Nikola Vitov Gučetić

Nikola Vitov Gučetić (1549 to 1610), known in Italian as Nicolò Vito di Gozze, was a statesman, polymath and philosopher of the Republic of Ragusa, born in Ragusa, now Dubrovnik, into the noble Gučetić family. Educated in Dubrovnik and Italy, he was the central figure of the city's cultural life, owned probably its largest private library, and was elected Rector of the Republic seven times around the turn of the seventeenth century. Pope Clement VIII gave him an honorary doctorate in philosophy and a master's degree in theology. He wrote in Italian and Latin on love and beauty after Plato, on Aristotle's meteorology, on the state of republics according to Aristotle, and on penitence and the government of the family. His commentary on Aristotle's meteorology treats winds in caves and is counted among the first scientific dissertations on speleology. His wife Marija Gundulić-Gučetić was also a philosopher.