JOHN THE BAPTIST OF RAB

Ivan Krstitelj Rabljanin (John the Baptist of Rab) Born in Rab around 1470, John the Baptist of Rab was accepted into the service of the Dubrovnik Republic in 1505 as a cannon and bell caster, where he served as head master craftsman the until his death in 1540. The Minor Council assigned him lodgings and a workshop at Revelin, and the Trade Brotherhood of St. Anthony admitted him into its ranks in 1509, when he also became a citizen of Dubrovnik. John the Baptist of Rab, among other things, made one of the longest contemporary culverins (cast in 1505, exhibited at the Vienna Museum of Military History today), several cannons from the Lovrijenac Fort (1531-1536), and the cannon known as ‘The Lizard’ (1537), which, as the legend has it, fell into the sea when the Austrian authorities tried to take it down the wall of the Fort, and is probably still there. He also cast the large bronze cannon for the Minčeta Tower, which was taken to Vienna in 1813 and later remelted. He probably made a number of ship cannons for the Dubrovnik fleet as well, especially for the twelve large galleons that joined the Spanish Navy during the campaign of Charles V in Tunisia in 1535, but these have not been preserved. One of his medium-sized galleon cannons from 1524, decorated with renaissance ornaments and the image of St. Blaise, was taken to the Ebenfurt Castle in Austria after the Austrian occupation in the early 19th century, and was later exhibited at the German National Museum in Nuremberg. The Republic sold his cannons to Italy and Spain, and John the Baptist of Rab worked for private ship owners in Dubrovnik and for forts in Italy too, with the Republic’s permission. His work includes the bell for the Dubrovnik Clock Tower, adorned with the images of Virgin Mary and St. Blaise (1506), the bell for the Dubrovnik Cathedral (1510), remelted during World War I, the bell for the Dominican Church, adorned with reliefs of St. Dominic and St. Tomas Aquinas (1516), and bells for a multitude of other churches in Dubrovnik, Kotor, Koločep, Ston and elsewhere. A master craftsman and exquisite decorator, John the Baptist of Rab skilfully used a wide array of renaissance ornaments to add finesse and elegance to his pieces. He was also engaged in a variety of trade and maritime trade businesses. Darja Tomić Senior Lexicographer