This poem, although not of first-rate quality, has some originality, and is interesting from its subject. It is only at Ragusa that a Christian writer would have made a Turkish Sultan his hero, and it is only here and there that a few passages are introduced reflecting unfavourably on the Turks. A great deal of it is simply an adaptation of Tasso, and whole passages are translated from that work. It is full of repetitions and exaggerations and useless accessories, but it also contains many passages of real beauty and feeling, such as the address to Ragusa: “O mayest thou ever live peaceful and free as thou art now, O white city of Ragusa, famous throughout the world, pleasing to the heavens.... Bondmen are thy neighbours, oppressive violence grinds them all down, thy power alone sits on the throne of freedom” (Canto viii.). Gondola also apostrophises Stephen Dušan, the Nemanjas, Marko Kraljević, and other Servian heroes. Cantos xiv. and xv. were lost, and have been rewritten by Petar Sorkočević, Marino Zlatarić, and Ivan Mažuranić. The interest is divided between the two heroes, Osman and Ladislas, and a great deal of the work is lyrical rather than epic in character.[533]
Of the prose writers of this time, the one most deserving of notice is Mauro Orbini, who died in 1601. His chief work, which is written in Italian, is entitled Storia del Regno degli Slavi. It is of no great historic value, but it is important as being the first attempt to deal with the history of all the Slaves as a comprehensive whole. Other historians are Niccolò Ragnina, author of the Annali di Ragusa, Giacomo Luccari, whose Copioso Ristretto degli Annali di Ragusa contains much interesting information about the constitution of the Republic, and Giunio Resti, author of the very detailed Cronaca Ragusina, in thirteen books, a most unreliable work. None of these writers have shown any conspicuous qualities as historians of their native city, being inspired by a strong political bias, and are only to be consulted with caution.
Ragusa gave birth to several men of science, of whom two deserve to be remembered—Marino Ghetaldi and Ruggiero Bosković.[534] Ghetaldi was born in 1566, and studied in Rome and Paris. After travelling about Europe he obtained the professorship of mathematics at Louvain. He subsequently returned to Ragusa, and served in the Government offices. In summer he would retire to his villa by the sea to meditate and make experiments in a cave on his estates. He was regarded by the people as a magician, and his experiments in setting fire to boats out at sea by means of mirrors and burning-glasses were considered quite diabolical. He wrote Promotus Archimedes, seu de variis corporum generibus gravitate et magnitudine comparatis (Rome, 1603), and many other mathematical works. He is said to have applied geometry to algebra before Des Cartes, and to have been the first to discover equations of the fourth degree. He died in 1627. Bosković was born in 1711, and became a Jesuit at an early age. He obtained the professorship of mathematics in Rome, and measured the meridian between Rome and Rimini with the Englishman Maire. He made a map of the Papal States, and wrote a work on the molecular theory of matter, Theoria Philosophiæ Naturalis redacta ad unicam Legem Virium in Natura existentium. In 1759 he was sent to England on a diplomatic mission, where he made the acquaintance of Dr. Johnson, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, to whom he dedicated his Latin poem De Solis et Lunæ Defectus. He afterwards travelled in Turkey for scientific purposes, and was then appointed Professor of Mathematics at Pavia (1764) and Director of the Brera Observatory. His vanity and egoism made him many enemies, and in 1770 he left Italy for Paris, where he was made Director of Optics to the Ministry of Marine, an office which he held for ten years. In 1783 he returned to Italy and published all his works. His health was failing, his reputation on the wane, and he soon fell into melancholy and madness, and died in 1787. Besides other works, he wrote the Elementa Universæ Mathesos, published in 1754.
CHAPTER XV
THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC
RAGUSA 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, while a French fleet seized the Ionian Islands. In the meanwhile Austrian troops were advancing into Dalmatia, which, as part of Venetian territory, in theory belonged to France, and ships of war of all nations began to appear in the Adriatic. The aristocratic Government of Venice was for a time succeeded by a democratic one modelled on French lines, and the new régime was to have been applied to Dalmatia as well. But by the preliminaries of Leoben that province and Istria were given over to Austria. The Dalmatians did not want a democratic constitution, and for some time Austrian agents had been preparing them for an Austrian occupation. They succeeded in inducing the people to acclaim the Emperor Francis II. as their King, and in July 1797 General Rukavina landed at Zara with an army; in a few weeks he had occupied the whole of Dalmatia and part of Albania. But trouble arose at Cattaro among the turbulent Bocchesi; some of them favoured the Austrian régime as the heir to that of Venice, others, chiefly Orthodox Christians, desired a union then, as now, with the Vladika of Montenegro, while a third party was imbued with French ideas and clamoured for a democratic constitution. The Vladika himself was hostile to Austria, and encouraged a rising in Albania. But General Rukavina conciliated the Cattarini and entered the town without opposition. By the Peace of Campoformio, Istria, Dalmatia, and Cattaro, as well as Venice and her mainland possessions, were ceded to Austria (October 18, 1797).[535]
The fall of Venice was on the whole satisfactory to the Ragusans, but the close proximity of the Austrians, who were useful protectors so long as they remained at a safe distance, was regarded as a danger. They sent protestations of fealty to Vienna and to the local Austrian authorities; their fears were not groundless, for Rukavina did actually intend to violate their neutrality, as appears from a despatch from the Austrian Minister Count Thugut to Count Thurn, who had been appointed Governor of Dalmatia. Thugut disapproved of this project, as he feared that it might cause trouble with the Turks as protectors of the Republic. But he complained to d’Ajala, the Ragusan Minister, that Ragusa was a hotbed of revolutionary ideas.[536] The Emperor, however, expressed his intention of protecting the Republic in every way.