Stjepan Gradić

Stjepan Gradić, Italian Stefano Gradi ( born March 6, 1613 Dubrovnik (lat / it Ragusa ). . † May 2, 1683 in Rome) was a Roman Catholic priest, polymath and diplomat of the Republic of Ragusa to the Holy See.

Life

Gradić came from the city of Dubrovnik aristocracy. His maternal uncle was Benessa Pietro (1580-1642), Vicar General in Dubrovnik, then public officials in State Secretariat of Urban VIII in the Episcopal rank. By Benessas mediation Gradić came 16- year to Rome to the Collegio Romano, studied at the University of Fermo and then received his doctorate in 1638 at the University of Bologna to the doctor of both laws. Then he sat in Rome continued his theological studies. After the death of his uncle in 1642 he returned to Dubrovnik back, was ordained a priest and was a benefice of St. Cosmas and Damian abbey on the island of Pasman and a member of the cathedral chapter of Dubrovnik.

In 1653 he went with the consent of the chapter again to Rome, where he was working as a negotiator in Affairs of the Republic of Ragusa. He sought the place of the first curator of the Vatican Library, but initially received only a post in the Secretariat of State.

Was a result of the election of a pope Alexander VII in 1655, with the Gradić by a circle of poets known personally, his position continued to improve in the Curia. With the arrival of Queen Christina in Rome in the same year he was awarded the honorable order of the Latin welcoming speech. In 1656 he was officially appointed as the representative of the Republic of Ragusa to the Holy See. In 1662 he received the second custodian to the Vatican Library.

From his residence in Dubrovnik duty he was now definitely given birth, so that he could devote his full diplomatic, philosophical and poetic activities themselves. A collection of Latin poems of his was already published in 1660 in a band with six other authors. Lively was also his physical and mathematical interest. Michelangelo Ricci dedicated to him in 1666 his Exercitatio geometrica de maxima et minimis.

1664 Gradić traveled with a delegation under Cardinal Flavio Chigi to Paris for ratification of the Peace of Pisa. There he met, among others, know Bossuet, with whom he remained in correspondence thereafter. After the death of Alexander VII in 1667 Gradić had the honor to hold the Oratio de eligendo summo pontifice before the conclave assembled cardinals.

Make an incision in Gradićs life was the earthquake of 1667, in which his home town of Dubrovnik was completely destroyed and half of the population, including almost the entire government, was killed. He became a key figure of reconstruction, emergency aid earned by the Holy See, sent architects and engineers in the home and took special care of the rebuilding of St Mary 's Cathedral. Through its wide-ranging diplomatic relations he led governments throughout Italy and Europe to financial and political support against the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire.

A diplomatic mission to Venice in 1674 brought him in Florence valuable contacts with Antonio Magliabechi, Cardinal Leopoldo de ' Medici, Grand Duke Cosimo III and. one. In the Papal Oriental policy he advocated the recognition of Russian Tsarism and a antiosmanisches alliance of all the Catholic and Orthodox princes. He promoted the Church Union.

Gradić was a member of the Paduan Accademia dei Ricovrati and after 1674 the Academy of Queen Christina. He dedicated to the Queen his most important scientific work of the Galileo -inspired Dissertationes physico- mathematicae quattuor, printed 1680 in Amsterdam.

1679 remained Gradić again in Paris and made a vain attempt to dissuade Louis XIV by his alliance with the Ottomans.

In January 1682 Gradić received as Lorenzo Brancati di Lauria successor to the office of the first curator of the Vatican Library, which he had sought for thirty years. Inspired by his learned correspondents and friends, he arranged for the purchase of many contemporary books without regard to their ecclesiastical- religious position.

After his death in 1683 Gradić was buried in the church of San Girolamo degli Illirici in Rome.