The De exemplis illustrium virorum of Eusebius Caboga

U radu se predstavlja dosad neproučavano djelo dubrovačkoga humanističkog povjesničara Euzebija Kaboge, sačuvano u kasnijem prijepisu danas pohranjenu u Slavenskoj knjižnici u Pragu (signatura T 343). Opsegom nevelika zbirka kraćih tekstova u središtu kojih su vrline i zasluge pojedinaca iz prošlosti Dubrovnika prema dosadašnjim spoznajama jedino je preživjelo Kabogino djelo. Po oslonjenosti na žanrovsku tradiciju egzempla ova zbirka mogla bi biti i prvi primjer te vrste u književnosti starog Dubrovnika. Ovdje se, uz opis rukopisa i priredbu dosad neizdanog teksta, prikazuje sadržaj zbirke, promatraju žanrovske karakteristike i mogući utjecaji iz antičke i humanističke književnosti te ispituje povezanost s povijesnim trenutkom i piščevom intrigantnom biografijom.Call number T 343 in the Slavonic Library of Prague refers to a manuscript of a previously unstudied work of the Dubrovnik Benedictine, Eusebius Caboga (about 1541-1594), entitled De exemplis illustrium uirorum Rhacusanae ciuitatis uel et exterorum qui in eam aliquo beneficio noti habentur. This, in a transcription made by Ivo Natali Aletin, probably in the first decades of the 18th century, is the only extant copy of the work. This paper, as well as describing the manuscript and giving the first edition of the text, also depicts the contents of the manuscript collection and puts the work in the framework of the tradition of exempla, and is also looked at in the context of Caboga’s biography and previously known information about his historical and literary works. The collection contains, in addition to a preface, twenty-six short texts that can be divided into four thematic units: about individuals important for the past of Dubrovnik, about the Dubrovnik Senate, about the miraculous events at the deaths of faithful souls, and a few members of the Caboga clan. As observed by earlier literary students Ignjat Đurđević, Saro Crijević and Ivan Marija Matijašević, the work has survived only in an incomplete and unrevised form. Irrespective of this, Caboga’s intention can still be discerned: with his almost mythical stories, to celebrate Dubrovnik and the worthies whose conduct can be examples of moral actions. From this point of view it is worth connecting his work with the tradition of the literary kind of the exemplum, inspiration for which, as Đurđević already noted, he could have found in the progenitor of the genre, Valerius Maximus, or the Italian humanist, Giovanni Battista Egnazio. It is also rather fascinating to consider Caboga’s work – in which among other things the Dubrovnik Senate is exalted – with respect to his biography, according to which in the conflict, so called, about ecclesiastical jurisdiction he expressed his opposition to the policy of the Senate, and his recalcitrance to the instructions of senior prelates. In the end, although the text of his work has come down to us in a form spoiled in places, it nevertheless reveals an author who with his exquisite use of Latin can stand shoulder to shoulder with the leading writers of Dubrovnik humanism