| Vincenzo Duplancich | |
| Birth Date: | 15 August 1818 |
| Birth Place: | Zara, Austrian Empire (today Zadar, Croatia) |
| Death Place: | Milan, Kingdom of Italy |
Vincenzo Duplancich (Croatian: Vicko Duplančić; 15 August 1818 – 16 September 1888) was a Dalmatian Italian journalist, writer, politician, and nationalist.[1] [2] He promoted Italian culture and the preservation of Italian identity in Dalmatia, firmly opposing the annexation of the latter to Croatia.[3] He was active during and within the Risorgimento.[2]
He was born in Zadar (at the time Austria-Hungary, today Zadar, Croatia), the son of Antonio and of Antonia Amadeo Fabri. He was born into a well-to-do family.[4] After attending, and completing, high school in his hometown, he renounced to pursue his studies at the university.[4]
He studied literature, history, economy as an autodidact. In 1845, he refused to work for the journal La Dalmazia of abbot Fransceschini.[4]
Duplancich was elected librarian of Zadar's new public library,[4] formed from the bequest of Pier Alessandro Paravia,[4] and went on to transform it in one of the most important libraries of Dalmatia.[3]
He was one of the first to join the guardia nazionale in Zadar, and was praised for his service during the short duration thereof.[4]
Duplancich remarked on the distinction present in Dalmatia between the Italian man living in the cities and the Slav (Croatian) living in the hinterlands and the fields, emphasizing the cultural superiority of the Latin and Italian civilization in respect of that of the Slav. Duplancich identified Dalmatian culture with Italian culture, and "separated and distinguished Slavism from the Italian spirit." His views were shared only by a few Italian Dalmatians and a small number of supporters of the liberal autonomist movement.[5]
However, he is also credited with publishing journals that promoted the preservation of the woods[4] and the study of the Slavic language,[4] promoting collaboration between Italians and Slavs in his native Dalmatia,[4] and defending the Slavs and the culture of the Slavs, of whom he praised the intelligence.[4] [6] He was an autonomist for Dalmatia, and while he opposed the union of Dalmatia to any Croatian or Slavic-speaking country,[4] he also worked to the reconciliation of Slavs and Italians, or the peaceful coexistence of the two.[4] Duplancich put at the center of his project the Italian and Italian-speaking elite.[4] He collaborated to the creation of the weekly La voce dalmatica, promoting collaboration between Italians and Croatians, which was criticized notably by Niccolò Tommaseo.[4]
He was one of the founders of the paper La voce dalmatica in 1860, which soon became associated with the Autonomist Party. In 1861, he was elected a deputy in the Diet of Dalmatia. Because of some of his writing in the La voce dalmatica, in 1863 he was charged with treason, so he moved to Milan.[7]