On the Influence of Byzantine Culture on Renaissance Dubrovnik and Dalmatia

Bizantsko pravno i institucijsko nasljeđe, kao i romanska kulturna tradicija, ugrađeni su u temelje srednjovjekovnih dalmatinskih komuna. One su još u ranom srednjem vijeku oblikovale specifični identitet koji je ujedinjavao zapadnoeuropske kršćanske vrijednosti s političkim, pravnim, umjetničkim, vjerskim i drugim utjecajima iz Bizanta. Članak raspravlja kulturne utjecaje koje su grčki učenjaci nakon pada Carigrada 1453. godine ostvarili u dalmatinskim gradovima, a osobito u Dubrovniku. Posebna pažnja posvećena je djelovanju kardinala Bessariona na ujedinjenju kršćana i obrani od Turaka, te recepciji njegovih ideja u djelovanju hrvatskih humanista, napose Ivana Stojkovića, Jurja Dragišića i Ivana Viteza od Sredne.The influence of Byzantine culture in medieval Dalmatia was neither sporadic nor isolated, but deeply rooted in its past. It was in Dubrovnik more than anywhere else in Dalmatia that the blending of the medieval East and West took place. Dubrovnik was an exclusively Catholic city, hostile to Orthodoxy yet open to the spiritual currents from the Byzantium. Greek scholars who fled from Constantinople after its fall—via Dalmatia and Dubrovnik—to Italy spread knowledge of Greek language and learning. Many Greeks and philhellenes who arrived in the towns of the eastern Adriatic coast contributed to the flourishing of humanism in Dalmatia, and Dubrovnik thus witnessed Xenophon and Gian Mario Philelpho, Demetrius Chakokondylos and others. Under their influence the humanists of Dalmatia and Dubrovnik took special interest in Greek by collecting Greek works and manuscripts for their libraries, the largest collections being those of Frano Petrić (Franciscus Patricius) and Ivan Stojković (John of Ragusa). This new enchantment with Greek culture resulted in a few remarkable contributions to European culture, such as Kunić’s translation of Iliad or Zamagna’s translation of Odyssey into Latin. Special attention is devoted to Cardinal Bessarion or rather to his ideas on the union between the Western and Eastern Churches and their influence in the Croatian lan