RENAISSANCE IN THE BAY OF KOTOR: A LITERARY-HISTORICAL SKETCH

Abstract

At the beginning of the 16th century, when the Renaissance made a grand entrance into the world, Kotor had already felt the benefits of financial well-being a century earlier, which was a mitigating circumstance for the development of Humanism and the Renaissance. In fear of Turkish oppression, the population on this side of the Adriatic in 1420 voluntarily placed themselves under the protectorate of the Republic of San Marco. This guaranteed Kotor the opportunity to reflect the models of the new age almost simultaneously, in addition to the already established practice that the sons of patrician families acquire university knowledge at the University of Padua. In this relatively small area, literary creation according to the Renaissance model reached its golden age during the 16th century. The humanist poets of Kotor followed the chosen role models of ancient literature, always striving to surpass the mere imitation of role models with their poetic skill. The most respected among them were: Bernard Pima, Trifun Bizanti, Vicko and Domeniko Buca and Ludovik Paskvalic. Following the example of humanistic models, they wrote in Latin and Italian, foreign languages that they perceived as part of their own cultural identity, which is why, in combination with the unfavorable political situation, there was no creation of works in vernacular Slavic language. With the perfection of the poetic form achieved in both his collections of poems and the embodiment of Renaissance ideals, Ludovik Paskvalic, despite the absence of his own linguistic homeland, became respected beyond narrow ethnic and cultural hub of his city and praised in foreign anthologies and collections. He was waiting for several centuries for the well-deserved recognition in his homeland, but in the last hundred years, works about him want to correct centuries-old injustice.