GUNDULIC, IVAN (FRANOV)

born Jan. 8, 1589, Dubrovnik, republic of Venice [now in Croatia] died Dec. 8, 1638, Dubrovnik Croatian poet and dramatist whose epic poem Osman (written 1626; first published 1826) was the outstanding achievement of the Renaissance flowering of art and literature that gave Dubrovnik the name of the South Slav Athens. A prolific writer, Gundulic also occupied various governmental positions in the Dubrovnik city-republic. Inspired in general by the Italian Renaissance and in particular by Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata, Gundulic's Osman describes the Ottoman sultan Osman II's defeat by the Poles at Khotin in Bessarabia (1621). The work comprises 20 cantos; cantos 14 and 15 are no longer extant.