Herzegovina and Dubrovnik
Originally from Herzegovina, he belonged to a merchant family with connections to Dubrovnik. The name Raguzinsky derives from Ragusa, a name for that city.
THE LIFE OF COUNT SAVA
From Herzegovina
to imperial courts.
DIPLOMAT · MERCHANT · WRITER
Sava Vladislavich Raguzinsky combined commercial experience, knowledge of languages and diplomatic skill. His life's journey took him through Dubrovnik and Constantinople to the Russian court and China.
The Serbian Encyclopaedia gives 1668 as his year of birth, while noting that accounts of the year and place differ. He died in 1738.
In the service of Peter the Great
After his activities in Constantinople, he moved to Russia in 1705. He became a court councillor in 1710, taking part in the empire's diplomatic and commercial affairs.
Diplomatic mission to China
As an envoy of Catherine I, he took part in the negotiations and signing of the treaty on the Bura River, important to the demarcation of the Russian–Chinese border. He founded Troitskosavsk, present-day Kyakhta.
Books as a bequest
He encouraged a Russian translation of Mavro Orbini's work on the Slavs. In his will, he bequeathed books to the monasteries of Piva and Savina.
Final years
He died in 1738 and was buried in the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Source: Serbian Encyclopaedia — Željko Vujadinović: ‘Vladislavić Raguzinski, Sava’.
The coat of arms on this website is a contemporary symbolic composition of the Grand Lodge; it is not a reproduction of Count Sava's historical coat of arms.
1720 · VIVALDI'S DEDICATION
‘Truth on Trial’
Antonio Vivaldi dedicated his opera ‘Truth on Trial’ (La verità in cimento) to Count Sava Vladislavich Raguzinsky, a Serbian nobleman, diplomat and intelligence agent in the service of the Russian tsar. The 1720 libretto explicitly names the Count, an imperial councillor, as its dedicatee.
This dedication adds to our understanding of his connections with European cultural circles. The opera was first performed on 26 October 1720 at the Teatro Sant'Angelo in Venice.