Francesco Maria Appendini - French Rule of The Republic of Ragusa

French Rule of The Republic of Ragusa

After the French had taken military possession of the Republic in 1806 and annexed the country to the Illyrian Provinces, which was governed by Marmont, one of Napoleon's generals. Appendini prevailed upon the new government to retain the order of the Scolopj, and entrust to it the instruction of youth in the districts of the former Republic and of Kotor (Cattaro). He was appointed rector of the new college of Dubrovnik, and ask Rome for assistants.

His own brother, Urbano Appendini, was made professor of mathematics. In 1808 Appendini published a grammar of the Croatian language. In 1810 he wrote " De Praestantia et Venustate Linguae Illyricae" and another on the analogy between the languages of the ancient nations of Asia Minor and the languages of the Thracians and Illyrians. Both these are prefixed to the " Dictionary of the Illyric Language" of Father Gioacchino Stulli of Ragusa. He also undertook a work entitled " Il Varrone Illirico," on the etymology of the Illyric language, tending to show the derivation of the ancient names of the principal rivers, mountains, and other localities of Europe from Illyric radicals, but he did not live to complete the work. He also wrote biographies of noble men of Kotor (Cattaro).

When the Austrian government recovered possession of Dalmatia in 1815, and with it of the town and territory of Republic, which had been incorporated with that province by Napoleon, Appendini was commissioned to establish a central institution at Zadar (Zara), for the purpose of creating teachers for the different educational institutes of the Dalmatia Province. He and his brother Urbano set to work but they experienced numerous obstacles to their plan. They went to Vienna in order to secure the support of the Austrian Emperor Francis I and his ministers, which they obtained and the school for teachers at Zadar was maintained.

Appendini latter returned to his home in Dubrovnik. His brother remained at the head of the school in Zadar, where he died in 1834, upon which Appendini returned to Zadar to fill his brother's place. He died of apoplexy in January, 1837. He was buried with great respect, his funeral being attended by the magistrates and nobility of Zadar. A biographical of him was published in Dubrovnik by one of his former students, the advocate Antonio Casnacich.

Additional works:

• Memoria Sulla Vita e gli Scritti di Gio. Ragusa in 1837. There he gives an appraisal of Ivan Gundulic's epic poem the Osman the subject of which is the war between Sultan Othman II and the Poles in 1622, in which the Turks were defeated, soon after which the Sultan was deposed and strangled by the Janizaries, it being the first instance of a Turkish Sultan put to death by his subjects.

Appendini work on the history and literature of Republic of Ragusa that gives extracts of the Slavic text of the poem with Italian and Latin versions of the same:

• Translation in Croatian of the Austrian civil code.
• Several funeral orations and other minor works.
• De Vita et Scriptis Bernards Zamagna. Zara, 1830.
• La Vita el Esame Delle Opere del Petrarca
• Esame Critico Sulla Quistione Intorno alla Patria di S. Girolamo. Zara, 1835.