Jorjo Tadić kao istoričar Jevreja u Dubrovniku

Abstract

Prema sopstvenoj izjavi, Jorjo Tadić se zainteresovao "pojavom Jevreja u Dubrovačkoj Republici, kao i organizovanjem njihove zajednice, njihovim radom, razvitkom i ulogom u životu Dubrovnika, pre svega proučavajući "izvore za ekonomska pitanja" koji su "naročito ... obilni, neiscrpivi": "njih sam, uglavnom, najviše i sakupljao u namjeri da ih jednom sredim i objavim". Tako je on i svoju obimnu monografiju Jevreji u Dubrovniku do polovine XVII stoljeća zamislio "kao poglavlje jedne veće buduće radnje o ekonomskom i kulturnom životu staroga Dubrovnika".

Among all the historians who have written about the social, economical and cultural life of the Jews settled in Dubrovnik, Jorjo Tadić occupies undoubtedly the most prominent and honoured place. He wrote several studies concerning the history of the Jews of Dubrovnik, first of all, the very voluminous monograph "The Jews in Dubrovnik until the middle of the 17th century" (Sarajevo 1937). Tadić's monograph on the Jews of Dubrovnik was the result of his many years‘ research work in the Archives of Dubrovnik. Tadić investigated for a rather long time, basing his studies particularly on the civil law acts, economic conditions and the social evolution of Dubrovnik. In the course of these investigations, he observed the phenomenon of the Jews of Dubrovnik and dwelt upon this subject in the period when the persecutions of Jews were started in some European countries, first of all in Germany. This outer impulse, however, did not influence Jorjo Tadić to complete his work too hastily and without detailed research work in the archives. Its scientific method consisted of founding his statements in the first place on facts taken over from the archival documents. In addition to this, he was constantly striving for a choice of data as wide as possible, to prove, if possible, every statement by means of facts of similar contents which occur repeatedly in the materials. In the activity, the Jews of Dubrovrrik developed until the middle of the 17th century he saw, first of all, their economical interest and the role they played in the trade of Dubrovnik. In fact, it is his merit that the existence and the functioning of the Jewish trading system in the Balkans have been observed and that the part played by the Jews of Dubrovnik in connecting this system to a similar one in the Mediterranean area, in the first place in Italy, has been examined. Jorjo Tadić investigated also the evolution of the Jewish colony in Dubrovnik, but he put the latter’s legal situation into the direct dependence on its role in the transit trade of this town. Jorjo Tadić’s monograph, however, is valuable from the point of view of cultural history, too, for he distinguished there in several) of the most prominent Jewish writers, connected with Dubrovnik, set forth data concerning their life, presented their respective characters and described their works to a sufficient extent. Jorjo Tadić acted as a modern historian thanks, among other things also to the fact that he expounded, basing himself on archival documents, individual aspects of the everyday life in the Jewish ghetto.