At the end of August, the collection Where the Sea Begins. Essays on the History of Lastovo was published, a new book by the Institute of History of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences (HAZU) in Dubrovnik. The collection was edited by Vedran Stojanović and brings together ten scholarly works at the intersection of history, ethnology, and anthropology.
The central focus of the book is Lastovo, one of the most remote Croatian islands, with insularity serving as the fundamental interpretative framework for the collection. In the introductory essay Perspectives of Insularity between Isolation and Connectivity: The Example of Lastovo, Vedran Stojanović addresses the question of how to understand an island that is simultaneously isolated yet connected to spaces across the sea.
The historical contributions cover the period from the Middle Ages to the present. Zdenka Janeković Römer has written the study Lastovo, the Lastovians, Traditions and Changes in Island Life in Turbulent Times, while Nella Lonza has authored the work Late Medieval Wills in Nine Images. Vedran Stojanović has explored the theme Lastovo through the Eyes of Outsiders (from the 15th to 18th centuries), and Lovro Kunčević has written about the 1635 conspiracy against the Republic of Dubrovnik involving Ivan Luke Anta.
Health conditions and social dynamics on the island are addressed by Vesna Miović in her study Defence against the Plague in the Republic of Dubrovnik: The Example of Lastovo and by Irena Ipšić in her work Land Ownership Structure and Social Relations on the Island of Lastovo according to the 1660 Cadastre. The ethnological and anthropological contributions include a study by Jelena Obrad Mošaš The Lastovo Kolenda: Deep in the Souls is this Joy, a work by Marko Rašić and Ljiljana Mark that examines social connections and relationships through the institution of godparenthood, and a final study by Jasna Čapo The House as a Promise of the Future: Emigrants, Returnees, and Transnational Connections.
All the works were produced within the framework of the Little History Festival, which has been held continuously on the island of Lastovo since 2022. The festival is organised by the Institute of History of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences in collaboration with the Municipality of Lastovo and the Lastovo Tourist Board. The Institute has for more than seven decades systematically researched and promoted the history of Dubrovnik and the Republic of Dubrovnik.
