The Study Room (Studio) in the Ragusan Houses of the First Half of the Fifteenth Century

Sa？etak Woodwork contracts made in the period 1425-1435 provide valuable evidence on the interior space and decoration of the Ragusan houses. The furnishing determined the purpose of each room in the house, among which was a studio or study. This word may denote a separate room as well as a piece of furniture consisting of a writing desk, seat and bookshelves. A parallel has been established between the Ragusan houses of the period - where the study room was usually on the first or on one of the upper floors - with the house of a “perfect merchant” as described in the treatise of a Ragusan Benedikt Kotrulj from 1458. With regard to terminology, he distinguishes a “common scriptorium appropriate for business affairs” (scriptore or scrittoio comune), which is on the first floor, from a “small scriptorium” (scriptoreto separato or studiolo aparte), which is in the “bedroom or adjoining”, its purpose being to accommodate those “who take pleasure in books”