The Republic Of Ragusa - free ebook by Luigi Villari

THE REPUBLIC OF RAGUSA

AN EPISODE OF THE TURKISH CONQUEST By LUIGI VILLARI WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS By WILLIAM HULTON LONDON: J. M. DENT &amp; CO. 29 &amp; 30 BEDFORD STREET, W.C. MCMIV Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson &amp; Co. At the Ballantyne Press...

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PREFATORY NOTE

V ARIOUS accounts of Dalmatia have been written in English, many of which include a historical survey of Ragusa; but the only special histories of the town itself are in German or Italian, and even those are not by any means complete. The best is undoubtedly Professor Gelcich’s little book, Dello Sviluppo Civile di Ragusa , a perfect mine of valuable information, of which I have availed myself largely in the present volume. But it deals principally with the internal development, the archeology,

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

T HE eastern shore of the Adriatic from the Quarnero to the Bocche di Cattaro is a series of deep inlets and bays, with rocky mountains rising up behind, while countless islands, forming a veritable archipelago, follow the coastline. The country is for the most part bare and stony. The cypress, the olive, the vine grow on it, but never in great quantities. Patches of juniper and other bushes are often the only relief to the long stretches of sterile coast. Here and there more favoured spots appe

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CHAPTER II THE FOUNDATION AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE CITY (656-1204)

W E have alluded to the destruction by the Avars of Salona and Epidaurum, 14 and the flight of their inhabitants to the new settlements. Of Salona extensive ruins remain, but with regard to the site of Epidaurum there is a division of opinion among archæologists. It is generally held that the remains at or near the village of Ragusavecchia, a few miles to the south-east of Ragusa, are those of the ancient Epidaurum. In the neighbouring valley of Canali (Slavonic, Konavli ) there are the ruins of

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I.—THE CONSTITUTION AND THE LAWS, 1204-1276.

During the next hundred and fifty years, save for two or three short interruptions between 1221 and 1233, Ragusa is admittedly a vassal state of the Venetian Republic, ruled by Venetian counts appointed by the Doge. Venice was, however, the protectress rather than the absolute mistress of the Dalmatian townships, which continued to enjoy a considerable measure of self-government. Venetian influence was useful to them as a protection both against the pirates which infested the Adriatic and the tu

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II.—SERVIAN AND BOSNIAN WARS, 1276-1358

T O return to our story; in 1276 Ragusa was once more threatened from outside. The King of Servia 141 determined to make another attempt to convert Ragusa into a Servian seaport; he crossed the mountains with a large army and raided the territory of the Republic. A Ragusan force sent against him was defeated, and its leader, Benedetto Gondola, captured and hanged. Elated by this success, the King marched forward and tried to capture Ragusa itself by a coup de main . But the citizens were prepare

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CHAPTER V THE TRADE OF RAGUSA

T HE whole basis of Ragusa’s prosperity, as we have seen in the first chapter, was trade. The Republic’s territory was too small, and in part too arid, to provide sufficient foodstuffs for the population and three-quarters of the grain which it consumed annually were imported from abroad. Consequently it was upon trade and industry that the citizens had to depend for their means of livelihood. Manufactures, however, save shipbuilding, never assumed great importance at Ragusa, and it was not unti

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CHAPTER VI ART IN THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES

D URING the Venetian period, with the increasing wealth and consequence of Ragusa, the city itself was beautified by the erection of numerous handsome buildings, both lay and ecclesiastical, and by 1358 it was almost entirely reconstructed. In its early days the walls, the castle, and one or two churches were the only stone edifices; all the rest of the town was of timber. Throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the defences were increased, new bastions erected, and the older walls st

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CHAPTER VII RAGUSA UNDER HUNGARIAN SUPREMACY—THE TURKISH INVASION, 1358-1420

B Y the treaty of 1358 the whole eastern shore of the Adriatic as far as Durazzo was ceded to Hungary, but as a matter of fact that Power only extended its occupation as far as Ragusa. Not having a strong fleet, King Louis feared that the more southern cities would be difficult to hold, and he therefore never exercised his treaty rights over them. Venice, having lost with Dalmatia her chief naval base, turned her attention towards Albania and the adjoining Slavonic countries. She had at one time

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CHAPTER VIII THE TURKISH CONQUEST (1420-1526)

F OR the next hundred years Ragusa remains under Hungarian protection, but bound by ties so shadowy that for all practical purposes she may be regarded as an independent State. During this period, however, she feels the weight of Turkish power more and more, and her tribute to the Porte goes on increasing, until it reaches the maximum limit of 12,500 ducats. But in spite of this ever-present danger she continues to grow in wealth, splendour, and importance, and to carry out her mission as a have

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CHAPTER IX TRADE AND INTERNAL CONDITIONS DURING THE HUNGARIAN PERIOD

I N spite of Ottoman raids, piracy, plagues, and earthquakes, the Republic prospered exceedingly in every direction. According to Palladius Fuscus, there were three hundred Ragusan merchantmen on the sea, visiting every port. Ragusa was the starting-point for journeys into Turkey, and the ambassadors of foreign Powers passed through the city on their way to Constantinople. Its traders were to be found in every part of the Mediterranean. At the end of the period of Venetian domination, in 1358, w

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CHAPTER X RAGUSA INDEPENDENT OF HUNGARY (1526-1667)

T HE period between the establishment of the Turks in Bosnia and the fall of the Venetian Republic is one of great interest for the whole of Dalmatia. “In these events,” writes an anonymous author in the Annuario Dalmatico , 457 “every village has its part, almost every family its glorious record. And if on the one hand we still find the traces, I may almost say the smoking ruins, of the desolation wrought upon us by the Turkish armies; on the other we find many memories of the valour of the Dal

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CHAPTER XI RAGUSAN SHIPS AND SEAMEN IN THE SERVICE OF SPAIN

T HE great Spanish Empire of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries offered a wide field of maritime activity to the more enterprising spirits of Ragusa, of which they were not slow to avail themselves. The Dalmatians of other towns were under Venetian rule, and therefore precluded to a great extent from these expeditions; but the Ragusans, although their Government from time to time issued decrees forbidding them to serve under foreign flags, so as to avoid international complications, continu

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CHAPTER XII FROM THE EARTHQUAKE TO THE NAPOLEONIC WARS (1667-1797)

O F all the Ragusan aristocracy, in whom the whole power of the Republic was vested, only twenty-five adult males survived this terrible calamity, and not all of these were eligible for the highest offices. They organised themselves into a provisional Government, and after some demur decided to ennoble eleven burgher families and receive them into their order. They did not, however, grant them full privileges nor admit them to all the offices, and this exclusion subsequently led to internal diff

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CHAPTER XIII ART SINCE THE YEAR 1358

A fter the departure of the last Venetian Count from Ragusa in 1358, although Hungarian political supremacy succeeded to that of Venice, the artistic and civilising influence of the Most Serene Republic survived, and its impress in the town is unmistakable to this day. The pointed arches in the Venetian Gothic style, the carved balconies, the two-light and three-light windows, the general character of the stonework and sculpture, in spite of certain distinctive features, bear witness to the stre

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CHAPTER XIV LITERATURE

O WING to her position between the Italian and Slavonic elements, and her connections with Venice and with the Serb States, Ragusan literature was of a twofold, or indeed of a threefold, nature. There were Ragusans who wrote in Latin, others in Italian, and others in Slavonic. But so mixed was the character of the people that in many instances the same author composed works in all the three languages. “Dalmatia, and especially Ragusa, which represents the highest degree of Slavonic culture, show

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CHAPTER XV THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC

R AGUSA now enters into the vortex of the Napoleonic wars, in which she, like her great rival Venice and many another still more powerful State, was to disappear. The story of her end is but an incident in that wonderful drama, but it affords some curious side-lights on the history of Europe at that period, and exhibits for the last time the peculiar character of the Ragusan Government and people. In 1797 the French armies occupied Venice, put an end to the Republic, and annexed its possessions,

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

G. Valentinelli, Bibliografia della Dalmazia e del Montenegro , Zagabria (Agram), 1855-56....

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COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

Monumenta Ragusina , edit. Rački and Gelcich, in the “Monumenta Spectantia Historiam Slavorum Meridionalium,” published by the South-Slavonic Academy of Agram, vol. x. &amp;c., 1879 &amp;c. Diplomatarium relationum Reipublicæ Ragusinæ cum Regno Hungariæ , edit. Gelcich and Thálloczy, published by the Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Budapest, 1887. F. Miklosich, Monumenta Serbica , Wien, 1858. Orsat Medo-Počič (Count Pozza), Spomenici Srpski , u Beogradu (Belgrad), 1858. Tafel und Thomas, Gri

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CHRONICLES AND GENERAL HISTORIES OF RAGUSA

Niccolò Ragnina, Annali di Ragusa , and Annali Anonimi di Ragusa , published by the South-Slavonic Academy among the Scriptores. Giunio Resti, Chronica Ragusina , continued by G. Gondola, published by the South-Slavonic Academy. Serafino Razzi, La Storia di Raugia , Lucca, 1588. G. Luccari, Copioso Ristretto degli Annali di Ragusa , 1790. J. C. von Engel, Geschichte des Freystaates Ragusa , Wien, 1807. F. M. Appendini, Notizie Istorico-Critiche ... de’ Ragusei , Ragusa, 1803. Giuseppe Gelcich, D

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HISTORIES OF OTHER COUNTRIES

Cronache Veneziane Antichissime , edit. Monticolo, Roma, 1890. Andrea Dandolo, Chronicon Venetum , in Muratori’s Rer. Ital. Script. , tom. xii. Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio . E. Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , edit. J. B. Bury, London, 1901. J. B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire , London, 1887. Romanin, Storia Documentata di Venezia , Venezia, 1853. Horatio Brown, Venice , London, 1893. F. C. Hodgson, The Early History of Venice , Lo

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COMMERCIAL HISTORIES

Heyd, Histoire du Commerce du Lévant au Moyen Âge , Leipzig, 1885. Carlo Antonio Marin, Storia Civile e Politica del Commercio dei Veneziani , Venezia, 1798. C. J. Jireček, Die Handelsstrassen und Bergwerke von Serbien und Bosnien während des Mittelalters , Prag, 1879....

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SPECIAL HISTORIES

Liber Statutorum Civitatis Rhacusii (MS. in the Franciscan Library at Ragusa). D. Farlati and J. Coleti, Illyricum Sacrum , Venetiis, 1751-1819. G. Lucio, Memorie Istoriche di Tragurio , published in his De Regno Dalmatiæ , 1666. P. Pisani, Num Ragusini ob omni jure Veneto a sæc. x usque ad sæc. xiv immunes fuerint , Paris, 1893. Gelcich, La Zedda e la Dinastia dei Balšidi , Spalato, 1899. Gelcich, I Conti di Tuhelj , 1889. “G. G.,” Turchi e Cristiani , in the “Annuario Dalmatico” for 1884. “G.

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ART AND LITERATURE

Philippus de Diversis de Quartigianis, Situs Aedficiorum Ragusii , edit. Brunelli, Zara, 1882. T. Graham Jackson, Dalmatia, the Quarnero, and Istria , Oxford, 1887. R. von Eitelberger von Edelberg, Kunstdenkmale Dalmatiens , vol. iv. of his Gesammelte kunsthistorische Schriften , Wien, 1884. E. Freeman, Sketches from the Subject and Neighbour Lands of Venice , London, 1881. Gliubich (Ljubić), Dizionario Biografico della Dalmazia . Galleria di Ragusei Illustri , Ragusa, 1841. A. N. Puipin und W.

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TOPOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

B. Ramberti, Libri Tre delle Cose dei Turchi , 1539. Caterino Zen’s journey to Constantinople, published in Starine x. of the South-Slavonic Academy, 1878. Nicholas de Nicolay, Les Navigations et Pérégrinations et Voyages faiets en la Turquie , Anvers, 1576. Des Hayes de Courmenin, Voyage de Lévant , Paris, 1649. Thomas Watkins, Travels through Swisserland, Italy ... to Constantinnople , London, 1794. F. C. H. L. Pouqueville, Voyage dans la Grèce , Paris, 1826. J. D. F. Neigebauer, Die Süd-Slave

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