372 THE REPUBLIC OF RAGUSA
kept up owing to the old Byzantine tradition, and it was now promoted by the influx of learned Greeks who took refuge at Ragusa after the fall of Constantinople. On the other hand, many Ragusans went abroad, especially to Italy, for purposes of study, and some of them achieved considerable fame in various spheres of life, such as Stoicus or Stoikovic, one of the most celebrated theologians of the fifteenth century, and Anselmo Banduri, the archasologist.
   The Ragusan poets who wrote in Latin may be dismissed in a few words. The most celebrated of them was Elio Cerva, who went to Rome in 1476 at the age of sixteen, where he studied the humanities, and joined the Quirinal academy. He Latinised his name according to the fashion of the time into iElius Lampridius Cer-vinus, and two years later he was crowned Poet-laureate. He soon returned to Ragusa, married, and determined to devote his life to the public service, but on the death of his wife he took Holy Orders, and spent most of his time at Ombla. He died in 1520. He was much appreciated by his contemporaries, especially by Sabellicus and Palladius Fuscus. His chief compositions are an elegy on his retreat at Ombla, another on the tomb of Cicero’s daughter, and a number of odes, epigrams, and hymns.
   Another Latin poet of some reputation was Giovanni Gozze. He was employed by the Republic on various embassies, in the course of which he made the acquaintance of a number of statesmen and men of letters, among others that of the celebrated Agnolo Poliziano. To the latter he afterwards sent some of his own works, and