Original scientific paper

The Gundulić Family Book Legacy: From Frano Franov (1539–1589) to Frano Marinov (1666–1687).

Gorana Stepanić orcid.org/0000-0001-9642-1181 ; Sveučilište Jurja Dobrile u Puli

Abstract

The article identifies, presents and interprets the set of the books that were owned by the Dubrovnik Gundulić family over four generations, from the mid- 15th to just before the end of the 17th century. The books considered belong today among the collections of the Dubrovnik Research Library: to the Collegium Ragusinum Collection of Old and Rare Books (the collection contains mainly books that were once owned by the Dubrovnik Jesuit College) and to the Antiqua and Inkunabule collections. The definition of the set of books under consideration came as a serendipitous find within the more strictly defined thematic and temporal framework adjusted to research into the books of another author, of Nikola Vitov Gučetić, and so it is likely that there are other books in the Research Library that once belonged to the Gundulić family.
The article identifies thirty-two titles (in a total of forty volumes) printed between 1474 and 1589. Most of the works are legal reference works (Justinian, Durand, Panormitano, Tartagni, d’Afflitto, Bossi, Covarrubias and others) but there are some from the domains of theology (Thomas Cajetan), philosophy (Aristotle, Philo of Alexandria, Plutarch), rhetoric (Aristotle, Demosthenes, Valla), poetry (Terence), history (Thwrocz), mathematics (Cardano) and architecture (Palladio). All of them bear labels of ownership – ex libris plates – of one or other of the members of the family of Gundulić (Gondola, Gundula). Owners who placed their names on the books were the following members of the family: Frano Franov Gundulić (1539–1589), lawyer and diplomat of the Dubrovnik Republic; his twin brother Nikolino Franov Gundulić (1539–1614); Frano’s descendants, his son Frano Franov Gundulić (1587–1629), his grandson Marin Franov Gundulić (about 1622–1667) and his great-grandson Frano Marija Marinov Gundulić (1666–1687). It was noticed earlier (Šapro-Ficović; Gudelj and Ruso) that Marin Gundulić was given as owner on the title pages of several books from the Dubrovnik Research Library, including five incunabula. This person was identified as the Jesuit Marin Marinov Gundulić (1596–1647), founder of the Jesuit College; it has been standard to write that his personal library constitutes the core of the library of the College. But the identification of the owner of the books is inaccurate, for on most of the books including the incunabula and Palladio’s Dell’architettura, the name of Marin Franov Gondola is written. He signed a large number of books, as the first owner in the family to do so; among them the incunabula stand out, and it is to be assumed that he was the original purchaser. Marin Franov was killed in 1667 in the great Dubrovnik earthquake. From him, the books were inherited by his only surviving son Frano Marija (Marinov) Gundulić. He too died young, aged only twenty. In his will, which is kept in the State Archives in Dubrovnik (HR-DADU-12.1 books, that is the inherited family library, to the College of the Society of Jesus in Dubrovnik, on condition that his friend Ivan Sarov Bunić (Bona, 1664–1712) should be permitted to take from the collection any books he wanted. Apart from the above Gondolas, on three books from the Collegium Ragusinum collection, a certain Marinus Gondola is marked as the owner. These books did not belong to the college but to the Jesuit Residency in Dubrovnik. It is possible that these books were part of the estate of that Marin Marinov Gundulić who founded the college, to whom previously the ownership of books of the Gundulić family was wrongly attributed.
Each one of these five members of the Gundulić family signed his own name, in the various versions of it, on the copies of the books, whether they purchased or inherited them. In a certain number of the books there are also marginal notes accompanying the text. Some of the hands that wrote out the marginalia can be identified. Lawyer Frano Franov Gundulić the Elder wrote his remarks on his own law books (Covarrubias, Bossi, d’Afflitto); the copy of volume three of Panormitano’s Decretalia bears the occasional note written by Fran Gundulić’s fellow citizen, somewhat younger but much better known and related to the Gundulićes by marriage, philosopher and lawyer Nikola Vitov Gučetić (1549–1610).

Keywords

Frano Franov Gundulić; Marin Franov Gundulić; the Dubrovnik Gondola (Gundula) family; family libraries; Collegium Ragusinum; Dubrovnik

Hrčak ID:

321787

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/321787

Publication date:

25.10.2024.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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