Original scientific paper
Niko the Great Pucić as Political and Cultural Public Figure
Ivo Perić
; Institute for Historical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Abstract
Niko the Great Pucić (1820-1883) from Dubrovnik, belonged to an old and respected nobleman’s family Pucić (Pozza), which gave many a great man - writers, scientists, diplomats, statesmen - in the time of the Ragusan (Dubrovnik) Republic. His brother Medo (Orsat) was a writer, and his youngest brother, Niko the Little, was a high-ranking officer in the Austrian army. They never got married, so that they would not give any subjects to the Austrian Empire they hated; the subjects, that would have no rights and would therefore have to suffer. By their deaths their family tree had died, too. Niko the Great Pucić accepted the Croatian political thought as early as in 1848 and remained loyal to it for all his life (died in 1883), i.e. for as long as 35 years. He advocated this thought before the Austrian Emperor, before the Croatian parliaments (the Croatian Sabor - Diet - in Zagreb and the Dalmatian Sabor in Zadar), as well as in his private contacts with scientists and friends. Other than being a politician, he was also an active cultural public figure. He supported creators in the domain of literature, figurative arts and science, as well as the activity of the Dubrovnik Public Library, and was also the first editor to its year-book entitled »Dubrovnik«. He had direct contacts and extensive correspondence with a number of political and cultural men of merit from the area of Dalmatia and Banian Croatia, and was considered as such to be a significant link between Croatia’s North and South. Niko the Great Pucić has taken a prominent post in the history of the Croatian national revival in Dalmatia. His role as a political and cultural public figure has remained perpetually esteemed, especially in his native Dubrovnik.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
239975
URI
Publication date:
20.6.1993.
Visits: 1.178 *