Ragusa, between land and sea
The date on which the city was founded is subject to various hypotheses, but it would appear that the choice of this steep rock on the coast was not made by chance: Ragusa was destined for trade and numerous exchanges, whether by land or by sea, a guarantee of its dual identity, Slavic and at the same time Italian. Franco Sacchetti's destiny - and even his work - is a reflection of this mix: the man who can be considered the first writer born in Ragusa in 1332 hardly stayed in his hometown, and quickly took the road that led him to Italy, where he died in 1400. His openness to the world was reflected in his writings, which were modeled on Boccaccio's Decameron, and he favored the art of short stories, 233 of the 300 that originally made up Il trecento novelle. While he did not neglect form, it was substance that preoccupied him most, as writing gave him ample opportunity to record the experiences he lived through or the anecdotes he heard about. He also sketched out poems, collected in Il libro delle rime, declining over and over again the universal theme of love, which was soon to be seized upon by the most sulphurous of his peers: Sisko Menčetić (1457/58-1527).
Legend has it that Menčetić was sentenced to prison for sexual harassment when he was just 19, and that he fought with at least three members of his family on his wedding day, when he was well into his forties. This did not prevent him from holding important political positions, and above all from devoting himself to a style of poetry strongly inspired, in its metre, by the Neapolitan school. Indeed, he excelled above all in the strambotto, a short poem of eight lines composed by lovers for their sweetheart, with a complex double rhyme scheme. Some 224 of these strambotti have been preserved, some of them nothing more than translations of Italian poems, for such is the interest of Menčetić's work: he wrote in his own language, laying the foundations of literary Ragusain while allowing himself to be influenced by the various dialects in force in Dalmatia. Was he a precursor in this sense, or did he follow in the footsteps of authors whose work has disappeared, or did he act like his model Petrarch, the humanist poet who abandoned Latin to take up Tuscan, then considered a vulgar language? This is a mystery that linguists are still debating, but it in no way diminishes the impact of this choice on Croatian literature. Sisko Menčetić, who had proved his mettle by singing of love and eroticism, succumbed to the Great Plague at an advanced age.
His near-contemporary Dzore Drzić (1461-1501) is also considered one of the founding fathers of Croatian language and literature, although he evolved in a different register. A man of the people, a respectable citizen and having embarked on an ecclesiastical career, he also belonged to the humanist movement, and also wrote love poems, albeit with a spiritual dimension that, at first glance, was not apparent in his colleague's work. To put it in a nutshell, his portrait of the ideal woman was more like Dante's Beatrice than Petrarch's Laure, as Louis Léger (1843-1923), a French academic specializing in Slavic languages, so rightly pointed out in one of his scholarly works. In any case, Dzore Drzić's Pjesni lijuvene were certainly highly prized by the Ragusans, as they found a prominent place in the anthology compiled by Niksa Ranjina (1494-1582) after his death. This collection, which bears the name of its compiler, is in two parts: the first contains poems by minor authors, some of which may have been transcribed from oral tradition; the second - the most important: 610 texts out of 800 - lists poems by Sisko Menčetić, Dzore Drzić and Mavro Vetranović (1482-1576), a prolific and patriotic Benedictine monk. The difficulty is that the names of the writers are not specified, and the texts are arranged in alphabetical order by the first words of which they are composed, which in no way detracts from the infinite value of this manuscript, but does leave a few questions open. This document was the subject of two critical editions, in 1870 and 1937, but was unfortunately destroyed during the Second World War. Niksa Ranjina, who is said to have begun collecting information in his early teens, also wrote a chronicle of his town: Annali di Ragusa (1522).
Multiplication of genres
In addition to his poetry, Dzore Drzić also wrote an "eglogue", a kind of pastoral poem that often takes the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. This text, Radmio i Ljubmir, is therefore readily considered to be the origin of Croatian theater, a genre that his nephew, Marin Drzić (1508-1567), actively developed. His life has all the makings of a novel and is fairly well documented; it was made up of travels, trials of all kinds and a few debts, but also of a definite attraction for human relationships and, more specifically, for the stage, since it appears that he also officiated as an actor. His first comedy, Pomet, devised around 1548, has disappeared, although we know that it was performed and gave his theatrical company its name. Although only one of her pastorals was published during her lifetime(Tirena, in Venice in 1551), fragments of her work have survived the centuries(Dzuho Krpeta, Grizula, etc.). It reveals the image of Marin Drzić as a bon vivant who never hesitated to use a ferocious sense of humor to criticize the society in which he lived. As proof, his play Skup (1555) - published in French by Prozor Editions in 2019 - depicts the figure of a miser, a good century before Molière portrayed his own Harpagon in 1668.
Of his perfect contemporary, Petar Zoranić, born in Zadar in 1508 and perhaps died in Ragusa between 1548 and 1569, it is said that he wrote his country's first novel: Planine, printed in Venice in 1569. Inspired by the pastoral life of a shepherd, Zoran, the story soon becomes an allegory of Croatia and a recension of its founding myths, becoming a patriotic message that anticipated by several centuries the "Illyrian" nationalist movement that would develop in the 19th century. For the time being, 16th-century Ragusa still saw the birth of several poets, including Nicolas Naljesković (c. 1500-1587), Dinko Ranjina (1536-1607), Dinko Zlatarić (1558-1613), who was also an exceptional translator, and above all Stipejo Durdević (1579-1632), who is associated with the Baroque period.
This movement flourished particularly in Ragusa, making the city one of the country's major cultural centers. It is embodied in the figure of Ivan Gundulić, whose poetry - epic in Osman and religious in The Tears of the Prodigal Son- delighted his fellow citizens and ensured his great renown. The best proof of his enduring fame is the statue of him unveiled in July 1893 in one of the city's central squares, the work of sculptor Ivan Rendić (1849-1932). However, another writer, Ivan Bunić Vučić (1592-1658), is not to be outdone, since it is customary to hear that his Plandovanja largely revolutionized the aestheticism of Croatian literature and introduced major new themes. As for Junije Palmotić (1606-1657), even if he uses mythological motifs, it's his city whose mysteries he describes in a work in which he doesn't hesitate to summon Serbian heroes, thereby inviting a certain Slavic unity. Finally, Vladislav Menčetić(Radonja, Tuzba Radmilova cijeć Zorke vile) also contributed to this Baroque, even patriotic golden age (with Trublja slovinska, 1665), which can be explained by these difficult times. However, it would be impossible to conclude without mentioning Petar Kanavelić (1637-1719) who, although not a native of Dubrovnik, maintained strong links with the city and its intellectuals by joining the Akademija ispraznih founded around 1690. Not only do his writings herald the modern period, they also make him one of the most important writers of this period of his country's literary history, as he was able to deploy his talent in many forms (love poems, lyricism, satire, praise). At the very least, we should mention the texts dedicated to his beloved city: Grad Dubrovnik vlastelom u tresnji (1667), which evokes the terrible earthquake that occurred in the year of its publication, and Dubrovnik sloboden harača na blagdan ruke svetijeh Vlasi (1695), which recounts his reconciliation with Constantinople.
From the Enlightenment to the modern era
While some might argue that literary Dubrovnik had seen its heyday and would have to give way to other cities in the future, a number of writers maintained this vitality over the centuries to come. For example, Roger Joseph Boscovich (1711-1787), a Jesuit priest with a passion for astronomy and philosophy, was the perfect representative of the Enlightenment and a worthy emissary of his native city during a busy life that ended in Milan once he had acquired French nationality. For his part, Ivo Vojnović, who through political fluctuations was born in 1857 in Ragusa, part of the Austrian Empire, and died in 1929 in Belgrade, part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, is considered a great dramatist and a champion of modern currents, from realism to symbolism. He entered literature with his short story Geranium, published in Vijenac in 1880, and never ceased to surprise and innovate, first with his poetry(Lapadski soneti) and then above all with his theater, including the famous Dubrovnik Trilogy, once again published in French by Prozor. These three plays - Allons enfants!, Crépuscule and Sur la terrasse - can be read, together or separately, as snapshots in the city's history: the arrival of Napoleonic troops, the love of a fallen aristocratic woman, and the tipping point into the 20th century. The 20th century also saw the emergence of the talent of Vesna Krmpotić (1932-2018), who was awarded the prestigious Vladimir Nazov Prize by the Ministry of Culture in 1999. Unfortunately difficult to find in French, her work boasts the world's largest collection of poems: 108 x 108, comprising 11,664 texts! Vesna Krmpotić also composed Brdo iznad oblaka, her most famous poem, and Bhagavatar, inspired by her passion for India. We must also salute the memory of Milan Milisić, "poet-troubadour", who lost his life on October 5, 1991 in the house where he was born in 1941, victim of a grenade that perfectly symbolized the explosion of Yugoslavia. Last but not least, Luko Paljetak seems to have it all: a graduate in philosophy, a distinguished translator of Joyce and Shakespeare, a playwright, he has also written song lyrics - for children and adults - that have become veritable hits. If this astonishing background is anything to go by, Dubrovnik still has plenty of surprises in store!
