The myth of Dubrovnik (Ragusa) : civic identity of an Adriatic city-state in the late medieval and early modern period

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. 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