Francesco Maria Appendini

[1] The order (Christian Brotherhood) devoted itself to the education of students working as teachers in the colleges and schools of Italy and neighbouring countries.

Having done his theological studies, Appendini moved to Ragusa (Dubrovnik), where he was appointed a professor of rhetoric in the college of the Scolopj.

In Appendini's first work he also investigates the history and antiquities of the Epidaurum or Epidaurus, the parent of Ragusa, which was destroyed by the Slavs[4][5] in the 7th century.

There it is described in separate chapters, its form of government, its church (attached to the Latin communion), its laws, customs, its relations with the Republic of Venice and with the Slavic principalities of Croatia and Bosnia, its policy towards the Ottomans and its commerce.

The name of Argosies given by writers of the Middle Ages to large vessels that carried rich cargoes, which were from Dubrovnik.

These losses and the earthquake of 1667[8] which destroyed the greater part of Dubrovnik, were the causes of the decay of its maritime trade, which however recovered to a certain extent during the eighteenth century.

Among the historians are: Amongst other residence of Dubrovnik were the physician Baglivi; the mathematician Roger Joseph Boscovich;[14] several members of the family of Stay (Stojic), Raimondo Cunich, the author of many Latin poems and for a long time a professor in the Gregorian college at Rome; Bernardo Zamagna, who translated into Latin the Odyssey, Hesiod, Theocritus, and Moschus; Cardinal Giovanni Stoiko, who was sent as legate to the council of Basle; Simone Benessa, a jurist, the author of a book on the practice of the courts of Ragusa and Benedetto Cotrugli,[15] who was employed in several important offices of state, such as the Kingdom of Naples.

He wrote a work on the profession of commerce and the duties of a merchant, "Della mercatura e del mercante perfetto" (Book on the Art of Trade),[16] published in Venice in 1573.

After the French had taken military possession of the Republic in 1806 [17] and annexed the country to the Illyrian Provinces,[18] which were governed by Marmont, one of Napoleon's generals.

Appendini prevailed upon the new government to retain the order of the Scolopj, and entrust to it the instruction of youth in the districts of the former Republic and of Kotor (Cattaro).

They went to Vienna in order to secure the support of the Austrian Emperor Francis I and his ministers, which they obtained and the school for teachers at Zadar was maintained.