Francesco Maria Appendini - Literary Works

Literary Works

After several years of consulting the old documents and chronicles and the traditions of the region. He published in 1803, his "Notizie Istorico-Critiche Sulla Antichita, Storia, e Letteratura de' Ragusei" (published in two vols.) which is dedicated to the senate. It is considered by some to be his best work on the Republic of Ragusa which was for centuries like an advanced post of civilisation and which maintained its independence against the neighbouring Slavs, Ottomans and the Republic of Venice. Its flag was respected all over the Mediterranean, and the Republic preserved the regions traditions and cultivated the arts of Europe. It was situated on a narrow strip of land in Southern Dalmatia, now in modern Croatia. Its disappearance from the list of independent states was hardly noticed in the midst of the revolutionary events which had swept away most of the old republics of Europe.

In Appendini's first work he also investigates the history and antiquities of the Epidaurum or Epidaurus, the parent of Ragusa, which was destroyed by the Slavs in the 7th century. He enters into discussions concerning the ancient inhabitants of the Roman Provence of Dalmatia, their language and religion, the migrations of Thracians and Greeks to the coast of the Adriatic, and the wars of the Illyrians with the Roman Empire. He describes the site of Epidaurum and the extent of its territory, and presents several Roman inscriptions found among its ruins, near Cavtat. The sepulchre of P. Cornelius Dolabella, who was consul under Augustus and governor of Illyricum, and the remains of an aqueduct which were all in the same neighbourhood. Appendini then proceeds to account for the origins of modern Ragusa/Dubrovnik, who were refugees from Epidaurum and from Salona.

The maritime part of Dalmatia continued to be called Roman Dalmatia, and remained subject, to the Byzantine Empire. Dubrovnik, however, governed itself as an aristocratic republic. Manuel Comnenus in 1170 gave to the city the rights of citizens of Constantinople. The Latin language, although modified (Dalmatian language), continued to be spoken in Dubrovnik till the 13th century, when it was gradually superseded by the Slavs. The senate however decreed that the Latin should continue to be the language of administration, and in order to keep on the study of it, they created and instituted a chair of Latin. There it is described in separate chapters, its form of government, its church (attached to the Latin communion), its laws, customs, its relations with the Republic of Venice and with the Slavic principalities of Croatia and Bosnia, its policy towards the Ottomans and its commerce.

The merchant navy of Republic of Ragusa engaged in of the trade between the Levant and the ports of Europe. They traded also with Spain and with England. The name of Argosies given by writers of the middle ages to large vessels that carried rich cargoes, which were from Dubrovnik. In the sixteenth century the Ragusan's had three hundred vessels in the Spanish navy. These vessels were lost in the expeditions of Tunis, Algiers and others, under Charles V. and Philip II. These losses and the earthquake of 1667 which destroyed the greater part of Dubrovnik, were the causes of the decay of its maritime trade, which however recovered to a certain extent during the eighteenth century.