CHAPTER X

RAGUSA INDEPENDENT OF HUNGARY (1526-1667)

The period between the establishment of the Turks in Bosnia and the fall of the Venetian Republic is one of great interest for the whole of Dalmatia. “In these events,” writes an anonymous author in the _Annuario Dalmatico_,[457] “every village has its part, almost every family its glorious record. And if on the one hand we still find the traces, I may almost say the smoking ruins, of the desolation wrought upon us by the Turkish armies; on the other we find many memories of the valour of the Dalmatians in the trophies of the families, in the rank of nobility obtained as a reward for incredible sacrifices, in the letters of commendation, even in certain religious festivals, and in a large part of those customs which time has rendered sacred to the heart of our people, and most of us observe scrupulously, without perhaps understanding their meaning.”

At the same time Turks and Christians through familiarity became less hostile, and did much business together. “Once the massacre was over the Turks spent much money, and thus after Castelnuovo had been captured, plundered, and 4000 Christians murdered, it became a source of great wealth to the Ragusans and to the people of Perasto. That is the reason why so many Jews from Spain settled on the Turkish shores of the Adriatic, especially at Castelnuovo.... Turkish customs spread among the Dalmatians, even as regards their clothes and their jewels and their harems. Stolivo and the Catena (Bocche di Cattaro) were regular slave marts; women led a retired life like those of the East.” Ragusa was especially affected by Turkish influence, owing to her semi-dependent position and her close intercourse with her powerful neighbour, and this led to many complications with Venice and other Christian States.

The first years after the cessation of the Hungarian protectorate were again disturbed by a quarrel with the Venetians. Some of the grain ships bringing foodstuffs to Ragusa were captured by Venetian cruisers in the Adriatic, as the Government of the great Republic accused its small but enterprising rival of playing a double game. The Ragusans, wishing to retaliate, thought that they could not do better than by tampering with the Venetian despatches. The Senate did not exactly authorise these proceedings, but the Archbishop Trivulzio, a Milanese,[458] who was very friendly to France and therefore hostile to Venice and Spain, had the messenger carrying letters to the Venetian Provveditore at Cattaro seized. The papers, which contained the announcement of an alliance against the Sultan, were at once forwarded to the French ambassador at Constantinople.[459] The Venetians were furious, and threatened vengeance on the Ragusans, in spite of the Senate’s protestations that the Archbishop had acted entirely on his own responsibility. They were partially appeased by the arrest and punishment of one Pozza, who had actually executed the Archbishop’s orders, but Venetian ships continued to harry the Ragusan coast for some time, inflicting much damage.[460] This same year (1538) the Pope Paul III., as head of the Christian League against the Turks, issued a decree, probably inspired by the Venetians, hostile to the Ragusans, forbidding all Christians to sell them arms, gunpowder, cables, ship-timber, iron, &c., because they were supposed to sell these articles to the Turks. He also ordered the Republic to shake off all allegiance to the Sultan, to cease to pay him tribute, and to join the League against the Infidel at once, contributing five galleys and 10,000 ducats to the common war chest. The citizens were filled with consternation at these peremptory commands, but the Senate sent one of its cleverest diplomatists, Clemente Ragnina, to Rome, and he proved equal to the emergency. Ragusa, he informed His Holiness, was situated between the Turks and the sea, and would, if she joined the League, be the first to fall a victim to the wrath of the Infidel. Owing, moreover, to the small extent of her territory, she was dependent for three-quarters of the year on foreign grain, which came mostly from the Turkish provinces; she could not, therefore, exist without intercourse with her neighbours. The only result of Ragusa’s joining the alliance would be the destruction of the city, with her churches, her convents and monasteries, and all her precious sacred relics would fall into the hands of the Infidel, without any advantage accruing to Christendom thereby. The astute Ragnina hinted that the Venetians were merely urging the Pope to take measures against Ragusa out of jealousy. These arguments had the desired effect, the Pope relenting towards the Republic and exempting it from joining the League, to the great satisfaction both of the Government and the citizens. There is no doubt that their position was always a very risky one, and it required all their diplomatic tact to save them from ruin. They were literally between the devil and the deep sea, but they always managed to steer a clear course between the many dangers which beset them.

But although they were on good terms with the Sultan, there was also danger to be apprehended from the turbulent Pashas and Sandjakbegs of Bosnia and the Herzegovina. Many of these men were the descendants of the lawless native princelings who had gone over to Islam, and still maintained their old ambition to win their way to the seaboard. The whole country of Dalmatia was now threatened. Clissa, Poljica, and even Montenegro had to pay tribute to the Turks after 1515. In 1522 Knin, the chief Croat fortress in the country, surrendered to the Pasha of Bosnia, and Scardona was also occupied. Sinj, Vrlika, Nučak, and Clissa fell in 1536, and the castles of Vrana and Nadin in 1538. The Turkish fortress of Castelnuovo was captured by the Venetians and Spaniards in that year, but in 1539 it was attacked by the pirate Haireddin Barbarossa and recaptured, the Spanish garrison being put to the sword. It is said that some Ragusan vessels took part in the siege, thus contributing to the success of the Turks, and that the Republic sent presents to Barbarossa so as to induce him to respect their territory. There now remained no part of Dalmatia under a Christian Government except the Venetian coast towns and the Ragusan State. On the whole, the Republic found the Turks in some ways less objectionable neighbours than the Christian Powers, especially the Venetians. In 1538 the allied fleet under the command of Grimani, the Venetian Patriarch, sailed down the Adriatic and touched at the Isola di Mezzo; a part of the squadron proceeded to Ragusavecchia, where it was received with great honour by the citizens, but some vessels remained at the island and sacked it, took 170 prisoners, including the Count, and did much damage to property. The Ragusan Senate protested to the Patriarch, who had all the prisoners liberated, the stolen property restored, and compensation paid. A certain number of Ragusans were detained as rowers, but at good salaries, and thirteen Ragusan ships were pressed into the Spanish service. The fleet then sailed southwards, and encountered the Turks off Prevesa; the engagement proved undecisive, but the honours of the day remained with the Turks. It was then proposed to attack Castelnuovo. The Venetian and Pontifical admirals objected, and suggested that Ragusa should be attacked instead, as she had shown herself so friendly to the enemy. But Doria, the Genoese admiral, and Don Ferrante Gonzaga refused to make war on a Christian city, and the Castelnuovo plan was adhered to. Thirteen thousand troops and 22 guns were disembarked, and an assault delivered by land and sea. The walls were soon battered down, and the town captured, the Sandjakbeg escaping with 200 horse. One hundred Ragusans fell in the attack. The Republic sent envoys to the Christian force with provisions, and requested the leaders not to invade Ragusan territory. This was promised, but nevertheless a Spanish column which was raiding the country round Castelnuovo also sacked Canali, carrying off 17,000 head of cattle, outraging many women, “and generally behaving worse than the Turks.” The Republic protested against these proceedings, and Doria, with whom it was on friendly terms, sent the engineer Mastro Antonio Ferramolino of Bergamo to Ragusa to strengthen the fortifications of the town. Under his supervision the Torre Menze or Minćeta, the bastion outside the walls under the Monte Bergato to guard the harbour, and the town gate close by were built. On the latter the following inscription was placed:

“Este procul sævi: nullum hæc per sæcula Martem Castra timent sancti, quæ fovet aura senis.”

Ferramolino remained four months at Ragusa, and refused all payment for his services; but the Senate presented him on his departure with a gift of plate and a fine horse, and conveyed him to Sicily on a Ragusan galley.[461]

The following year Barbarossa determined to recapture Castelnuovo, which was defended by 4000 picked Spanish troops and 54 guns. A first attempt from the land side in January failed; but in July Barbarossa entered the Bocche with 200 galleys, and after a series of engagements succeeded in landing an army and 84 guns. The Ragusans sent envoys to him with presents, and, it is said, ships and ammunition, in recognition of which he strictly respected the Republic’s territory. On August 7 an assault was delivered, and the first line of defence broken; on the 10th a second took place, and the Governor, Don Francisco Sarmiento, surrendered with his few survivors. According to Razzi[462] they were all put to the sword; but Professor Stanley Lane Poole says that the capitulation was honourably respected.[463] Three thousand Spaniards fell in the siege and 8000 Turks (50,000, according to Razzi).

Ragusan trade was now in a somewhat depressed condition owing to these various disturbances. Many Ragusan ships in the Spanish service had been lost in the expedition to Algiers,[464] and the pirates under Dragut Reis wrought much havoc among their ships elsewhere. While the Emperor Ferdinand was invading the Hungarian provinces occupied by the Turks, the Ragusan factories there suffered considerably; and the land trade was disturbed by the depredations of the Sandjakbeg of the Herzegovina. In 1544 the bankruptcies at Ragusa amounted to 80,000 ducats.[465] In 1545 peace was made between the Sultan and the Christian Powers, and the former issued severe injunctions to the Algerine corsairs not to molest ships flying the Ragusan flag. In the somewhat quieter period which followed, there was a partial revival of the city’s trade, which now extended to America by means of the favour of Spain. But in 1566 Suleiman the Magnificent died, and his successor, Selim the Drunkard, at once began to cast covetous eyes on Cyprus, instigated, it is said, by a Jew named Nassi, who had given him a glowing description of the Cyprian vintages.[466] War between the Turks and the Christian Powers was again imminent, and Ragusa began to fear that she might get into difficulties with either of the belligerents. She therefore applied to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, with whom she was then on excellent terms,[467] and he recommended them to the King of Spain on the plea that if their trade failed so would the greater part of their income cease, and they would be unable to pay the tribute to the Sultan. The latter would seize on this as a pretext for occupying the city, to the great detriment of Christendom.[468] The plea was successful, and, moreover, the same year Pius V. renewed the exemption to trade with the Infidel, because the city “in faucis infidelium et loco admodum periculoso sita est.” Ragusa now acted once more as intermediary between Christian and Turk, and obtained the liberation of many Venetians and Dalmatian prisoners captured by the Turkish pirate Ali-el-Uluj, or Occhiali as the Christians called him.[469] In spite of the citizens’ not altogether undeserved reputation for double-dealing, they were also true to their better reputation for hospitality. Their hospitality towards the Papal admiral Marc’ Antonio Colonna and the Venetian general Sforza Pallavicini, who were shipwrecked on the Ragusan coast in 1570, won them the gratitude of the Pope and of Venice.[470] Francesco Tron, who was pursued by Turkish corsairs, took refuge in the harbour of Gravosa, and in spite of the threats of the pirate commander the Senate refused to give him up. Finally they bought off the cousin with a sum of money, but he sacked the monastery of Lacroma. Complaints were sent to Constantinople, and the Sultan delivered up the pirate Karakosia to the Ragusan Government to do what it pleased with him; but it was deemed best to set him at liberty with a warning. It was justified in its clemency, for in future none of his ships ever harmed a Ragusan. Venetian intrigues again threatened the Republic’s independence, and during the negotiations for a new Christian League it required all the diplomatic skill and eloquence of Francesco Gondola, the Ragusan ambassador in Rome, to save the city from destruction. In a despatch to the Senate, dated April 1, 1570, he wrote as follows:—

“This war gives food for reflection to the thoughtful, especially with regard to the State of Ragusa, considering the capital malignity of the Venetians against us; it is recorded and confirmed that at the war of Castelnuovo in 1539 they tried to induce Andrea Doria, general of the Emperor (Charles V.), to capture Ragusa before aught else; and they were so keen on this proposal, that they only gave way when Doria opposed an absolute refusal. He informed them that the Emperor had expressly recommended the said Republic to him, and enjoined him to protect it and guard it in the same manner as the cities of his own kingdom of Naples.... Upon these words the Venetians abandoned their project; but it is believed that our country may suffer much, and that this war will not end without many tribulations.” On April 8 he added: “The Emperor’s ambassador in Rome has been informed from Venice that the Senate has determined to place a garrison in Ragusa, so that the Turks may not occupy the city; and that if the Republic refuses to admit it, they have decided to seize it by force, which means that they wish to capture the town with the excuse of preventing the Turks from doing so, in order that Christendom may not be shocked (‘perchè la Christianità non strilli’).” The Spanish and Imperial ambassadors took the side of the Ragusans, and the Pope also favoured them, the Venetian representative alone declaring that “it was right that the League should not only burn the city of Ragusa, but raze it to the ground and destroy its people, so that their seed should not be found anywhere.”

On June 27 he wrote as follows:—

“I have been to His Holiness, who had requested that your Lordships should provide him not with one ship, as Cardinal Rusticucci had said, but with many, so that he may transport his troops on them. I replied that on the previous evening Cardinal Rusticucci had spoken to me in his name, and added that I had written to your Lordships ... and that you hoped that as His Holiness had liberated you from so many troubles in the past, he would take care that you are preserved, nor will he permit that his many benefits to you be turned to your ruin. I informed him how, after the Maltese war, Piali had come with his fleet to Ragusa and threatened your Lordships because some of your vessels had been with the Spanish fleet, and swore that if a similar offence were again committed he would come to your destruction.” The Pope was convinced by these arguments and withdrew his demand for a Ragusan contingent, and made the other allied Powers realise the Republic’s danger. Venice alone remained obdurate, and continued to repeat “ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.” She believed that the only way of saving Ragusa from all danger on the part of the Turks was to occupy the town herself.

On June 28 Gondola suggested that the Senate should send an ambassador to the King of Spain requesting him, in memory of their ancient fidelity to his predecessors, to place the Republic officially under his own protection, because although the Pope was friendly, he was old and in bad health, and if he were to die the Venetians might seize the opportunity to molest the city. This advice was followed, and in the treaty of alliance the little Republic received the joint protection of Christendom, a clause being inserted in it to the effect that “no acts of hostility are to be committed against Ragusa and its territory, the Pope for weighty reasons having so decreed.” Thus by her successful diplomacy Ragusa was under the ægis of seven different Powers—Spain, the Papacy, the Empire, Venice, Hungary, the Turks, and the Barbary Deys—whence its citizens earned the sobriquet of “Le Sette Bandiere” (the Seven Standards); and although subsequently they often were in difficulties with some of their protectors, they could always play the one off against the other. This was the secret of their long-continued independence.

Although the Republic remained officially neutral in the war of Lepanto, numbers of Ragusan merchants and adventurers took advantage of it to make their own fortunes, many of them obtaining contracts for transporting troops, or hiring out their ships and crews. During the early part of the war Ragusan shipping suffered some damage, being plundered now by the Turks and now by the Christians, in spite of the treaty of protection; and as it was even feared that the city itself might be in danger, it was decided to strengthen the fortifications. An addition had been made to them in 1550-1558, when the large Forte San Giovanni was built; while the port was enlarged and improved with a new pier called the Diga delle Casse, constructed under the superintendence of Pasquale da Nola. In 1570 the Tower of Santa Margherita was begun by Sigismondo Hier;[471] and soon after Saporoso Matteucci, one of Piero Strozzi’s ablest pupils, was appointed commander of the garrison and director of fortifications. Santa Margherita was the last building erected from the foundations; subsequent additions were merely restorations, and the defences of the city have remained practically unaltered since that time.[472]

The following year the battle of Lepanto was fought, in which the Turkish fleet was completely defeated. From this moment the decline of the Ottoman power may be said to begin. It is asserted that Ragusan galleys were found on both sides in this fight. Afterwards the city became the meeting-place for the Christian and Turkish commanders to arrange for the exchange of prisoners and the preliminaries of peace. Numbers of illustrious foreigners from all countries filled the town, and according to Appendini, sixty noble Christian captives were exchanged for an equal number of Turkish officers. But the Republic’s equivocal attitude during the war caused trouble with the Sandjakbeg of the Herzegovina, who in 1572 made various raids into the territory, laying waste some districts and carrying off many captives. Turkish pirates landed at Meleda and massacred all the monks, save those who took refuge in the caves.[473] At last, in 1573, a general peace was concluded, much to the disgust of the Venetians, who saw that in spite of the victory over the Turks it was not properly followed up, and the enemy was allowed to recuperate. Ragusa, however, was delighted, for the peace removed her dangers from both quarters. But even this spell of quiet was destined to be short-lived, and now began a series of calamities culminating in the great earthquake of 1667, which brought about the gradual decline of the Republic.

The Reformation had some slight effect at Ragusa about this time, and during the archbishopric of Crisostomo Calvino (the name is a curious coincidence) some preachers were permitted to censure the loose morals of the clergy and even advocate changes in the statutes of the Church. But the movement was short-lived, and the Senate had the books of the Ragusan Matteo Flacco (born in 1520), who was suspected of heresy, burnt by the public executioner. After the death of Crisostomo in 1575 the Jesuits, who had made their first appearance in 1559 as missionaries, established themselves permanently and set up a college and a church. Thus all traces of Protestantism were stamped out.

A new disturbance was now caused by the Uskoks, a gang of Christian pirates. Originally these men were refugees from the lands occupied by the Turks. Many, as we have seen, settled at Ragusa and in other Dalmatian towns; but wherever they were they revenged themselves on the usurpers by raiding their territory, plundering their caravans, and keeping up a constant guerilla warfare on the frontiers. Clissa became their chief stronghold, whence they conducted operations against the Infidel; but when, in 1537, the Turks besieged and captured it, the Uskoks were forced to fly once more. The Emperor Ferdinand gave them a refuge at Segna (Zengg) in the Quarnero, a town protected on the land side by impassable mountains and forests. From Segna they continued their raids into Turkish territory, and also began operations by sea. The place soon became a refuge for outlaws of all nations, and the Uskoks ended by becoming as notorious pirates as the Narentans had been of old. They were always a trouble to the Ragusans, sometimes because they captured their galleys, and sometimes because by attacking the Turks they involved the Republic in difficulties with the Porte, who accused it of protecting the freebooters because they were Christians. In 1577 numbers of them were still hanging about in the Dalmatian mountains, and made raids as far as Trebinje, while others from Segna harried Turkish merchantmen. They professed to regard the Ragusans as vassals of the Sultan, and plundered their ships too; but the latter were able to give as hard knocks as they received, and in one encounter killed one of the Uskok leaders. Peace was restored through the mediation of Austria under whose protection the Uskoks were. But the Turks persisted in regarding the Ragusans as the accomplices of the pirates, and again the Sandjakbeg threatened to lay waste their territory. On the land side the Republic was vulnerable, while on the sea her shipping had suffered heavily in the Spanish wars. The incident ended in the Ragusans bribing the enemy into a more reasonable attitude.

In 1602 the inhabitants of the island of Lagosta revolted against Ragusan authority, because they complained that their ancient liberties guaranteed to them in the act of submission had been violated. The Ragusan count was driven out, and the islanders raised the banner of St. Mark and asked to be placed under Venetian protection. This was accorded, and a Venetian garrison landed on the island. Long negotiations ensued, and at last Lagosta was given back to Ragusa, but on very onerous conditions.[474]

In 1617-18 Ragusa was involved in the quarrels between Venice and Spain, which culminated in the famous Spanish conspiracy. The Venetians had been carrying on operations against the Uskoks since the end of the sixteenth century. The Provveditore Tiepolo took and destroyed Scrissa (on the site of the modern Carlopago) and hanged all the garrison. On his death he was succeeded in the command by Bembo, who, with a fleet of fifteen galleys and thirty long barques, manned by 800 soldiers, blockaded Trieste and Fiume, so as to bring pressure to bear on the Archduke of Austria. He also shut up 700 Uskoks in the harbour of Rogoznica. But on a stormy night they managed to escape, and Bembo, weary and disgusted, resigned his commission. His successor, Giustiniani, did some damage to the freebooters, and negotiations between Venice and Austria were commenced with a view to putting an end to their depredations. But nothing came of the discussions, and the Uskoks’ sack of Trebinje nearly involved Venice as well as Ragusa in a new Turkish war. In 1614 the Uskoks waylaid the Venetian Cristoforo Venier on his ship at Pago, murdered the officers and crew, and carried Venier himself to Segna, where they cut off his head and banqueted with it on the table, dipping their bread in his blood. Austria did nothing, and the pirates made fresh raids into Istria and the Venetian islands. The Venetians bombarded and captured Novi, and war broke out with Austria, which lasted until the Peace of Madrid in 1617. By this treaty Venice, Austria, and Spain bound themselves to remove the Uskoks to the interior of Croatia. A Venetian squadron sailed down the Adriatic, and with the pretext of capturing the Uskok galleys, anchored in the harbour of Gravosa, and blockaded Ragusa itself, which was defended by Marino Vodopić with a small body of Hungarian mercenaries. The Duke of Ossuna, the Spanish Viceroy of Naples, undertook the protection of Spain’s old ally, and sent a squadron up the Adriatic with the object of attacking Venice and co-operating in the Bedmar conspiracy. The plot was discovered and the fleet failed in its main object, but it succeeded in forcing the Venetians to abandon Gravosa. This, however, caused the Turks to accuse the Ragusans of having allied themselves with Spain to the detriment of the Ottoman Empire. At the same time certain persons whispered accusations of double-dealing against the Ragusans in the Spanish court itself. Venice nursed a resentment against the Ragusans for having been on good terms with Spain at the time of the conspiracy, and indulged in a “policy of pin-pricks” towards the little Republic. The latter also suffered annoyances from the Pashas of Bosnia, who were always imposing extortionate duties on Ragusan goods, and arresting Ragusan merchants as they passed through the country. These turbulent viceroys had to be pacified with presents and heavy bribes. When in 1647 the war of Candia broke out between the Venetians and the Turks, Ragusa feared that she too would be involved in the conflict, and appealed to the Pope for protection. But this time she succeeded in maintaining a neutral attitude without being molested, the Sultan’s plan for concentrating his troops at Ragusa for an invasion of Dalmatia having been luckily abandoned.

During the quieter period after 1631 the Ragusans turned their attention once more to the development of their commerce, but they discovered that the conditions were entirely changed from what they were a hundred, or even fifty, years previously. The whole of the Atlantic and East Indian trade was divided between the English and the Dutch, and such of the Mediterranean trade as was not also in their hands was in those of the Venetians. The Ragusan merchant navy had been for the most part lost in the service of Spain or captured by pirates, and a large proportion of their seamen killed in battle or drowned. Their shipping was therefore reduced to little more than a few coasting vessels, and the Republic’s only resource was now the land trade with Bosnia and the Herzegovina. But that too was less brisk than it used to be, as the general trade of the Balkans was tending more and more to follow the Budapest, Belgrad, and Sofia highway to Constantinople instead of the Adriatic routes. Decadence was setting in throughout Dalmatia, and the halcyon days of the Republic of Ragusa had passed away. The Italian trade now consisted of little more than the transport of grain necessary for the feeding of the inhabitants, and the Italian colony was very small. Few families from Italy, or even from other parts of Dalmatia and the Herzegovina, came to settle at Ragusa as heretofore. The old families were declining in wealth and activity, while a few newer ones from the neighbourhood monopolised the little trade that survived. On the other hand, luxury increased, public and private festivities became more frequent and more magnificent, so as to hide the symptoms of decadence, and the old accumulations of wealth were gradually squandered away. The old social distinctions, however, were kept up with even greater strictness, and the hereditary nobility continued to remain absolutely separate from all meaner mortals. The arts, too, languished, and no more fine buildings arose. The decline of Ragusa bears a striking similarity to that of Venice.

In 1667 a calamity befell the city which for a brief space made the name of Ragusa ring throughout the civilised world. As I have said, the citizens had had a foretaste of it in the small earthquake shocks which from time to time occurred; the most formidable of them had been that of 1520. But the worst was now to come. On Wednesday, April 6, 1667, in the early morning, when most of the inhabitants had either just risen or were attending early Mass in the churches, “there came from below ground a horrible and dreadful earthquake, which in a few moments destroyed the Rector’s Palace, the Rector himself (Ghetaldi) being killed, and all the other palaces, churches, monasteries, and houses in the city, everything being subverted, and there was much loss of life; the havoc was increased by the huge rocks which fell from the mountains; thus the city became a heap of stones. At the same time, a wind having arisen, misfortune was heaped upon misfortune, and flames burst forth naturally from the timber fallen from the ruins into the kitchen fires; the fire lasted several days, causing much suffering to the few survivors of this horrible disaster. These are not more than 600, besides 25 nobles, and it was a sad sight to see these people, most of them injured, wandering about almost beside themselves with despair in the ruined streets, imploring pity and pardon from the Lord God for their sins. Moreover, the Castle rock was seen to burst open and close again twice, and the waters of the sea sank back four times. Even the wells dried up completely. The land fort remained untouched, the sea fort, the _dogana_ (custom house), and the lazaret were partially damaged, but can be repaired in a short time. Many, moved by compassion at hearing the lamentable cries of those buried among the ruins, struggled to remove the rubbish of stones and timber with which they were covered, and found some still alive, although they had been three, four, and even five days in that terrible condition.”[475]

Another misfortune was added to these by the depredations of the neighbouring peasants and Morlachs who came pouring into the town, and it is said that even some of the citizens took part in the plunder, profiting by the wild confusion. According to Professor Gelcich, the fire was caused by incendiaries with the same purpose.[476] A large part of the Cathedral treasury was looted, and many of the sacred relics disappeared, although some of them were subsequently recovered. That the plundering was not more general was due to the efforts of two patriotic nobles, Biagio Caboga and Michele Bosdari, who armed bodies of their own peasantry and retainers, and kept watch over the ruined churches and public buildings. There was a regular battle between a few nobles and their suites and a horde of freebooters for the possession of the treasury. The latter were finally beaten off, and the State coffers and archives saved. The relics and the remains of the Cathedral treasure were removed to a chapel in the Dominican monastery, which was bricked up, only a barred window being left open so that the people might assure themselves of their existence and worship them.[477] The State treasure was removed to the Leverone fort, where the surviving nobles gathered together and constituted a provisional Government of twelve Senators. The situation appeared hopeless. “The city,” wrote the Abate Bosdari, “was so completely buried in the stones and rubbish of the ruined houses that every one gave up all idea of ever making it habitable again. The stench from the burnt or decaying corpses was so overpowering that it caused many people to suffer from nausea; and no one dared venture to the spot where he had lost his property, his relatives, and almost his own life, especially as other slight earthquake shocks were felt from time to time. Wherefore many of the most influential personages declared it to be necessary to change the site of the town, and they proposed that of Lapad as being the most convenient. This opinion was supported by the attractiveness of the position, its proximity to a harbour capable of sheltering many fleets, and the pure and more open air, and it would obviate the necessity of spending large sums in removing the rubbish.”[478]

Ragusa was not alone in her calamity; many places in the immediate neighbourhood had suffered considerably. The houses and churches of the Isola di Mezzo were all in ruins, as may be seen to this day, and many of the inhabitants were killed.[479] Stagno too was much damaged, and in the rest of Dalmatia the earthquake was equally severe. At Cattaro, according to Professor Gelcich, the ruin was even more widespread than at Ragusa itself.

In the meanwhile the news of this disaster had spread all over Europe, and help began to arrive from various quarters. The Empire, France, Spain, and several of the Italian States sent contributions in money, building materials, and men to help clear away the ruins. The Pope was the first in the field, and sent a body of troops to maintain order, and Giulio Cerruti, the engineer of Castel Sant’ Angelo.[480] The latter was sent to report on the advisability of transferring the population and the seat of the Government to Gravosa, but although he declared that that spot was very suitable, the majority of the survivors were still too much attached to their old home, ruined as it was, to desire to settle elsewhere. The proposal was dropped, and in fact, when the citizens came to take stock of the situation, they found that things were not quite so hopeless as they had at first appeared. Some five thousand people had been killed, but there must have been more survivors than the 625 mentioned by the anonymous author of the _Relatione_, if we accept Razzi’s estimate of the population at 30,000 in 1578. It may have decreased to some extent during the ensuing ninety years, but even in 1667 it must have been much more than 5600.[481] The damage done to the buildings was less than might have been expected. It is true that the Venetian Provveditore of Cattaro, who happened to be at Gravosa at the time, wrote that “with the exception of the public granary, the dogana, the fortifications, and the lazarets, all the buildings, both public and private, including the Palace, the churches, and the monasteries, were ruined and destroyed”; while Vitale Andriasci stated that “nothing of the city remained standing but the fortresses and the circuit of the walls, which were injured in many places, and a few dismantled houses.” But these writers were probably excited by the awful spectacle and fell into exaggeration. The Duomo was so greatly damaged that it was necessary to rebuild it from the foundations. The upper story of the Rector’s Palace was severely, but not hopelessly, injured. The church of San Biagio suffered considerably, but survived until destroyed by fire forty years later. The Dominican and Franciscan monasteries, including their towers, remained almost intact; while the Sponza, the clock-tower, the churches of St. Nicholas, the Ascension, St. Luke, the Saviour, the Annunciation, the granaries, the lazarets, &c., were in no worse condition. Of the private dwellings, those in the Stradone all fell down, and were rebuilt later; but many of those on the slopes of the Monte Sergio survived, as is proved by the numbers of fragments of Venetian Gothic which may be seen to this day. The general aspect of Ragusa is thus fortunately still what it was before the calamity.

The work of rebuilding the city on its ancient site was at once commenced, and the damages repaired. The Republic survived the earthquake for nearly 150 years more, and although it was not the Ragusa of the sixteenth century, it enjoyed intervals of revived prosperity, and even of political importance, from time to time. But the days for city-republics were gone for ever, and the existence of Ragusa during the eighteenth century can only be regarded as a relic of the past.