Ragusian Galleon - old new lady by MarisStella Model Ship Kits

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Hello to all friends modellers ...

Here is a short presentation of an ancient lady from the 16th century. She originally comes from Ragusa, a town - republic from the Coast of the Adriatic Sea.

 

 

In the begining it would be nice to mention something about Ragusa, nowdays city of Dubrovnik :

Some sources say that Ragusa was founded in the 7th century, named after a "rocky island" called Lausa, by refugees from Epidaurum (Ragusa Vecchia), a Greek city situated some 15 km to the south, when that city was destroyed in the Slavic incursions.

Excavations in 2007 revealed a Byzantine basilica from the 8th century and parts of the city walls. The size of the old basilica clearly indicates that there was quite a large settlement at the time. There is also evidence for the presence of a settlement in the pre-Christian era.

The Republic of Ragusa was an aristocratic maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik (Ragusa in Italian, German and Latin) in Dalmatia (today in southernmost Croatia) that carried that name from 1358 until 1808. It reached its commercial peak in the 15th and the 16th centuries, before being conquered by Napoleon's French Empire and formally annexed by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1808. It had a population of about 30,000 people, of whom 5,000 lived within the city walls. Its Latin motto was "Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro", which means "Liberty is not well sold for all the gold".

 

Merchant galleons, like this one, were used for long trips to overseas areas newly discovered. The most preserved galleons are Spanish and Ragusian, used for the transport of silver from Peru and Mexico. They sailed in groups, fleets, from which the name fleet. At that time the galleons were bigger than the caravel, but smaller than the carrack of Dubrovnik. They weighed 200-500 tons.
The Ragusian galleons, something different from the structural characteristics of the other galleons of the time and of the big and spacious carracks of Dubrovnik, are named Argosies, their name date from Ragusies, adjective of Ragusa (Dubrovnik). How these Ragusian ships were appreciated shows the best the fact that the English made for them a literary expression: Argosy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Happy Easter !