Relja Seferović, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute for Historical Sciences in Dubrovnik
e-mail: reljaseferovic@yahoo.co.uk
Cultural connections between the Croatian-Hungarian Court and distant Ragusa/Dubrovnik in the second half of the 15th century are traditionally perceived through the direct engagement of Ragusan friars Peter Zamagna, Seraphinus Bona and Thomas Bassegli to the benefit of the King Matthias Corvinus’ humanistic circle. Their contribution in cultural, political and religious shaping of this late medieval frontier society was praised and recognized by many generations of their Ragusan fellow countrymen, who kept their memory alive in various histories and biographies written since the full Renaissance bloom at the beginning of the 16th century until the last days of the Republic three hundred years later.
Regardless of their social and religious background, the majority of Ragusan authors in this entire period, patricians and commoners alike, from both ecclesiastical and secular milieu, approached the relations between the Croatian-Hungarian Kingdom and the independent Republic of Dubrovnik keeping the sense of the former national unity. Challenged with persistent Venetian attempts to impose its government and being aware of the swift Ottoman decline after the long lasting wars from the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, Ragusan politicians were thus encouraged to strengthen their connections with the State under whose auspices, in the already distant past, they had experienced a continuous growth. Therefore it is not surprising that they revived a feeling of national adherence to the Croatian medieval state and were proud of their ancestors who actively contributed to the common well-being. The role of these prominent clerics becomes particularly important in this picture.