Lovro Kunčević

Lovro Kunčević (Zagreb 1979) received his Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from CEU (Budapest) in 2012. He is a senior research associate at the Institute for Historical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Dubrovnik.

His main interests are the history of diplomacy, ideology, and institutions of medieval and early modern city-republics, primarily Ragusa and Venice. His PhD thesis dealt with the discourses on collective identity in Ragusa, investigating the various ways in which Ragusans represented their city-state during its golden age (from 1350 to 1600). That thesis was eventually published and received the award for the best history book of 2015 from the Croatian National Board for Historical Sciences. His second book is a study in historical sociology dedicated to the question of exceptional social and political stability of Dubrovnik Republic, i.e. the surprising absence of rebellions and constitutional reforms.

He held scholarships at the University College London (UCL), Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia and Geisteswissenschaftliche Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas (GWZO) in Leipzig.

He has participated in several international projects organized by Cambridge University, EUI and CEU, while currently he is a member of the ERC project “The Diplomacy of Small States in Early Modern South-eastern Europe.“

He has published with various publishers (HAZU, Brill, Cambridge University Press, Routledge) on topics such as the republican ideology, diplomatic rhetoric, image of the other, and political institutions of premodern Ragusa. He has also taught courses of medieval history of South-Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean at the University of Zagreb and the University of Dubrovnik.

a.) books:

Mit o Dubrovniku. Diskursi o identitetu renesansnoga grada (The Myth of Dubrovnik. Discourses on
the Identity of the Renaissance City). Zagreb-Dubrovnik: Hrvatska akademija znanosti i
umjetnosti, Zavod za povijesne znanosti u Dubrovniku, 2015.

Vrijeme harmonije. O razlozima društvene i političke stabilnosti Dubrovačke Republike (The Time of
Harmony. On the Reasons for the Social and Political Stability of the Ragusan Republic).
Zagreb-Dubrovnik: Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, Zavod za povijesne znanosti u
Dubrovniku, 2020.

b.) editorial books:

(with Gábor Kármán) The European Tributary States of the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth centuries. Leiden: Brill, 2013.

(with Serena Ferente and Miles Pattenden) The Cultures of Voting in Premodern Europe. New York:
Routledge, 2018.

(with Ivan Viđen) Antonije Vučetić, Studije iz dubrovačke prošlosti: izabrani tekstovi. Dubrovnik:
Državni arhiv u Dubrovniku, 2021.

c.) articles:

“On the ‘Temerity’ of Ragusans: Venetian-Ragusan Conflict in the Summer of 1630.” Dubrovnik
Annals 25 (2021): 113-148.

“Political Decision-Making in The Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Centuries.” In: The Cultures of Voting in Premodern Europe, ed. Serena Ferente, Lovro
Kunčević and Miles Pattenden. New York: Routledge, 2018, 225-241.

“The City Whose Ships Sail ‘on Every Wind.’ Representations of Diplomacy in the Literature of the
Early Modern Dubrovnik.” In: Practices of Diplomacy in the Early Modern World, c. 1410-
1800, ed. Tracey Sowerby and Jan Hennings. New York: Routledge, 2017, 65-79.

“Etnički i politički identitet predmodernog Dubrovnika od 14. do 17. stoljeća.” Anali Zavoda za
povijesne znanosti Hrvatske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti u Dubrovniku 55/1 (2017): 65-
87.

“The Maritime Trading Network of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth
Century.” In: The Routledge Handbook of Maritime Trade around Europe, 1300-1600, ed. Wim
Blockmans, Mikhail Krom and Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz. New York: Routledge, 2017, 141-
158.

“The Ragusan Image of Venice and the Venetian Image of Ragusa in the Early Modern Period.” In:
Practices of Coexistence. Constructions of the Other in Early Modern Perceptions, ed. Marianne
D. Birnbaum and Marcell Sebok. Budapest: CEU Press, 2017, 143-176.

“O stabilnosti Dubrovačke Republike (14.-17. stoljeće): geopolitički i ekonomski faktori.” Anali
Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 54/1 (2016): 1-38.

“Temeljne političke institucije Dubrovačke Republike.” In: Knežev dvor u Dubrovniku. Utvrda-palača-muzej. Dubrovnik: Knežev dvor, 2016: 216- 227.

(with Domagoj Madunić), “Venecija i Dubrovnik u vrijeme velikog potresa 1667. godine.” Anali
zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 52/1 (2014): 173-218.

“Janus-faced Sovereignty: The International Status of the Ragusan Republic in the Early Modern
Period.” In: The European Tributary States of the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries, ed. Gábor Kármán and Lovro Kunčević. Leiden: Brill, 2013, 91-122.

“The Rhetoric of the Frontier of Christendom in the Diplomacy of Renaissance Ragusa (Dubrovnik).”
Dubrovnik Annals 17 (2013): 37-68.

“Discourses on Liberty in Early Modern Ragusa.” In: Freedom and the construction of Europe, vol. I,
ed. Skinner Quentin and Martin van Gelderen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012, 195-214.

“Dubrovačka slika Venecije i venecijanska slika Dubrovnika u ranom novom vijeku.” Anali Zavoda za
povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 50 (2012): 9-37.

“Janus-arcú szuverenitás. A kora újkori Raguzai Köztársaság nemzetközi státusza” Korall 48 (2012): 5-32.

“Retorika granice kršćanstva u diplomaciji renesansnog Dubrovnika.” Anali Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 48 (2010): 1-34.

“On Ragusan libertas in the late Middle Ages.” Dubrovnik Annals 14 (2010): 25-69.

“Civic and Ethnic Discourses of Identity in a City-State Context: The Case of Renaissance Ragusa.” In:
Whose Love of Which Country? Composite States, National Histories and Patriotic Discourses
in Early Modern East Central Europe, ed. Balázs Trencsényi and Márton Zászkaliczky. Leiden:
Brill, 2010, 149-177.

“Urota.” In: Leksikon Marina Držića, ed. Slobodan Prosperov Novak, Mirjana Mataja, Leo Rafolt and
Milovan Tatarin. Zagreb: Leksikografski zavod “Miroslav Krleža”, 2009, 509-524.

“O dubrovačkoj libertas u kasnom srednjem vijeku.” Anali Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u
Dubrovniku 46 (2008): 9-54.

“No Harm in Hearing it all: Medicean Attitude to the Conspiracy of Marin Držić.” Dubrovnik Annals
12 (2008): 7-44.

““Ipak nije na odmet sve čuti:” medičejski pogled na urotničke namjere Marina Držića.” Anali Zavoda
za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 45 (2007): 9-46.

“The Oldest Foundation Myth of Ragusa: The Epidaurian Tradition.” Annual of Medieval Studies at
CEU 9 (2004): 21-31.