The writings of Ivan (or Djivo Fran) Gundulic mark the culmination point of a cultural development (especially in poetry and the theater) in the free city of Dubrovnik that lasted for almost four centuries, until the city lost its independence in the nineteenth century. He is generally recognized as the greatest Dubrovnik poet.

The son of Frano Gundulic and Djiva Gradic (de Gradi), Ivan Gundulic was born on 8 January 1589 in Dubrovnik, on the Dalmatian coast. He was descended from the old noble family Gundulic/ Gondola, which had played a prominent role in Dubrovnik public life since the early thirteenth century. He spent most of his life in this flowering Adriatic commercial town. Among his high-school teachers were the Italian Camillo Camilli, who wrote a sequel to Torquato Tasso's epic La Gerusalemme liberata (1581), and Petar Palikuca, a translator of Italian. Gundulic acquired the nickname Macica (Pussycat), probably during his...