"There are few introductions to the city's past available to general readers . . . Harris' splendid study meets this need admirably."--The Times Literary Supplement

"A fascinating and scholarly account."--Daily Telegraph

Since emerging as a settlement in the seventh century, Dubrovnik held a significant position beyond what could have been expected of this tiny city-state. Its merchants, trading throughout the huge Ottoman Empire, enjoyed privileges denied to other Western states. A politically skilled and commercially enterprising ruling class took every opportunity to maximize the republic's wealth.

Dubrovnik also faced the extreme dangers posed by Venetian aggressors, Ottoman plotters, a terrible earthquake in 1667, and, finally, the will of Napoleon. In 1991 and 1992, the city survived the besieging Yugoslav army, which heavily damaged but did not destroy Dubrovnik's cultural heritage. This book is a comprehensive history of Dubrovnik's progress over twelve centuries of European development, encompassing arts, architecture, social and economic changes, and the traumas of war and politics.