Nikola Vitov Gučetić: o ljepoti, ljubavi i ženama
Nikola Vitov Gučetić: on Beauty, Love and Women

Summary/Abstract: The vigorousness of Neo-Platonic conceptions and the revival of the ideals of antiquity, along with wholehearted support from Petrarchian lyricism, exalted women in Humanism and the Renaissance in a way which was inconceivable in the Middle Ages. The legislature of Dubrovnik, already under the prevalent influence of the Church, witnessed significant changes in the social positioning of women, while the novel intellectual orientations exerted powerful influence on its cultural life. Accordingly, it was in Dubrovnik that the first-ever poetesses emerged, and that the first-ever female myth was constructed; namely that of Cvijeta Zuzorić. The work of her contemporary and dear friend, Nikola Vitov Gučetić, bears witness to the then novel possibility – woman voice embedded in a philosophical concept, and promoted by the signature of this reputable citizen of Dubrovnik. Gučetić opened the doors of his villa, a sheltered place for »honourable study«, to two women for their talks of beauty and love, and dedicated the published Dialogues to yet another »respectable and most fair lady«, Cvijeta’s sister Nika. With this he gave his wife Maruša Gundulić and Cvijeta Zuzorić not only mediate voice, but also a name. In the stylistic encounter of the poetical and philosophical, in the interlacement of the actor and interpreter, in the bridging from gods to God, Gučetić traces the trails of authority from a well-known philosophical tradition, opting for a reflection on love »in the spirit of Plato« already in his subtitle. This paper unveils women presented via a feminine voice, and compares them with Gučetić’s attitudes articulated in his Upravljanje obitelji (Managing Family), a work published some ten years or so after his Dijalog o ljepoti (Dialogue on Beauty) and Dijalog o ljubavi (Dialogue on Love). Close attention is given to Gučetić’s thematisation of the concept of love and the strength of arguments used in solving the mysteries of the power, source and complexity of love.

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