Croatian Renaissance Archaeology

o zanimljivoj povijesti hrvatske arheologije nije pisano onoliko koliko zaslužuje i omogućava raznovrsnost njenoga sadržaja. Stoga ću u ovom članku nastojati novim podacima nadopuniti poznavanje hrvatske renesansne arheologije) tog značajnog razdoblja naše kulturne povijesti. S obzirom na izuzetnu spomeničkuprisutnost i kontinuitet antike na hrvatskom prostoru)osobito ujadranskim gradovima i tl njihovoj okolici) nimalo ne začuduje da je starinoznanstvo i humanističko zanimanje za antičku baštinu bilo razvijeno u kulturnoj svijesti od samih početaka hrvatske nazočnosti na Jadranu.archaeology ofthe 15th and 16th centuries, The earliest documents, as well as literary records, mention archaeological structures as early as the 9th centU1Y, and in the legend about the translation of St Ch,ysogon, Ihe early Christian cemetery of zadar with marble sarcophagi is mentioned The Ravennan priest Ap,nellus described the basilica of St klary of Fonllosa in Pula in the 9th century, Constantine Porphyrogenitus described Diocletian \u27sPalace in Split, the cathedral and Church of St Donatus in Zadar, and the early mediaeval construction of Dubrovnik in the work De administrando imperio, john the Deacon described the city of Hvar in AD 998, "murorum menibus, tum\u27umque hediliciis munitus, "ln the 13th century work Historia Salonitana, Thomas the Archdeacon offered valuable archaeological data about Salona and Delminium, and his description ufthe mausoleum ofthe Croatian kings at the lsland ofOur Lady in Solin is exceptional, as was confinned by the archaeological excavations ofMon, Frane Bulić in 1R98, who found a sarcophagus with the inSCription of Queen Helen. The great Dante mentioned the necropolis of Pula in his verses, where the French pilgrim Op,ier d\u27Anglure described some four hundred sarcophagi in 1395, Dujam Hranković described a Latin inSCription from Škrip in his 1405 work, "Descriptio insulae Brachiae, "Ciriaco d\u27Ancona visited Pula in 142(), and stayed in Dalmatia in 1435 and 1436, where he became friends in Zadar and Trogir with juraj Benja and Petar G~ipiko, Hl\u27 published 57 inscriptions from Dalmatia in his work "Fpigrammatu reperta per illyricum," The Codex Tragurinus of jurje Benja and Petar Čipiko has been prese17)ed with Roman inscriptions from nalmatia and Italy. Several valuable copies ofRoman manuscripts from their pens have also been prescived, Petar\u27s son, Koriolan (Coriolanus) Čipiko described Roman monuments and cities in Egypt and Asia /v!inor in his memoirs published in Venice in 1477, "Petri Mocenici imperatoris gesta " The manuscript ofMarin Marinčić ufLabin has been prese17Jed from the end of the 15th centU1Y containing Roman inseriptions from Istria and Dalmatia, In his work "De Antiquitabus Italiae ", Marin Sanudo presented numerous inscriptions from Pula, which he visited in 1483, The Roman monuments of Pula were oj interest to well known architects and artists such as CJiocondo, Sangallo, and Michelangelo, whose draWing ofthe triumphal arch ojthe Sergeii has been preserved. The fath er ofCroatian literature, Marko "vlarulić 0450-1524), was also prominent in Croatian Renaissance archaeolop,y, and the work "ln priscorum epigrammata commentarius" has been preserved, a collection of Roman inscriptions Jrom Salona, the cities of Dalmatia, Istria, and Italy. He collected Roman inSCriptions with his friend D. Papalić, and a lapidarium existed at the Papalić mansion, five inscriptions from which that were described by iVIandić having been preserved to the present, Ilija Crijević, apoetJrom Dubrovnik and a contemporary of Marulić, described the classical remains of Epidaurum in his poetry, ln a book published in 1532, the Croatian Dominican priest Vinko Pribojević offered an exceptional list of the classical monuments of Pharos and its ager, which is also the first archaeological description in Croatian archaeology. The Italian architect Sebastiano Serlio was in Pula in 1\u27536, drawing ancient monuments, as he described in his book "De architectura", printed in Venice in 1\u27544 juraj Hus from northern Croatia described the Egytpian pyramids in 1538 in his account of travels through the Near East) wbich was one of the very earliest descriptions ofthem. The Dominican priest Vinko Palelin from Korčula was in the Yucatan peninsula from 1537 to 1545, and in one of his works (1538), he described the temples of the Mayan civilization at Chichenica including drawings, which is one ofthe earliest, if not indeed the very earliest, preserved images of the stntctures of the greatest religious and cultural center of the ,Vfayan civilization. lt is particular~y interesting that Paletin considered these monuments and inscriptions to have been derived from the Ca11haginians, and be was probably the first in history to suggest that America bad been discovered by the Carthaginians before Christopher Columbus. A citizen of Dubrovnik, Marcus Sylvius Sylvanus, in 1\u27547 described the discovery of a Roman inscription in honor of P. Cornelius Dolabella in Epidaurum, publishing a small book on this subject in the same year, the first true archaeological text in Croatian arcbaeology. The diplomat, bishop, and Latin scholar A ntun Vrančić left a work in manuscript form: "Collectio Antiquontm Epigrammatum", which noted ancient inscriptions and monuments in certain sections. He is best known in Roman Epigraphy for havinp, discovered with his friend Busbeque in 1555 the so-called !vlonumentum Ancyranum, the longest Latin inscription with a list of the activities and honOl\u27S of the Emperor Augustus The famous Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio stayed in Split sometime between 1545 and 1550, where he sketched Diocletian \u27s Mausoleum, and in Pula, where he sketched the Ampbitheater, the Triumphal Arch of the Sergeii, and the Temple ofAugustus, describing all of this in his book published in Venice in 1\u27570, "l quattro libri dell \u27archittetura ". A work ofPetra Dragan about the ancient monuments of Pula also exists: "Dialoghi due sulle antichita di Pola del 1600". ln the historical work "De rebus Dalmaticis",jrom 1603, Dinko Zavorović also cited Latin inscriptions. Marijan Bolica of Kotor described the ancient remains of Doclea in 1614. Thejesuit missionary Nikola Rattkay wrote in letters from Goa in India in 1625 and 1629 about Tibet and the Lhasi. The French architect and military engineer Antoine de Ville published in 1633 the work "Descriptio portus et urbis Polae". in which he described and presented drawings of the Roman monuments ofPula. 77Jis would represent a summary review of the ckvelopment of Renaissance archaeology in Croatia