“Neither a peasant nor a gentleman”: Vladimir Ardali？, commissioner and honorary founder of Croatian Antiquarian Society, in correspondence with Lujo Marun

Sa？etak Vladimir Ardali？ was one of the most prolific associates of the Croatian Antiquarian Society and the only member who was ever named honorary founder for his archaeological contributions. This paper, almost entirely based upon Ardali？’s 488 unpublished letters intended for Lujo Marun and dated between 1893 and 1917, investigates his role as a sort of a rural “renaissance man” of the Dalmatian fin de siècle, who acted as an intercessor between the rural peasantry of Bukovica which had access to valuable early medieval archaeological objects and locations, and the First Museum of Croatian Monuments which had the means and desire to procure these objects and to organize archaeological excavations at many of these sites