Letters to the Medici
In 1566 he proposed overthrowing his city's government — and got no reply.
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A small museum in Dubrovnik's old town devoted to Marin Držić, the most important playwright in Croatian literature. Držić lived in the sixteenth century in the Republic of Ragusa — the historic name for Dubrovnik, an independent trading republic that kept its independence for centuries through diplomacy and paying tribute rather than fighting. He wrote comedies in Croatian about his city's society: merchants, servants, swindlers and lovers, in street language and with sharp mockery of the ruling class. His best-known work is Dundo Maroje. This was bold — writing in the vernacular about the lower orders at a time when Latin was the language of literature. The strangest part of his life: in 1566 he wrote secret letters to Cosimo de' Medici in Florence proposing the overthrow of Dubrovnik's government, describing it as the rule of a corrupt few. He received no reply, and the letters were discovered centuries later. The museum is very small and the visit short.
In 1566 he proposed overthrowing his city's government — and got no reply.
A comedy of merchants, servants and swindlers in street language.
He wrote about the ruling class with an unusual sharpness for his time.
The old town, Dubrovnik
An independent city-state centred on Dubrovnik from the fourteenth century until 1808. It kept its independence between the Ottomans, the Venetians and the Austrians through diplomacy and tribute rather than war, and its merchant fleet was among the largest in the Mediterranean. It abolished the slave trade in 1416, a very early date. Napoleon ended it in 1808.
For anyone interested in literature or Dubrovnik's history, yes — half an hour and cheap. Otherwise Dubrovnik holds far stronger claims: the city walls, the Franciscan monastery with its fourteenth-century pharmacy, the Rector's Palace, and the cable car up Mount Srđ. Treat it as an addition for anyone staying more than two days.
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