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Diplomatic activities were the main instrument used to achieve important foreign goals in the late medieval period of Ragusan history. City authorities put a lot of effort to have prompt and complete news based on which they consider their future decisions. The source of information, the moment and place of information occurrence, and the motives that drove an individual to spread gossip, rumor, fake or accurate news have been constantly critically questioned in the period marked by hyperproduction of information. This talk aims to explore the methods of information gathering and the management of their usage at the highest political level. At the heart of this speech lies an analysis of the information production, distribution, concealment, and trade connected with the Ragusan diplomatic activities in the late medieval period. The problems addressed in this study rely strongly on the 'communication network', paradigm understood as a channel for information exchange among its members. The analysis of how those networks were established and maintained is of particular interest, as well as power relations among their members regarding their closeness to the source of information. 'Communication space' is another significant concept that will be applied to interpret how the institutions created spatial unity through the economy, law, customs, administrative-bureaucratic apparatus, and urbanism, which created the foundations for establishing economic, social, religious, and cultural contacts. Based on the rich administrative records of the Republic of Dubrovnik, mostly seria Lettere e commissioni. Lettere di Levante, which preserves the instructions issued to the ambassadors that they were obliged to follow while performing entrusted duties, I will question the methods of information gathering, circulation, and espionage. The growing complexity of the late medieval world, the accelerated dynamics of changing power relations in the international political arena, and the frequency of contacts led to an enormous increase in secret information. Ragusan political authorities have developed elaborated strategies and manipulations that were a part of precisely developed information management that carried certain advantages and many dangers. The political authorities of Dubrovnik had the opportunity to choose to whom and what information they will share. However, the selective distribution of information and various manipulative strategies behind their usage carried a dose of risk that could raise many disputes and complicate the realization of important foreign goals. On the other hand, the practices of hiding information, lying, eavesdropping, leaking, and trading information have raised ethical issues such as loyalty and trust among individuals involved in long-lasting communication networks. |
