Potresna pjesnička svjedočanstva: Latinsko pjesništvo o dubrovačkom potresu 1667.
Shocking poetic testimonies: Latin poetry about the Dubrovnik earthquake of 1667.

Summary/Abstract: The catastrophic earthquake that happened on the 6th of April 1667 devastated the Ragusan Republic and seriously compromised its political, economic and demographic future. The small Mediterranean republic intensified the diplomatic activity – very well documented and the documentation preserved – to raise the money for its restoration. Apart from typical diplomatic steps, there were poetic attempts of Ragusan authors to spread the news about the earthquake across Europe and win the favor of possible donors. The oldest text from that group is a small epic poem in Latin written by the Ragusan poet Stjepan Gradić (1613‐1683), a diplomat at the Holy See, titled Stephani Gradii patricii Ragusini de laudibus serenissimae reipublicae Venetae et cladibus patriae suae carmen (Venice 1675, 21676), containing the description of the earthquake, asking Venice for material help. A Jesuit Benedikt Rogačić (1646‐1719) published an epyllion directed to Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, titled Proseucticon de terraemotu, quo Epidaurus in Dalmatia anno 1667 prostrata est, ad Cosmum III Etruriae ducem (Rome 1690, Munich 21695). The third Latin text on the same subject is a part of a larger epic of the Ragusan Jesuit Benedikt Stay (1714‐1801), the didactic poem Philosophiae versibus traditae libri VI (Venice 1744), which deals with the philosophy of Descartes. Passages on the earthquake from all three texts exist in various manuscript compilations and in Italian translations, and apart from the «external» reception of the three texts there is an «internal» reception between them. Besides some individual parts, all of them have in common numerous elements (scenes, motifs, details as well as their disposition) concerning the very course of events during and after the earthquake, being based on the same written and other historical sources. Nevertheless, the analysis of the texts has shown that the earthquake part of Stayʹs poem openly uses the poem of Rogačić as its source, both in composition and verbal expression: about twenty percent of Stayʹs text is a paraphrase of Rogačićʹs hexameters.

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