archives de Dubrovnik, pour presenter l'exportation catalane à Dubrovnik (laine) et l'exportation ragusaine dans les villes de Catalogne (esclaves, métaux precieux, bois, etc.). On suit aussi le sort des Catalans à Dubrovnik (conflits, adaptation, position dans la société locale). La nature des docu­ments notariaux lui permet de proceder à certaines évaluations statistiques, sur la nature et le rythme des échanges.