Jugoslovenski Rotar

quisition never got a footing in Dubrovnik. Already in the XVIIth centurx, i. e. earlier than any other state, Dubrovnik abolished the rack. The slave trade was early subjected to certain regulations and it was finally prohibited in 1416. From the beginning of the XIVth century physicians paid by the government were in charge of public health. The first public chemist’s shop was opened in 1316, while a few years later was founded the first public hospital for the needy. A foundling hospital — one of the earliest in Europe — was established a little later. Vaccination against smallpox was introduced earlier than anywhere else. A public asylum for strangers was founded in 1423 and a pawnshop in 1650.

A particularly glorious page of Dubrovnik’s history is its contribution to Yugoslav letters, which flourished here — though chiefly as an imitation of Italian writers — much earlier than in other Yugoslav cities, Gundulié (1589—1638) and Palmotié (1606—1657) are the foremost representatives of the period. Dubrovnik made also important contributions to science through the work of its sons, both at home and «broad, in the field of mathematics and physics ( Getaldi¢), history and archaeology (Bandura, Orbini, etc.), astronomy (BoSskovic) and medicine (Baljiv).

From its very beginnings Dubrovnik was a promoter of arts; its citizens made constant efforts to give their city a dignified appearance. However, none of the artists has shown special talents. The painter Nicolaus Ragusinus (BoZidarevi¢) and his intimate circle have left a series of good altar-pieces which, taken the date of their composition (c. 1500), were painted in a rather antiquated manner reminiscent of Venetian models (Vivarini, Crivelli). From their business journeys the merchants and seamen of Dubrovnik brought home valuable pictures for their churches and houses, especially from Greece and Italy (Venice!). A well preserved triptych (XVth century) of the Flemish School shows that the people who commissioned or bought it had an excellent understanding for art.

The present picture of Dubrovnik in general and its architecture in particular display in the best way this understanding of the fathers of the City for architecture and plastic arts. Dubrovnik used to engage skilled foreign architetcts in order to give its city a dignified appearance and artistic stamp. In its building activities, just as in its politics and economy, the questions of finance were the main considerations and they were moderate and pretty often cautions. This was so especially in the building of the Rector’s Palace, when the Senate of the Republic considered the expenditure to be excessive.

In museums as well as in some smaller churches, remmants of Xth and XIth century pre-Romanesque plastic art have been preserved displaying features characteristic of the so called »plaited ribbon style« (Flechtbandstil). The finest buiding of the Romanesque period was the mygnificent Cathedral, the building of which is, according to a popular legend, connected with the landing of the shipwrecked English king Richard Coeur de Lion (1192) at the small island of Lokrum facing Dubrovnik. The cathedral was, however, destroyed by earthquake in 1667

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