Since emerging as a settlement in the seventh century, Dubrovnik held a significant position beyond what could have been expected of this tiny city-state. Its merchants, trading throughout the huge Ottoman Empire, enjoyed privileges denied to other Western states. A politically skilled and commercially enterprising ruling class took every opportunity to maximize the republic’s wealth.
Dubrovnik also faced the extreme dangers posed by Venetian aggressors, Ottoman plotters, a terrible earthquake in 1667, and, finally, the will of Napoleon. In 1991 and 1992, the city survived the besieging Yugoslav army, which heavily damaged but did not destroy Dubrovnik’s cultural heritage. This book is a comprehensive history of Dubrovnik’s progress over twelve centuries of European development, encompassing arts, architecture, social and economic changes, and the traumas of war and politics.
Author(s): Robin Harris
Publisher: Saqi Books
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 503 (1326)
Tags: Croatia Serbia Hrvatska Srbija Kraljevstvo Carstvo Dušan Dubrovnik Medieval Srednji vijek vek Istorija Dubrovačka Ragusa
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
A Note on Names
A Note on Pronunciation
A Note on Citations
Preface
1. Ragusan Roots and Riddles: The Origins of Ragusa/Dubrovnik
2. Distant Friends and Hostile Neighbours: Dubrovnik Under Byzantine Protection (c. 800–1205)
3. The Serenissima’s Subjects: Dubrovnik Under Venetian Rule (1205–1358)
4. A Kind of Independence: Dubrovnik’s Autonomous Development Under Hungarian Suzerainty (1358–c. 1433)
5. Eastern Approaches: Dubrovnik Within the Ottoman Empire (c. 1396–1526)
6. War, Diplomacy and Chaos: Dubrovnik Between the Habsburgs, Venice and the Porte (1526–1667)
7. Governing Passion: The Institutions of Government and the Challenges They Faced (c. 1272–1667)
8. Merchant Venturing: Economic Development (c. 1272–1667)
9. Ragusan Society: Dubrovnik’s Social Structure and Mores (c. 1300–c. 1667)
10. Religious Life: Ecclesiastical Organization and Spirituality in Dubrovnik (c. 1190–1808)
11. Cultural Life: Literature, Scholarship, Painting and Music (c. 1358–c. 1667)
12. The Construction of Dubrovnik: Settlement and Urban Planning, Fortification and Defence, Public and Private Building in the Ragusan Republic (c. 1272–1667)
13. Death and Resurrection: The Great Earthquake and its Aftermath (1667–1669)
14. Sunset Years: Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Life (1669–1792)
15. The Fall of the Ragusan Republic: The Background to and Circumstances of the Abolition of the Republic in 1808
Postscript: Ragusan Shadows: Episodes from the Later History of Dubrovnik
Appendix 1: A Note on Dubrovnik’s ‘Independence’
Appendix 2: A Note on Money, Weights and Measures
Chronology
Notes
Bibliography
Sources for Illustrations
Index
Illustrations
SECTION ONE
1. Bull of Pope Benedict VIII in favour of Archbishop Vitalis, the oldest original document in the Dubrovnik archives and the first confirmation of the Ragusan archbishopric (1022)
2. Trade agreement between Dubrovnik and Pisa (1169)
3. Charter in favour of Dubrovnik granted by Ban Kulin of Bosnia (1189)
4. Charter in favour of Dubrovnik’s autonomy granted by King Louis I of Hungary (1358)
5. Charter in favour of Dubrovnik granted by the Bosnian King Tvrtko I (1367)
6. Privilege granted by the Council of Basel for Dubrovnik to trade with the Muslim Levant (1433)
7. Ferman addressed to Dubrovnik by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II seeking the Republic’s cooperation against his fugitive brother Dem (1482)
8. An Example of Dubrovnik’s Code, employed in secret diplomatic transactions (1679)
SECTION TWO
9. Illuminated opening page of the register of the Confraternity of St Anthony (Antunini) (about 1445, possibly by Lovro Dobričević)
10/11. Illuminated opening pages of the register of the Confraternity of St Lazarus (Lazarim) (1531, possibly by Pietro di Giovanni)
12. Charter in favour of Dubrovnik granted by the Sultan of Morocco (1780)
13. The Rector’s Palace
14. Atrium of the Rector’s Palace
15. The Sponza Palace (or Dogana)
16. Atrium of the Sponza Palace
17. The Cathedral
SECTION THREE
18. The Dubrovnik Franciscans’ Cloister
19. Depiction of Dubrovnik inserted into the Liber Viridis (Laws of Dubrovnik 1358–1460: the picture itself is later)
20. Petar Sorkočević’s Villa on Lapad
21. Paolo Veneziano’s painted crucifix (1340s)
22. Matko Junčić: Blessed Virgin with Saints (1452)
23. Lovro Dobričević: The Baptism of Christ (1448)
24. Mihajlo Hamzić: The Baptism of Christ (1508)
25. Detail of Lovro Dobričević’s Virgin and Child (1465)
SECTION FOUR
26. Detail of Lovro Dobričević’s Virgin and Child, St Anthony of Padua (1465)
27. Detail of Lovro Dobričević’s Virgin and Child, St Julian the Hospitaller (1465)
28. Vicko Lovrin: St Michael and other Saints (1509)
29. Detail of Nikola Božidarević’s Blessed Virgin with Saints, St Blaise and St Paul (early sixteenth century)
30. Detail of Nikola Božidarević’s Sacra Conversazione, St Julian the Hospitaller and St James (1513)
31. Nikola Božidarević: The Annunciation (1513)
32. Detail of Nikola Božidarević’s Sacra Conversazione (1517)
SECTION FIVE
33. Nikola Božidarević: Blessed Virgin with Saints (1517)
34. Detail of Nikola Božidarević’s Blessed Virgin with Saints, St Martin and the beggar (1517)
35. Detail of Mihajlo Hamzić (and Pietro di Giovanni): St Nicholas and other Saints, showing St John the Baptist, St Stephen and St Nicholas (1512)
36. Detail of Frano Matijin’s Virgin and Child (1534)
37. Votive painting of Ragusan ketch (1779)
38. Votive Painting of Ragusan brigantine (nineteenth century)
39. Detail of Nikola Božidarević’s Annunciation (1513): the donor Marko Kolendić’s ship at anchor in Lopud harbour
40. The Coat of Arms of the Ragusan Republic
41. The Minčeta Tower
SECTION SIX
42. The Principal Fortifications of Dubrovnik
43. Detail of Statue of St Blaise, showing Dubrovnik (probably mid-fifteenth century)
44. Depiction of Dubrovnik in Konrad von Grünemberg’s account of his pilgrimage (1486)
45. Detail of Nikola Božidarević’s Blessed Virgin with Saints, showing Dubrovnik (early sixteenth century)
46. Painting of Dubrovnik by Giovanni Batista Fabri (1736), showing the city and its suburbs as they were before the Great Earthquake of 1667
47. Engraving depicting the Great Earthquake of 1667
48. Reliquary of (the head of) St Blaise (eleventh/twelfth century)
49. Statue of St Blaise (probably mid-fifteenth century)
50. Lorenzo Vitelleschi’s depiction of Veliki Ston (1827)
51. Ruined Zvekovica, in Konavle (February 1992)
52. Burning house in Dubrovnik’s Široka ulica (6 December 1991)
