On the “Temerity” of Ragusans: Venetian-Ragusan Conflict in the Summer of 1630

The article is dedicated to one of the most serious incidents between the Venetian and Ragusan Republics: the armed conflict between the Venetian galleys and Ragusan armed ship and fortresses in front of Ragusa on 28 July 1630. The first part of the article offers a comprehensive reconstruction of the event itself, represented in very different ways in the Venetian and Ragusan documents. The second part addresses the immediate aftermath of the event, that is, the reactions of the Venetian and Ragusan governments and various diplomatic initiatives that followed. Finally, the third part investigates the significance and long-term consequences of this incident, questioning the established interpretation according to which it was the beginning of the so-called “Lokrum crisis”, a prolonged diplomatic conflict between Venice and Ragusa. The article is largely based on the hitherto unknown documents from the Venetian archive, which not only bring a wealth of new data, but also reveal a serious methodological issue inherent in relying exclusively on Ragusan documents when reconstructing the diplomatic history of the small state. The appendix of the article is the transcription of the report regarding the incident, written by the commander of Venetian forces, Giovanni Battista Grimani

Ragusan Image of Venice and Venetian Image of Ragusa in the Early Modern Period

Članak je pokušaj rekonstrukcije načina na koje su Dubrovačka i Mletačka Republika doživljavale jedna drugu tijekom 16. i 17. stoljeća. Njihove međusobne slike analizirane su prvenstveno na temelju historiografije, književnosti, javnih govora i diplomatskih dokumenata. Uz razmatranje spontano stvorenih stereotipa, ova studija također pokušava upozoriti na ulogu vlasti u njihovu stvaranju te na različite oblike njihove političke instrumentalizacije.The aim of this article is to reconstruct the images which Ragusan and Venetian Republics had of each other during the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century. It is based on various documents—primarily historiography, literature, public speeches and diplomatic correspondence—revealing the stereotypes of the two Adriatic republics. The first part of the text is dedicated to the reconstruction of the somewhat ambivalent image of Venice in Ragusan culture. On the one hand Venetians were depicted as cowardly plotters against Ragusan independence, who use every occasion to damage its interests due to a centuries-old hatred for that city. On the other hand, Venetian republic was lauded as an ideal republican government—very much along the lines of the famous “myth of Venice”—which, however, was usually accompanied by self-glorifying remarks that Ragusa has the same institutional arrangement. The second part of the text deals with the image of Ragusa in Venetian documents, which was usually characterized by a combination of irritation and deprecation. The other Adriatic republic was represented as a petty and irrelevant community which, depending on the goodwill of its neighbours, does not enjoy the true liberty and thus does not deserve the title of republic. Moreover, its inhabitants were seen as obsessively hating Venice and constantly trying to plot against it at the court of their protector, the Ottoman sultan. The article ends with concluding remarks which point out the survival of some of the analyzed stereotypes in modern historiography as well as the fact that these stereotypes most likely profoundly affected and shaped political action

“No Harm in Hearing It All”: Medicean Attitude to the Conspiracy of Marin Držić

U Archivio di Stato di Firenze pronađeno je dosad nepoznato urotničko pismo Marina Držića i neke opaske o Držiću koje su se nalazile u prepisci između vojvode Cosima I. Medicija i njegova tajnika Bartolomea Concina. Uz pokušaj promišljanja Držićeve urotničke epizode u svjetlu novih podataka, rad sadrži transkripcije, prijevod i komentar ovih dokumenata. Novootkriveni dokumenti pokazuju da Držić nije, kako se dosad mislilo, bio ignoriran od strane medičejskih vlasti, te omogućuju da se okvirno rekonstruira odnos firentinskog dvora prema Držićevu urotničkom planu, krug ljudi s kojima je kontaktirao, kao i niz novih pojedinosti o tome kako je sam Držić shvaćao svoj politički projekt.In the State Archives of Florence (Archivio di Stato di Firenze) the author has discovered an unknown letter in which Marin Držić elaborates his conspiracy, as well as certain comments on Držić traced in the correspondence of Duke Cosimo I Medici with his secretary, Bartolomeo Concino. The article affords transcriptions, translation and commentary of the documents, accompanied by a study which aims to interpret Držić’s conspiracy in the light of newly discovered evidence. The recent find also sheds new light on the traditional interpretation of Držić’s Florentine episode. The fact that Držić’s plan was not ignored by the Medici government, as commonly believed until now, but became a matter of official consideration is ground-breaking. On the basis of newly found documents, the author attempts to reconstruct the chronology of Držić’s contacts with some of the most influential figures of the Medici court, his social circle, as well as the attitude of the Medici administration towards his proposal. Additionally, drawing a parallel between the plotting contents of Držić’s earlier discovered letters with the most recent find, the author suggests a different interpretation of some of the commonplaces in Držić’s political opus

Venice and Dubrovnik During the Great Earthquake of 1667

The article examines the Venetian-Ragusan relations during one of the most dramatic moments in Dubrovnik’s history―the first few weeks after the Great Earthquake of 1667. This large-scale crisis which not only destroyed the city physically, but also its socio-political order, had a profound impact on the relations between the two Adriatic republics. Starting from the assumption that the situations of crisis allow a privileged insight into the nature of historical phenomena, this text centres on the microfactography of this dramatic period. On the one hand, it reconstructs various diplomatic contacts, speculations and plans in Venice itself, among which the most intriguing was the initiative for the union between the two republics and their patriciates. On the other hand, the article traces the situation in the surroundings of Dubrovnik, where general governor Cornaro made recurrent attempts at pressuring the remaining nobility into aggregation with the Most Serene Republic

The Rhetoric of the Frontier of Christendom in the Diplomacy of Renaissance Ragusa

Iznimno važno, a zanemareno pitanje iz povijesti dubrovačke diplomacije pitanje je o njenoj retorici, odnosno argumentaciji kojom su potkrepljivane njene molbe i zahtjevi. Ovaj rad je pokušaj analize vjerojatno najvažnije retoričke strategije starog Dubrovnika, tradicionalno korištene pred kršćanskim državama: tvrdnje da grad, smješten na granici s islamom i pravoslavljem, obavlja iznimno važnu ulogu u interesu katoličke i kršćanske vjere. Uz pokušaj da predoči postupan razvoj retorike o Dubrovniku kao graničaru kršćanstva, ovaj članak također ima za cilj analizirati situacije u kojima se ona javljala i svrhe za koje je korištena. Dubrovačku retoriku promatra se unutar šireg europskog konteksta i uspoređuje s retorikama drugih renesansnih država smještenih na granici religija.One extremely important but neglected question concerning the history of Ragusan diplomacy is that of its rhetoric. This article seeks to analyse the most important rhetorical strategy of Ragusan diplomacy, traditionally directed towards the Christian Europe: the endlessly repeated claim that Ragusa, situated on the frontier with the Orthodox “schismatics” and Muslim “infidels”, performs a unique and extremely important mission in the interest of Catholic and Christian religion. The first goal of this article is to reconstruct the historical development of this rhetoric, starting from its first appearance in the diplomacy of the late fourteenth century all the way to its full articulation in the sixteenth. The second goal is to analyse the types of situations in which it was used and the purposes for which it served, since this rhetoric was quickly turned into a standard and obviously very successful diplomatic tool. The third goal is to put the Ragusan rhetoric in context, comparing it to the diplomatic rhetoric of other Renaissance states situated on the frontier of religions, such as the Iberian kingdoms, Poland, Hungary and Malta. Finally, the article contains a case-study about the reception of Ragusan rhetoric, an attempt to reconstruct a fierce diplomatic conflict between the Venetian and Ragusan diplomacy during the War of Cyprus concerning the question whether the city was a champion or betrayer of Christianity