Dubrovnik, Republic of

Dubrovacka Republika, Republic of Ragusa

Last modified: 1997-12-11 by zeljko heimer
Keywords: dubrovnik | ragusa | croatia | hungary | st.blasius | libertas |
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(1)
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by Zeljko Heimer

• Croatia
• Dubrovnik-Neretva county
• collection of Croatian historical flags at the FAME.

Translation from: Josip Luetic: O drzavnoj zastavi Dubrovacke Republike, Zadar, 1967, Drustvo za proucavanje i unapredjenje pomorstva Jugoslavije u Zadru, Izdavacki zavod JAZU, Zagreb.

The Flag of the Republic of Dubrovnik

Summary

The flag used to designate by its form, various colours and different drawings to which organized authority - State - it belonged.

Our [Croatian; ZH] maritime communes in the past had their own flags. Our most prominent flag over the span of several centuries was that of the Dubrovnik commune or Dubrovnik Republic, whic, in 1272, was made official and recorded in the Statute: VIXILLUM S. BLASIJ.

In the ancient portulans of the most prominent world cartographers since 14th century also the flag of Dubrovnik Republic was recorded.

As a 'seal' of statemanship in rectangular form, the Dubrovnik flag was made of cloth - domestic white woollen fabric called 'rasa' [with hachek over s; ZH] - or of imported linen, more rarely the fabric used was domestic silk. It was positioned at the stern flagstaff, or on the main mast, or on the jigger boom, or on the gaff of all Dubrovnik sailing-vessels.

The secondary Dubrovnik flag was white in colour, and in the middle stood the inscription _Libertas_. As in other maritime States, sometimes a special flag - the coat-of-arms of the Dubrovnik Republic drawn in the white field - used to be employed as a designation of the personality carried aboard.

In view of the significance of flying the State flag, the Dubrovnik government discussed the question in the fremework of her councils and State organs, and in this connection it passed certain decisions and conclusions.

Besides the printed works and tables of the flags, the yet published complements and written archival documents, there exists a rich artistic material that tells us in the form of reliefss about the Dubrovnik State flag which was flown on the ships of the Republic.

In the Maritime Muesum for Historical investigations of the maritime affairs of Dalmatia of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in Dubrovnik are kept original flags that were flown on the sailing-vessels of the Dubrovnik Republic in the 18th and at the beginning of the 19th centuries.

In discussing this question the author of this paper draws the inference that the true and only official State flag of the Republic of Dubrovnik was that in white colour with the effigy of St. Vlaho, which was fown for the centuries on the ships of this our only express maritime State in the past until the 27th December 1807, when the French occupation General A. Lauriston ordered the Dubrovnik Senate to substitute this flag with the foreign flag of Napoleonic Italy.

Artistic annexes (drawings) complement the author's expositions.