FAMOUS CROATS 2013 - STJEPAN GRADIĆ

STJEPAN GRADIĆ (1613 – 1683)
 
Stjepan Gradić was a diplomat and polihistorian.  He was born on 6 March 1613 in Dubrovnik where he also received his primary education. In 1629 he leaves for Rome where until 1634 he attends one humanist grade and three years of philosophy at the Jesuit University Collegium Romanum.  He studied civil and religious law at the universities in Fermi (1634 – 1636) and Bologna (1636 – 1638). After returning to Rome, he studied theology for four years whereupon he was ordained priest. In Bologna, on the part-time basis, he also attended lectures in mathematics by Galileo’s friend and co-worker B. Cavalieri, and in Rome by Galileo' pupil   B. Castelli.  In 1634 he returned home and soon became a canon of the cathedral choir, deputy of the Dubrovnik archbishop and the prebendary abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Cosmas and Damian on the island of Pašman.
After private journey to Rome in 1653 he got a job in Roman Curia as diplomatic representative of the Republic of Dubrovnik to the Holy See and remained there until his death on 02 May 1683. The Pope Innocent  X appointed him in 1654 an official at the Secretariat for Correspondence with  Christian States; in 1658 he got the job of expert adviser to the Congregation of the index of forbidden books; in 1661 he became second custodian  of the Vatican Library  and in 1682 its first director. At this position he became known due to his devoted work on cataloguing the existing and the acquisition of new valuable foundations and books. At the Pope's State Secretariat he enjoyed the reputation of an expert for Slavic people and for Ottoman issues and advocated the expulsion of Ottoman Turks from Europe by an alliance of European states. 
 
            As diplomat Gradić acquired great merits for his homeland. It is mainly due to his engagement that in 1658 the Jesuits opened a high school Collegium Ragusinum. He strongly advocated that local people take all managing position in the Benedictine  Congregation  on the island of Mljet and also fought persistent diplomatic and political battle against conspirators who wanted to hand over the island of Lastovo to Venetian Republic. He put lot of his effort and diplomatic skill in defending Dubrovnik's land and sea trade which the Venetians tried to prevent. He had special merits after the catastrophic earthquake in Dubrovnik (in 1667) in securing help in goods as well as skilled and military help from all sides. He sent experts, money, food, machines and arms to Dubrovnik, withdrew capital of the Republic of Dubrovnik from Italian banks and provided international, political and diplomatic help to Dubrovnik against Turkish and Venetian pressures and blackmails.   
Gradić was also providing his diplomatic services to the Holy See: in 1662 he was one of the two  representatives of the Pope Alexander VII who  at San Quirico near Siena, conducted  official negotiations with the messenger of the King Louis XIV about the diplomatic solution of the conflict  between the Pope's State and France. In 1664 he travelled to Paris as the secretary of Pope's delegation on the occasion of solemn signing of the Treaty of Pisa. In diplomacy he successfully used his great poetic and rhetorical talent. As an excellent speaker, he performed on several occasions at ceremonies before Pope and cardinals, at funerals of eminent people,  on the occasion of the solemn entry into Rome of the Swedish queen emigrant Christine  (1665) etc.   
He spoke and understood several languages: Croatian, Italian, Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Turkish which made his communication and scientific study easier. Still as student, he wrote a drama in verse in Latin and also later continued to write poems, poetic epistles, satires, speeches and scientific treatises. He was translating from Greek to Latin, which built his reputation. Besides, he engaged in theology, philosophy, law, history, mathematics, physics, meteorology and other scientific disciplines.  He also experimented and engaged in practical application of theoretic knowledge in optics, shipbuilding, navigation and hydromechanics and kept connections with scholars from almost whole Europe. He left behind a number of books, scientific treatises and articles.          
                       
 
                                                                                                                     Stjepan Krasić