[331] Giacomo da Evora, who published his poems in 1596, writes of Cœur-de-Lion’s Cathedral at Ragusa:
‘Aurea templa micant regis monumenta Britanni
Quo nullum majus Dalmata vidit opus.’
[332] Perhaps the earliest testimony to the municipal government of Ragusa in the Middle Ages is a diploma of the Byzantine Emperors Basil and Constantine VI., dated 997, addressed ‘Vitali Archiepiscopo et Lampridio præsidi civitatis, una cum omnibus ejusdem civitatis nobilibus.’
[333] As the Segretaria, Cancelleria, Notaria, Dogana, Tesoreria, and Annona.
[334] Or Maggior Consiglio.
[335] Decrees and letters to foreign princes from this body are signed ‘Il Rettore e Consiglieri della Repubblica di Ragusa.’
[336] E.g., to head a procession to the Cathedral. Such days were scrupulously marked in the Ragusan almanacks—‘Oggi sua serenità si porta al duomo.’
[337] For criminal causes there was a tribunal of four judges; for civil causes four consuls—consoli delle cause civili.
[338] There was, indeed, a serious squabble in 1763 between the old and new nobility, the Salamanchesi and Sorbonnesi, but it evaporated in high words.