Original scientific paper
Julije Bajamonti and Ruđer Bošković – Croatian encyclopaedists of the 18th century. Contribution to introducing Bajamonti's works dedicated to the Dubrovnik scientist
Ivana Tomić Ferić
orcid.org/0000-0003-1995-2215
; Academy of Arts, University of Split, Croatia
Abstract
As a pleader of contemporary science and one of the most prominent luminaries not only of the Dalmatian, but also of the entire Croatian history, Julije Bajamonti with critical and recent tendency of his scientific attitudes stands alongside the European intellectual elite of illuminism. Insight into the breadth of his musical, literary and scientific activities as well as dealing with content analysis of the corpus preserved heritage, reveal the contemporary style of the Bajamonti's pen, close to the level of European thought of the enlightened eighteenth century. This level is reflected in a distance from scholastic philosophy and its later offshoots, from the pathos of the Baroque tradition and is aimed at practical reasoning which connects to the philosophy of the politics in order to create the rich, modern nation in the social plane. Overcoming theological dogmatism with speculative doubt, firmly believe in the strength of the evidence based on the scientific experience, boost the principles of moral-intellectual conscience and freedom of the thought, disclose the rhetoric of futile casuistic word plays and fanatical blindness considered one of the most dangerous diseases of the human mind, are the encyclopaedic efforts reflected in the works of the great Split polihistor. Connection with scientific and literary minds of the western European cultural circle, Bajamonti maintained with a “culture of writing” and create a new figure of the intellectual, who, proclaiming the pluralism of the spirituality, on the pedestal of man's sense of values puts the commonsense. The circle of his friends and acquaintances was really wide, as evidenced by letters preserved in several volumes a total of 227 printed pages in the Split Archaeological Museum. He was a sincere admirer, collector and scholar of the works of numerous scientists, writers and artists, among them the significant place belongs to Ruđer Bošković, Dubrovnik scholar whose oeuvre forms a distinct epoch in the history of natural science among the Croats. Processing the source material, this text provides the first complete presentation of Bajamonti's works devoted to Bošković, confirming the several century long cultural cooperation and association of Croatian cultural centers in this part of the Mediterranean.
Keywords
Enlightenment; encyclopaedism; Julije Bajamonti; Ruđer Bošković; Requiem; Elogio
Hrčak ID:
78749
URI
Publication date:
30.1.2012.
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