The goal of this study is to investigate how medieval and renaissance Ragusans spoke about themselves as a community. In other words, it seeks to reconstruct different strategies of collective self-representation which emerged in the culture of the Ragusan Republic in the period between the 14th and 17th century. In doing so it draws on a broad array of sources, from historiography, literature, diplomatic correspondence all the way to civic ritual and visual monuments. The various utterances made regarding Ragusa during this period can be classified into three major discourses on identity. Defined by specific themes, these three discourses are: the discourse on origin, statehood, and frontier. In other words, in the vast majority of cases when Ragusans spoke about their city state they did one of the following: they either thematized its origin and formative first centuries, reflected on its political independence and republican constitution, or described its perilous position and specific missions on the frontier with Orthodoxy and Islam.
Author(s): Kunčević Lovro
Publisher: Matica hrvatska
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 280
City: Dubrovnik
Tags: Dubrovnik, Identity, Middle ages, Early Modern, Republicanism, Frontier
INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................9
The Problem: History of a Collective Auto-portrait...................................9
The Context: Renaissance Ragusa and Its Patriciate................................. 11
Methodology: Identity and Discourse.......................................................... 18
CHAPTER 1: THE DISCOURSE ON ORIGIN.......................................... 23
Introduction: The Relevance of Origin in
Medieval and Renaissance Culture................................................................ 23
The Foundation of Ragusa in Medieval Tradition..................................... 26
The Foundation of Ragusa in Renaissance Historiography..................... 31
Creating an Illustrious Predecessor:
Changes in Epidaurus’ Image.......................................................................... 37
The Origins of the City and the Origins of the Patriciate........................ 51
Roman Past, Slavic Present: Discomfort in Ragusan Culture................. 61
Projecting Independence and Christian
Religion into the Founding Moment............................................................ 69
Conclusion: The Ragusan Discourse
on Origins in Comparative Perspective........................................................ 73
CHAPTER 2: THE DISCOURSE ON STATEHOOD.............................. 83
Introduction: The Patriciate and Its Libertas.............................................. 83
The First Articulations of Independence:
Ragusa and the Hungarian Kingdom........................................................... 86
A Most Embarrassing Relationship:
Ragusa as an Ottoman Tributary State.......................................................104
“The Liberty Given by God’’:
Ragusa as a Fully Independent Republic....................................................121
The “Purest” of Aristocracies:
Representations of the Ragusan Political System.....................................144
Conclusion: The Ragusan Discourse on
Statehood in Comparative Perspective.......................................................162
CHAPTER 3: THE DISCOURSE ON THE FRONTIER......................169
Introduction: A City “In-between”.............................................................169
Ragusa as a Christian Frontier Guard in the Medieval Tradition.........171
“Shelter, Shield, and Firm Bastion of the Entire Christian Republic’’:
The Representations of Tributary Status
in Ragusan Renaissance Diplomacy............................................................177
Infidel Slavery or Defense of Faith: References to
the Frontier in Ragusan Renaissance Culture...........................................194
Conclusion: The Ragusan Discourse on
the Frontier in Comparative Perspective....................................................210
CONCLUSION: CIVIC DISCOURSES IN
THE BROADER IDEOLOGICAL CONTEXT........................................221
EPILOGUE: RAGUSAN ECHOES................................................................227
BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................243
Archival Sources..............................................................................................243
Published Sources............................................................................................245
Secondary Literature......................................................................................253
