On the Influence of Byzantine Culture on Renaissance Dubrovnik and Dalmatia

Byzantine judicial and institutional heritage, as well as Roman cultural tradition, was built into the foundations of Dalmatian medieval communes. In the Early Middle Ages they owed their specific identity to the Christian values of Western Europe blended with the political, legal, artistic, religious and other influences from Byzantium. The article discusses the activities and influence of the Greek scholars who had fled from Constantinople after its fall in 1453 upon the culture of the Dalmatian cities, Dubrovnik in particular. Special attention is devoted to Cardinal Bessarion’s work on the Christian union against the Turks, and to the reception of his ideas in the works of Croatian humanists, primarily Ivan Stojković, Juraj Dragišić (Georgius Benignus de Salviatis) and Ivan Vitez of Sredn