»Mit o Veneciji« u Sretnom gradu Frane Petrića?
“The Venice Myth” in The Happy Town by Frane Petrić?

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the happiness of citizens in The Happy Town by Frane Petrić, where a picture of the town in which statutes and regulations contribute to the strengthening of trust and morality is portrayed. If utopia is by definition directed towards the future, Petrić conversely turns his utopia towards the past, towards the reconstruction of a happy town according to the patriarchal (pyramidal) pattern, which was only rarely achieved in the history of mankind, like for instance during Sesostris in ancient Egypt. Due to the mention of Verona, alongside ancient Athens, ‘the Venice myth’ became customary in Italian criticism, implying the town with thousand “useful” utilities, to which Petrić might have referred as he compiled his debut work dedicated to “Their Serenities Vigerio and Girolamo dalla Rovere”. However, that myth cannot be noticed in this Petrić’s work. The anthropomorphist scheme of the “tractate” reveals Petrić’s tendency to identify between man and town, soul and body (based on interpretations of old Kabbalah texts), but the names in the dedication clearly point to Della Rovere dynasty who governed the Principality of Urbino (with ports Senigallia and Pesaro) and who imposed, from the beginning of Cinquecento, a new image of the ‘ruler’ and the modernised conception of the ‘courtier’, ensuring thereby their international fame by being patrons to all arts at the time.

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