1
PATRIMONIUM IN MANUSCRIPTIS CONSERVATUM
EUROCLASSICA CONGRESS Dubrovnik, 29.03-02.04.05.
Ivica Martinović, Dubrovnik
Unpublished manuscript heritage of the Croatian Latinists in the libraries and archives of Dubrovnik: preliminary report
Writers and scholars alike write primarily to see their work published, reviewed and, above all, read. This, too, was the goal of the Dubrovnik-born Croatian Latinists who acquired their classical learning either in Dubrovnik or at one of the Italian Universities of Bologne, Ferrara, Padua, Naples, Rome, or even Paris. Upon completing their studies abroad, most of them returned to their native city. Their academic careers varied from highly distinguished and honoured to obscure and wretched. Myriad were the reasons of their return to Dubrovnik or recurrent departure: crowned as poeta laureatus at the Academy of Iulius Pomponius Letus in 1484, Ilija Crijević decided to return to his hometown; having lost in a financial action, Nikola Brautić was sententenced to prison at St Angelo Castle in 1621, after which he renounced his bishopric and returned to Lopud, his place of birth; after Rome and Bologne, Stjepan Gradić was to spend ten years in Dubrovnik (1643-1653), left for Rome again, where he remained until death; Ignjat Đurđević renounced the Jesuit Society in Rome and returned to Dubrovnik in 1705 to join a stricter Benedictine order; Bernard Zamagna returned home after the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773. Having graduated from the best European Universities, some Latinists were determined to pursue their careers in the most sophisticated cultural, scientific and ecclesiastical centres of the day: a Dominican Ivan Stojković in Paris and on the Councils, the Jesuits Ivan Lukarević, Benedikt Rogačić, Ruđer Bošković and Rajmund Kunić in Rome, Marko Faustin Galjuf in Rome and Genoa. Lastly, apart from an episode or two, some of the major Dubrovnik Latinists never left their hometown: Damjan Beneša, Nikola Vitov Gučetić, Vice Petrović, and Džono Rastić.
Different life stories reflect different attitudes to the publication of one's work. As an illustration, I shall provide three examples from three distinctive productive periods.
The first concerns the literary production of the turn of the fifteenth century. The works of Ivan Gučetić, the first Latin poet of the Renaissance Dubrovnik, remained unpublished and shortly before death he himself burnt his love verses. Out of his voluminous production, Ilija Crijević published only 4 epigrams and a prose epistle dedicated to Sigismund Đurđević. Damjan Beneša followed their example. Ludovik Crijević Tuberon, 'Ragusan Sallust', did not live to see the publishing of his historical work Commentaria de temporibus suis; yet he is among the rare authors whose major work had been reissued four times by 1800, although not on the autograph basis. Contrarily, Fran Lucijan Gundulić published the novelette Baptistinus, his only extant work, Jakov Bunić had his two epics printed (1490, 1526), and Karlo Pucić published his love cycle Elegiarum libellus de laudibus Gnesae puellae (1499).
The second period concerns the most prominent figures after 1737 or following the death of the polyhistor Ignjat Đurđević. Although in the period 1728-1752 Serafin Crijević authored an impressive number of prose works, he did not publish any of them during his lifetime, not even his principal work Bibliotheca Ragusina, a bio-bibliographical lexicon of Dubrovnik writers, which, apparently, he had prepared for print. Out of his voluminous poetic production, Vice Petrović lived to see the publication of but one epigram: praise of the poetic accomplishment of Baro Bettera. Unlike his heroic poems and epigrams, Ruđer Bošković's contributions to mathematics, astronomy and natural philosophy were published almost regularly. His carefully selected verses were published in a collection Arcadum carmina (1756). Bošković was equally determined to see his epic De Solis ac Lunae defectibus edited three times (London, Venice, Paris). This period also saw the publishing of the two epics of Benedikt Stay, in which he describes the natural philosophy of Decartes, Newton and Bošković. Rajmund Kunić hesitated with the publishing of his ample epigrammatic production, but his selection of elegies was edited several times. From his early academic years Bernard Zamagna, Kunić's student, showed great zeal in publishing and is thus an exception among the Dubrovnik Latinists. In the period 1791-1803 Đuro Ferić published regularly, only to abandon the practice, leaving behind great many unpublished works, particularly the valuable collections of epigrams and translations of folk songs. Džono Rastić's Carmina were published posthumously, while Marko Faustin Galjuf managed to publish a representative selection of his works shortly before his death.
The third period covers the last years of the Ragusan Latinism.Vlaho Getaldić, among the last devotees of the Latin Muse in Dubrovnik, published but a few of his occasional poems (1838-1842), an epistle to Paravia of Zadar (1842) and a Latin translation of Gundulić's Osman (1865), having left behind a voluminous manuscript production.
What has become of the unpublished manuscripts? A small but valuable amount was published in the printing houses of Dubrovnik and Zadar during the nineteenth century, then in the editions of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, in the journal Rad JAZU and in the series Hrvatski latinisti, and finally in the anthology of Hrvatski latinisti, edited by Veljko Gortan and Vladimir Vratović (Zagreb: Matica hrvatska, 1969-1970). It is difficult to establish how much of this production will never be restored. The bulk of the literary production of the Ragusan Latinists remains dispersed in the libraries and archives of Dubrovnik, Croatia and elsewhere in the world. This is a brief survey of the Dubrovnik resources of the unpublished manuscript heritage of the Ragusan Latinists, not a systematic list but rather an essay on the available infrastructure of the neo-Latin heritage in Dubrovnik: on the resources, transcribers and printed catalogues.
Resources
The following Dubrovnik institutions house the manuscripts of the Ragusan Latinists:
Franciscan Archives;
Research Library;
Library of the Dominican friary;
State Archives;
The private collection of Ivo Bizzaro, housed at the Institute for Historical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
The first three institutions are particularly rich in autographs: Franciscan Archives files the autograph manuscripts of Damjan Beneša, Ignjat Đurđević, Vice Petrović, Serafin Crijević, Sebastijan Slade, Rajmund Kunić, Rafo Radelja, Inocent Čulić and Vlaho Getaldić, Research Library keeps the autographs of Damjan Beneša, Ignjat Đurđević, Vice Petrović, Rajmund Kunić, and Đuro Ferić, and the Library of the Dominican Friary of Serafin Crijević.
Franciscan Archives surpasses all the others in size, as it houses more than 2100 manuscripts. In the first and so far the only available volume of the manuscript catalogue published to date (1952), Mijo Brlek has compiled 276 manuscript items, of which 39 contain the literary works of the Dubrovnik Latinists. An evident imbalance between Latin on one side and Croatian and Italian on the other is the result of the editor's aim to embrace in the first volume the entire manuscript heritage in Croatian, even at the cost of the changes in catalogue numeration.
Appendix 1
The manuscripts of Dubrovnik Latinists in the Franciscan Archives:
Selected bibliography for nn. 300-2000
Vital Andrijašević
Viridiarium, n. 558.
Ivan Karlo Anđelić
Ad Admodum Illustrem Dominum Vincentium Petrovich, n. 792, 5 pp.
Ad Vincentium Petrovich ode, n. 1895, 4 ff.
In Principum Christianorum discordias, anno 1718, quod auget Othomanorum imperium, ex libris Michaelis Milliscich, a Stulli Blasio, anno 1831 inventum, n. 761, 6 pp.
Vlaho Bolić
Carmina, n. 738, 51 pp.
Carmina, n. 1208, 22pp.
P. Bonifacius a Ragusio
Hymnorum ecclesiasticorum collectio, n. 364, cum notis, 17th c.
Baro Bošković
Carmina (edita et inedita), n. 1351, 96 pp.
Ilija Crijević
Carmina libris IX comprehensa, Agić’s manuscript ‘edition’, n. 409.
Serafin Crijević
Bibliotheca scriptorum Ragusinorum transcripta et redacta, 211 pp, n. 1407.
Historiae ecclesiasticae Rhacusinae epitome, n. 332, 986 ff.
Illustrium Ragusinorum scriptorum vitae, transcription from 1790, n. 1131, 210 ff.
Prolegomena in Sacram Metropolim Ragusinam, Caput V, n. 780, 19 pp.
Didak Pir
Elegiarum libri tres ad Dominicum Slatarichium, n. 410.
Sebastijan Dolci
De Epidaurensis et Ragusinae civitatis origine, autograph, n. 414.
Nonnulla poetica, n. 826, 32 pp.
Bernard Đurđević
Carmina varia, ex Codice Vaticano 6910, Radelja’s transcription, n. 1212.
Đuro Ferić
De laudibus Epidauri carmen, n. 1491, 56 pp.
Apophtegmata Erasmi latinis versibus explicata (1808), n. 931, 30 fascicles.
Vlaho Getaldić
Opera, autograph, nn. 1051-1067.
Lucubrationes poeticae, autograph, n. 1162. 1841.
Đuro Hidža
Elegiae ad varios, n. 1217.
Rajmund Kunić
Carmina, Radelja’s manuscript ‘edition’, n. 1156, 103 fascicles.
Elegiae, Radelja’s transcription, 20 elegias, n. 2055, 124 ff.
Ivan Lukarević
De cultu virginitatis, n. 1307, liber I.
De cultu virginitatis, n. 2095, liber II.
Infortunia .... carmen, n. 1855, 10 ff.
Fr. Michael Angelus de Ragusio
Disputatio in octo libros Aristotelis, nn. 544-545. Mediolani, 1620.
Vice Petrović
Epigrammatum liber I., autograph, n. 1190, 24 pp.
Carmina, autograph, n. 1511, 10 fascicles, 255 pp.
Nikola Pribisalić
Appendix ludi Corcyrensis, n. 1505, 39 pp.
Klement Ranjina
Commentaria in quatuor libros Sententiarum [1549], autograph, n. 595, 2 volumes.
Džono Rastić
Carmina, autograph, n. 846, 60 pp.
Benedikt Rogačić
Nonnulla carmina Benedicti Rogacci et Blasii Bolichii, n. 978, 69 pp.
Cvijeto Tvrdiša
Versi in varie lingue, n. 1621, 15 ff.Frano Volanti
Elegiarum et epigrammatum liber, n. 757, 38 pp. 1718.
Bernard Zamagna
Carmina, n. 315, 24 ff.
Nonnulla carmina minora inter quae varia autographa, n. 1520, 33 ff.
Ivan Luka Zuzorić
Antiquitates Graeciae, n. 894.
The Research Library in Dubrovnik, formerly Dubrovnik Library founded in 1941, houses 930 manuscripts, of which 127 contain the literary works of the Ragusan Latinists, from Damjan Beneša to Ivan Stojanović, from the end of the fifteenth to the end of the nineteenth century.
The manuscript collection of Luka Pavlović, housed at the State Archives of Dubrovnik, comprises 12 volumes of the Ragusan Latin poetry, transcribed mostly by Pavlović and his assistants. Besides the transcription of Agić's manuscript 'edition' of Ilija Crijević, the State Archives files the works from Junije Palmotić and Stjepan Gradić to Đuro Hidža, and particularly the minor poets from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century.
The private collection of Ivo Bizzaro contains 72 manuscripts. The works of the Dubrovnik Latinists are to be found in 7 manuscripts within a time-span of about a century: from Vice Petrović and Vlaho Bolić to Džono Rastić and Luko Stulli. Also filed here is Ivo Bizzaro's short collection Carmina Latina, an autograph manuscript.
These resources in Dubrovnik should be appended by two manuscript collections in Zagreb: that of the National and University Library (Nacionalna i sveučilišna knjižnica) and the Archives of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Arhiv HAZU). Although in Zagreb, these two collections represent 'Dubrovnik' resources sui generis. The manuscripts are generally of the Ragusan provenance, as they reached Zagreb during the Croatian National Revival, probably donated to the forerunners of the Croatian cultural scene in Zagreb or transcribed from the Ragusan originals. They owe their current storage to the bequests of Ljudevit Gaj and Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski, to mention only the two most significant legacies.
Transcribers-editors in the nineteenth century: Agić, Radelja and Pavlović
At the turn of the eighteenth century Dubrovnik witnessed an interesting phenomenon: transcribers-editors of the works of the Croatian Latinists, men who proved equally qualified to transcribe and edit opera omnia of the most renowned Ragusan Latinists. Interestingly, their laborious work was never crowned with a book. Viewed from the present-day perspective, these transcribers appeared at the very last moment as far as the available manuscripts were concerned. Only, the question remains whether the same result could possibly be achieved today.
Three names stand out:
(1) franciscan Antun Agić (1753-1830);
(2) canon Rafo Radelja (? – 1831);
(3) don Luka Pavlović (1821-1887).
Agić and Radelja were contemporaries. The former edited Opera omnia of the two leading Latinists from the turn of the fifteenth century Ilija Crijević (AMB, 409) and Damjan Beneša (AMB, 256), along with a collection of eighteenth-century poetry (AMB, 244). Radelja transcribed Carmina of Rajmund Kunić (AMB, 1156), together with the works of Ilija Crijević (AMB, 195), Đuro Bašić (AMB, 204), Đuro Ferić (AMB, 179). Both of them transcribed already published verse and of the same poet – Stjepan Gradić (AMB, 244; AMB, 184).
Luka Pavlović followed in their footsteps but went a step further, as he recopied what his predecessors had already transcribed. Namely, he copied Agić's 'edition' of Ilija Crijević (DAD, RO 283, 19) as well as Nonnulla carmina Junii Palmottae, Stephani Gradii et Bernardi Georgii (DAD, RO 283, 35) from Agić's transcription, thus providing us with the alternate solutions of Agić's editorial transcriptions. Additionally, he himself edited opera omnia of Vice Petrović (DAD, RO 283, 24), approximately 11,500 lines, together with Đuro Ferić's Carmina (DAD, RO 283, 18). Among Pavlović's valuable transcriptions one should point to Vlaho Bolić's Carmina inedita (DAD, RO 283, 14), Đuro Bašić's Carmina (DAD, RO 283, 14) and transcriptions of many minor poets of the nineteenth century. Pavlović has thus saved from oblivion an epic Oeconomia by an unknown poet, a versified version of Aristotle's work (DAD, RO 283, 14).
Appendix 2
The manuscripts of Dubrovnik Latinists in Luka Pavlović’s manuscript collection within the State Archives of Dubrovnik:
Selected bibliography
Abbreviation: DAD, RO 283,
12 volumes; 26 collections; 21 poets.
12
Nonnulla epigrammata Georgii Antonii Hyggiae, ff. 336-347.
Carmina varia Domini Georgii Higgiae, pp. 1-57 of original pagination, ff. 361-389.
14
Blasii Bolich Rhacusini Societatis Jesu Carmina (inedita), pp. 35-112.
Carmina inedita Ioannis Caroli de Angelis Soc. Jesu (?), pp. 103-113.
Francisci Volanti Elegiarum, et Epigrammatum libri duo, pp. 1-26 of original pagination, pp. 115-140. 1718.
Didaci Arboscelli Civ. Rhacusini et Cancellarii Reipublicae Rhacusinae nonnulla Illyrica et Latina carmina, pp. 1-17 of original pagination, pp. 193-209.
Carmina D. Georgii Bassich Soc. Jesu, pp. 287-297.
Appendix Ludi Corcyrensis D. Nicolai Pribissalich Presbiteri Rhacusini, pp. 311-345. 1770.
Varia carmina R. Florii Tvardiscia Ladestini, pp. 351-391. 1793.
Nonnulla carmina Bernardi Zamagnae Patricii Ragusini nondum typis edita, pp. 407-454.
Oeconomia ignoti Ragusini, pp. 551-607.
15
Carmina nonnullorum Rhacusinorum qui vixerunt saeculo XIX. Vol. I.
Carmina varia D. Raphaelis Radeglia Canonici Ragusini, pp. 105-127.
Luca Stulli, Collezione di varie poesie Latine ed Italiane, pp. 201-228.
Poesie del Sig. Antonio di Pietro Liepopilli, pp. 293-357.
18
Carmina D. Georgii Ferrich Ragusini, pp. 9-277.
Petar Frano Aletin, Carmina, pp. 349-372.
19
Aelii Lampridii Cervini carmina libris IX comprehensa, pp. 1-520, on pp. 147-520 transcribed by Luka Pavlović. Transcription of Agić’s manuscript ‘edition’ of Ilija Crijević’s Carmina.
»Index« (of incipits), pp. 511-520.
»Notae ad carmina Aelii Lampridii Cervini«, pp. 1-66.
22
Ignatius Georgius Abbas Melitensis, Augustissimo Caesari Carolo Austriaco hujus nominis sexto ... Epinicium, ff. 282-303. Notae, ff. 306-311.
24
Collectio carminum Vincentii Petrovich Ragusini, ff. 1-223.
35
Nonnulla carmina Junii Palmottae, Stephani Gradii, et Bernardi Giorgii.
Carmina Bernardi Giorgii, 129-141. 1675.
36
Raccolta di Poetici Componimenti in Lingue diverse; opera di Marco Bruere Desrivaux Francese. MM. SS. ex autografo.
Marci Bruere Desrivaux nonnulla Latina carmina, pp. 49-82.
40
B.[lasius] S.[tulli], Memoriae nonnullorum Rhacusinorum et Exterorum doctrina et virtute praestantium, ff. 3-65.
41
Poetici componimenti in Italiano, Slavo, e Latino di Marco Bruere Desrivaux Francese.
Poesie Latine-Italiane del medesimo, pp. 61-68.
Latina carmina Marci Bruere Desrivaux, pp. 119-143.
68
[Raymundi Cunichii Epigrammata] Encomiastica, ff. 1-272, 1191 epigrams. Radelja’s transcription.
Apart from these major three transcribers, equally valuable was the work of Frano Stay, Vijeko Grmoljez, Baldovin Bizar, Stjepan Marija Tomašević, Marko Marinović and many others.
Printed manuscript catalogues
The here submitted list of the printed catalogues clearly testifies to the Herculean and time-consuming task of cataloging:
CatalogodellaBibliotecadelP. InnocenzoCiulichdettoP. SordonellaLibreriade’ RR. PP. FrancescanidiRagusaredattodaGiovanniAugustoDr. Casnacich. (Zadar, 1860).
Catalogodeilibrirari, manoscrittiemembranacei, appartenentiallabibliotecarelittadaDonLukaPavlović (Ragusa: Allespesedellamassaereditaria, 1889).
PetarM. Kolendić, »RukopisigimnazijskebibliotekeuDubrovniku«, Srđ 6 (1907), pp. 991-997, 1041-1048.
MijoBrlek, RukopisiknjižniceMalebraćeuDubrovniku, knj. I. (Zagreb: JAZU, 1952).
MiroslavPantić, »RukopisinegdašnjebibliotekeBizarouHistorijskominstitutuuDubrovniku«, AnaliHistorijskoginstitutauDubrovniku 8-9 (1962), pp. 557-596.
»CunichianauArhivuMalebraćeuDubrovniku«, u: JozoSopta, »KnjiževnaostavštinaRajmundaKunićaSJ (1719-1794) uArhivuMalebraćeuDubrovniku«,
AnaliZavodazapovijesneznanostiHAZUuDubrovniku (1996), pp. 9-29, napp. 14-28.
»KazalorukopisnogzbornikaCollectioCarminumPoetarumRhacusinorumizknjižniceStulli«, u: IvicaMartinović, »PoezijaRajmundaKunićaurukopisnomzbornikuhrvatskihlatinistaizknjižnicebraćeStulli«, AnaliZavodazapovijesneznanostiHAZUuDubrovniku (1996), pp. 49-71, napp. 63-68.
[StjepanKastropil - MatijaBete], RukopisiZnanstveneknjižniceDubrovnik: KnjigaII. Rukopisi na stranim jezicima (Dubrovnik: Dubrovačke knjižnice, 1997).
The road to a 'reliable description', to quote Darko Novaković, is even harder. Thus creating a data base of the entire manuscript heritage is a much-needed priority and an initiative that should be applauded.
Conclusion
The fact that the bulk of the Ragusan manuscript heritage in Latin is still housed in the libraries and archives of Dubrovnik may be accounted by by looking at a wider social context:
Many Dubrovnik Latinists produced outside Dubrovnik. Given that they published irregularly and in less accessible editions, it was through manuscript copies that the work of these writers could have been read and appreciated in their native city. Such is the case of the manuscript heritage of Stjepan Gradić in the Dubrovnik resources. As he died while holding the keeper's post of the Vatican Library, all of his works are housed in this famous institution.
Some prominent Latinists, such as Bošković and Kunić, were determined to see their manuscript heritage housed in Dubrovnik. Sold at auction by his successors, Bošković's manuscripts found their way to the Bancroft Library at Berkeley (USA, CA), where they are still kept, while Kunić's works are mostly to be found in the Franciscan Archives in Dubrovnik.
There were Latinists, poetae minores in particular, whose literary output was limited to Dubrovnik, but since neither the city nor the Republic had a printing press, were unable to publish them. It was not until 1783 that the Ragusan patrician government allowed the opening of the first printing house. Even then, rare were the writers who decided to publish their complete works or in continuation.
The period after 1700 was marked by a succession of qualified transcribers of the manuscript heritage from autographs or good copies. The emergence of three transcribers-editors in the nineteenth century deserves special credit. With utmost excellence have Antun Agić, Rafo Radelja and Luka Pavlović copied and edited opera omnia of some of the most renowned Dubrovnik Latinists - Ilija Crijević, Damjan Beneša, Vice Petrović and Rajmund Kunić – having saved dozens of unpublished Latin poets from oblivion.
Today, eight Dubrovnik institutions house the Latin manuscripts of the Ragusan authors. In the catalogues printed between 1952 and 1997, only 217 manuscripts with the literary works of the Dubrovnik Latinists have been described. Thus the cataloging of the manuscript heritage of the Croatian Latinists is a priority beyond dispute. This particularly concerns the Franciscan Archives, the major resource of Latin manuscripts in Dubrovnik.
Darko Novaković, Zagreb
CROATIAN NEO-LATIN EPIC POETRY
There are several reasons why I decided to speak on the Croatian Neo-Latin epic poetry on this occasion. Firstly, the epic was a highly praised genre in the Antique and has fully retained its exalted status in the humanistic period. We should not forget that Petrarca believed that he will be remembered primarily for his Africa and not for his more modest Latin compositions and even less for his vernacular verse. Secondly, the Croatian Neo-Latin epic poetry has by and large been preserved as ‘manuscript heritage’, the very title of our present gathering. Many of our epics have only survived in manuscript form and saw printed publication only during the XIXth and XXth centuries, some remain still unpublished. I have been further guided by the location of our symposium. Dubrovnik acquired the first printing works only in the late XVIIIth century, yet in such pre-Gutenberg conditions the literary life of the Republic remained vibrant throughout; not only were the manuscripts carefully preserved but, as catalogues of various Ragusan libraries attest, scarcer published works were regularly copied in manuscript. Finally and unlike some other humanistic genres such as elegy, epigram or oratory, the Neo-Latin epic poetry appeared for the first time on the Croatian soil in this very town and for some four centuries remained intrinsically linked with Dubrovnik.