Stjepan Gradić
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Stjepan Gradić or Stefano Gradi (April 6, 1613 - May 2, 1683) was a Ragusan philosopher and scientist.
Gradi was born in Ragusa (Dubrovnik) , where he was first schooled. He studied in Rome and stayed there to hold various offices for the Republic of Ragusa (its diplomatic representative by the Holy See. Since 1682 he was the head of the Vatican Library.
Gradi was a polymath. He cooperated with the historian Giovanni Lucio, translated classical authors, wrote a biography of the Ragusan writer Giustino Palmotta (Junije Palmotić) and a poem about the earthquake in Ragusa. In the literary and scientific circle of pope Alexander VII and Queen Christina of Sweden Gradi discussed scientific and philosophical issues. Along with philosophy, he engaged in mathematics, physics, astronomy, literature and diplomacy.
His philosophical works are written in the spirit of Aristotelianism and scholasticism. Gradi was a member of Accademia Reale and of the Dei Ricoverati academy in Padua, having correspondence with many notable Europeans. He described the disastrous earthquake in Ragusa in 1667 in Latin verses and organized help from all over Europe for the devastated city. He died in Rome.
[edit] External links
- Biography (in Italian)
- Giacomo Scotti, La letteratura italiana in Dalmazia: una storia falsificata 'Quaderni Giuliani di Storia', Anno XXIII, n°1 January - April2002, pag.21-35 (in Italian)
- Dalmácia irodalma (in Hungarian)
- House of Gradi (Gradic)
