A KALEIDOSCOPE OF FEMALE IMAGES IN THE 15TH AND 16TH CENTURY DUBROVNIK One of the Approaches to the Second Sex in Three Acts

Juxtaposing data from Dubrovnik studies based on archival material and Dubrovnik narrative sources, the paper points to the complexity of that urban community's cultural horizons during the 15th and 16th century with a special focus on women's history. The parallel existence of diverse frames of reference within which women's lives were conceptualised — legal, economic, social and cultural, ecclesiastic, humanistic — created a plurality of opinions, dialectics, ambivalence, non-consistency and conflict within the community. It shaped the complexity of the conceptual, value-judgmental and interpretative scope for research into various issues related to women such as understanding their role, conceptions within the community about the female character and body, and about femininity.