Vice Bune

Izvor: Хорватская Викиславия

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1 DEFICIENT - TO ELABORATE

DEFICIENT - TO ELABORATE

Vice Bune (1559-1612) had been a Dalmatian chaptain and diplomatic officer, and the earliest documented oceanic explorer from actual Croatia in the era of overseas discoveries. In 16th century he was the first one from Europe sailing in Bismarck Archipelago and New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), and then he iteratively also visited Philippines from 1580 to 1598.

Life and travels

V. Bune was born in Lopud island on southeastern Adriatic Sea, and he teached his schools in nearby port Dubrovnik. Then as young, during the kings Philippe II and Philippe III he became the ambassador of Dubrovnik Principality at Spanish court, because in 16th and 17th century Dubrovnik was an oversea ally of Spain. As a professional chaptain in Spanish service, he travelled to India in Goa, where at Sao Blaz was the commercial emporium of Dubrovnik.

In Goa he equipped his "Caraca" (major oversea galley built in Dubrovnik) and with his Dalmatian seamen he sailed in 1580 across Indian Ocean to Philippines (the old Dalmatian name of these islands was Skopye-Kulapne). There he provided iteratively his galley for longer expeditions in yet unexplored offing of southwestern Pacific Ocean, where he explored the hardly known islands and archipelagos of Melanesia (by his seamen firstly named in Dalmatian as Sadritye-Polnebne).

From Philippines he sailed firstly southwards and along northeastern and eastern shores of New Guinea, where he discovered and named a dozen of minor nearshore isles. Then he continued sailing into Pacific offing, visited the Bismarck Archipelago, and then reached Solomon Islands (Saloma); his seamen established there a Dalmatian emporium in Velakula island. Between 1994 and 1997, he continued further in yet unexplored Southwest Pacific; he was there the first one from Europe that discovered and explored dozen islands of New Hebrides, where finished his Pacific expeditions at Matas isle in 1597.

Then he travelled back and via Philippines anew in Spanish service, he went in 1598 to Mexico where he was shortly the Spanish governor, and then Spanish ambassador in Belgium. For dozen years from 1600 he was in Italy as the ambassador of Dubrovnik in the court of Napoli Principality. He died there on November 12, 1612, and he was buried in his native island of Lopud in Dalmatia.

The documentation on his office and travels so far persisted chiefly in the archives of Dubrovnik Principality, and partly also in Spanish archives. The lingual traces of this navigation persisted also in many local toponyms of Melanesia (from New Guinea to Vanuatu); there at least a fourty of minor isles and capes, and two volcanoes, up today bring the Dalmatian names of Chakavian type, mostly identical to these ones in Adriatic Archipelago. Moreover, the Melanesian aborigine apellation of Pacific offing as Kula-Kula is nearly identical to the typical Dalmatian name of oceanic offing as kulaf-kulap.

References

Archivium historicum Principati Rhagusii, saeculum XVI (Dubrovnik)

F.M. Appendini: Notizie istorico-critiche sulle antichita, storia e letteratura dei Ragusei, vol. II, Ragusa (Dubrovnik) 1803 (V. Bune: p. 201-203)

E. Ambrosius: Andrees allgemeine Handatlas, Auflage VIII/5 (Karten 216-224). Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld und Leipzig 1930 (V. Bune's Pacific toponyms are in parentheses)

V. Foretic: Vice Bune, navigator from Dubrovnik (in Croatian). Nautical Encyclopedia, vol. I: p. 651, Lexicographic Institute, Zagreb 1972

J. Luetic: Vice Bune, navigator and ambassador. Annals of Historical Institute, vol. 1, Dubrovnik 1952.

J. Tadic: Spain and Dubrovnik in 16th century (in Serbian). Beograd 1932 (V. Bune: p. 134-136)

G. Milazzi & M. Yoshamya: Ancient origin of Croatian sailing and naval migrations. Proc. 1st Symp. 'Old-Iranian origin of Croats', 461-473, Iran Cultural Center, Teheran 1999.

M. Rac, M.H. Mileković et al.: V.B. Petrov and other Croatian navigators in medieval oceans. Proc. 3 scient. symposia 'Early Croats' (2001-2006), 820 p., ITG - Zagreb 2007.