Owing to her position between the Italian and Slavonic elements, and her connections with Venice and with the Serb States, Ragusan literature was of a twofold, or indeed of a threefold, nature. There were Ragusans who wrote in Latin, others in Italian, and others in Slavonic. But so mixed was the character of the people that in many instances the same author composed works in all the three languages. “Dalmatia, and especially Ragusa, which represents the highest degree of Slavonic culture, shows at the end of the Middle Ages a peculiar and characteristic blend of Italian and Slavonic elements, which even to-day is a remarkable trait of this people.”[526] Venetian influence strengthened the original Latin element of the population, and most of the nobles had Italian names, although later these were given a Slavonic form as well. Thus Gondola is sometimes written Gundulić, Palmota, Palmotić, Bona Bunić, &c. The collapse of Venetian power in Dalmatia in 1358 opened the way to Slavonic influences, for Hungary was too alien to the Dalmatians to impress more than her political sovereignty on them. But Latin and Italian culture was maintained by the side of that of the Slaves, and indeed the Slavonic literature at Ragusa was wholly inspired by that of Italy. “Under the influence of peculiar historical conditions there arose on the Serbo-Croatian littoral an important poetical literature, of which Ragusa was the centre, and the pure vernacular the organ.”[527] It had, however, no connection with the old Slavonic tradition or the Servian popular songs, but was based almost exclusively on Italian influences, for Ragusan culture was purely of Italian origin, and the conditions utterly unlike those of the people of the neighbouring Slavonic States. The literary movements and forms of Italy were all reflected at Ragusa, and thus we find specimens of Latin ecclesiastical literature, of the Provençal troubadours, of Renaissance culture and the revival of learning. In the Ragusan epic Italian influence is conspicuous, and also in the native lyric poetry, which is chiefly inspired from Petrarch’s _Canzoni_; while the Ragusan dramas are imitated from the mediæval mystery plays, the pastoral plays of Tasso, and Italian popular comedies. Even the so-called “macaronic” verses were adopted at Ragusa, _i.e._ a medley of dog-Latin and Slavonic. The outward forms of Italian literary life were copied no less than literary styles, and learned literary academies were established at Ragusa, where men of culture met to discuss their favourite topics. The city came to be known as the “Slavonic Athens.” Learned Italians were invited to lecture at Ragusa, for the Senate maintained chairs of Italian and Latin literature since the early fifteenth century. The study of Greek had been to some extent kept up owing to the old Byzantine tradition, and it was now promoted by the influx of learned Greeks who took refuge at Ragusa after the fall of Constantinople.