The most celebrated of all the Ragusan poets is Ivan Gundulić or Giovanni Gondola (1588-1638). Very little is known of his life beyond the fact that he studied the classics, philosophy, and law, and that he was a great admirer of Italian literature. He desired to introduce the harmony of Italian verse into Illyrian, and to purify that language. He preferred the style of Tasso, which he closely imitated, to that of Petrarch, till then the favourite model of Ragusan poets. Instead of a line of ten, eleven, twelve, or thirteen syllables, he adopted that of eight, in rhymed strophes, which he deemed more fluid and vigorous, capable of expressing feelings with greater power, and more in accordance with the genius of the language. His first essay was a translation of Tasso’s _Gerusalemme_, after which he devoted himself to the drama, composing or translating from the Italian a number of plays, which he and a circle of literary friends produced on the stage. The chief of these are _Dubravka_, _Arijadna_, _Armida_, and _Galatea_. But the work on which his fame chiefly rests, and is regarded as the most important composition in the Servian language, is the _Osman_, an epic in twenty cantos. The subject is the war between Turkey and Poland, and the fall of the Sultan Osman after his defeat. The Polish victory of Koczim in 1621 forces the Turks to make peace, and the action of the poem begins at this moment. After the defeat of the Turks Osman deplores the disaster and attributes it to the decadence of the Ottomans, and proposes a number of reforms. He orders the arrest of his uncle Mustafa, who had already usurped the throne once, sends Ali to Warsaw to sue for peace, and Cislar to the provinces to find a number of fair damsels, from among whom he will choose the Sultana, and orders that the Polish prisoner, Prince Koreski, immured in the Castle of the Seven Towers, shall be carefully watched. Ali goes through Moldavia, where he finds Kronoslava, Koreski’s wife, attired as a warrior, and tells her of the imprisonment of her husband. She resolves to go to Constantinople in disguise to obtain his ransom. The Poles celebrate the anniversary of the victory of Koczim, when Prince Ladislas of Poland has an encounter with Sokolica, the daughter of the Grand Mogul, and her amazons; he captures them, but out of admiration for their courage sets them free, and they return to Constantinople. Ali reaches Warsaw and enters the Royal Palace, where he notes the splendour of the court and sees the tapestries representing the battle of Koczim, here described in detail. He concludes the treaty of peace and returns home. Cislar has collected a number of maidens from Greece, Macedonia, and the Archipelago, and goes to the borders of Moldavia to capture Danica, the daughter of Prince Ljubidrag, who, having lost his estates, is living in a rural retreat. While he and his friends are performing rustic games, Cislar and his companions arrive and carry off Danica.