Ragusan Malmsey, once famous, has disappeared before the vine-disease since 1852.

The history of Ragusa has been thus summarized by Mr Freeman :—“Those hills, the slopes of which begin in the streets of the city, once fenced in a ledge of Hellenic land from the native barbarians of Illyricum. Then they fenced in a ledge of Roman land from the Slavonic invader. Lastly they still fence in a ledge of Christian land from the dominion of the infidel.” The city was founded on a rocky island by Roman Christian refugees from Epidaurus (now Ragusa Vecchia, 675 inhabitants), in the middle, say some, of the 3d century after Christ; and in the middle of the 7th century it was strengthened by other refugees from Salona, destroyed by the Slavs. In course of time a Slavic settlement was incorporated within its walls; and thus by language and sympathies it became a link between two great civilizations. Ragusa 1 maintained its independence against all comers partly by war but more by diplomacy. In the 9th century it more than once repulsed the Saracens, and in the 10th defended itself against Venice, the pirates of the Narenta, Samuel (czar of the Bulgarians), and the emperor Otho; in the 11th century it was drawn by its alliance with Robert Guiscard into a war with Byzantium and Venice, and in the 12th century fought with the ban of Bosnia and with Stephen Nemanya of Servia, who twice invested the city. But its policy wa3 generally peaceful. To refugees of all nations, even to those who had been its own bitter foes, it afforded asylum; and by means of treaty and tribute it gradually worked its way to a position of mercantile power which Europe could hardly parallel. A compact Avhich it made with the Turkish ruler at Broussa in 1370 was renewed by Bajazet in the 15th century and saved the little state from the fate of her most powerful neighbours, Byzantium and Servia. By that time Ragusa had stations at Serai, Bucharest, Tirgovisce, Widdin, Rustchuk, Sophia, and Adrianople; and her vessels were known not only in Italy, Sicily, Spain, Greece, and the Levant, but in the more northern parts of Europe. Our own language retains in the word “ai־gosy” a relic of the carracks of Ragusa, then known to Englishmen as Argouse, Argusa, or Aragosa. As the world widened the Ragusan merchants went farther,—to India, even, and America. But the finest vessels of their fleet were compelled to join the Spanish Armada and shared its fate; and the city, which had felt shocks of earthquake in 1520, 1521, 1536, and 1639, Avas in April 1667 laid utterly in ruins and lost a fifth of its inhabitants. “The rector of the republic, five-sixths of the nobles, nine-tenths of the clergy, a Dutch ambassador Avith his suite of thirty-three on his Avay to Constantinople, and 6000 citizens Avere buried.” Ragusa never quite recovered its prosperity, though it Avas again a busy trading toAvn of 15,000 inhabitants when Napoleon seized it in 1806. In 1808 it Avas deprived of its independence; and by the congress of Vienna in 1814 it was assigned to Austria. This is not the place to describe the remarkable literary development, Latin, Italian, and Slavonic, of Avhich Ragusa Avas the centre in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, and to which so many of its patricians contributed; a detailed account will be found in Pypin and Spasovich’s History of Slavic Literatures (German edition, 1880). Gondulic (Gondola) the poet and Boscovich the mathematician are leading names.

See Engel, Geschichte von llagusa (Vienna, 1807); Makusheff, Investigations into the Historical Documents of Ragusa (in Russian, St Petersburg, 1867); Monumenta hist. Slavorum meridionalium (AVarsaAV, 1864); Appending Notizie storico-crit. sulle antichità, &c., dei Ragusei (Ragusa, 1802-3); Sir Gardner AViikinson, Dalmatia ; A. A. Paton, The Danube and Adriatic ; J. A. Evans, Thro' Bosnia and the Herzegovina , 1S76; E. A. Freeman, Subject and Neighbour Lands of Venice, 1881.

RAGUSA a city of Italy in the province of Syracuse (Sicily), 16 miles east of Vittoria and 10 north-north-Avest of Modica, lies on the right side of the valley of the Ragusa or Erminio (Herminius). It consists of an upper toAvn Avith 24,183 inhabitants and a lotver toAATi with 6260 (1881), the two communes having a total population of 30,720. The church of Santa Maria della Scala is in part modern, but in part of considerable antiquity and interest ; and San Giorgio contains the tomb of Bernardo Caprera (ob. 1423), who tried to seize the crown of Sicily. Ragusa possesses a large cotton-factory. Stone impreg nated with petroleum is quarried in the Grotta Oleosa in the neighbourhood, and after the oil is burned out becomes an article of export under the name of pietra nera. The city, which Avas destroyed by earthquake in 1693, is of considerable antiquity, as is proved by the numerous ancient tombs existing in the district; but whether it is to be identified Avith Hybla Herma is matter of opinion.

The name, of unknoAvn origin, appears as Rhaugia, Rhaugium,

Rhausium, Ragusium, Lavusa, Labuda, Labussedum, &c.