Dživo Frana Sorkočević

Who was Dživo Frana Sorkočević?

Dživo Frana Sorkočević, also Giovanni Francesco Sorgo, was a Ragusan lawyer, politician, diplomat and man of literature. He was a son of Pietro de Sorgo and Nicoletta de Gondola, grandchild of the great poet Ivan Gundulić. He tried his skill in translating Ovid and melodramas of Pietro Metastasio and Scipione Maffei, all still unpublished. He also rearranged Molière’s plays. Sorkočević’s translation of the first two cantos of Tasso’s epos Jerusalem Delivered is of minor acknowledgement and fragmentary preserved. Sorkočević’s versification in translate Tasso. It examines the metrical characteristics and the specific choice of thirteen-syllable verse. The examples of this verse pattern are to be found in the works of the Ragusa poets of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth century. Sorkočević’s motivation for the use of this verse is also studied here. As it is a verse of folk origin, Sorkočević’s translation of Tasso is a convenient subject for drawing a parallel between Croatian artistic and folk versification with which the last chapter of the article deals with. In addition to being a lawyer, politician, and diplomat.

Dživo Sorkočević also delved into the field of literature - much as many other men from Dubrovnik of his standing and education did. Although his literary accomplishments involved few original works, he did many translations.