DIPLOMATIC CEREMONIAL -- AN ESSENTIAL COMMUNICATION FORM IN NEGOTIATIONS REGARDING THE EXPANSION OF THE DUBROVNIK BORDERS

The paper tackles the issue of the importance of diplomatic ritual and ceremonial in sending messages and creating the outcome of the negotiations regarding the expansion of the Dubrovnik territory at the end of the 14th century and in the first half of the 15th century. The composition and size of the embassy its level of equipment, clothes the ambassador wore, presents for chosen persons, their seeing-off and return to the city, formal speech, titles used, gestures, non-verbal communication, the place of the welcome of foreign ambassadors and their reception carried symbolic messages that expressed and formed a complex system of a social web of power and the relations of authorities, provided a recognisable identity to the parties in negotiations, and expressed the state ideology of the authority. The people of Dubrovnik confirmed their knowledge of the dominant ritual and ceremonial forms, which they knew how to adapt to their own interests and to the given historical moment. Adapted from the source document.