The work of Constantine Porphyrogenitus De administrando imperio (DAI) was first edited by Johannes Meursius in 1611.1 The title of the work cannot be considered quite appropriate, since it is not authorial, but given to it by its first editor, who based himself on its introduction.2 It is interesting that the learned humanists of the sixteenth century did not know this work, although two copies of DAI had been made between 1509 and 1529. The only exceptions in this respect were some Ragusan authors, who will be considered in the following discussion. But before we enter into an analysis of the use of the material from DAI by the Ragusan authors, we should say something about the fate of the known manuscripts of this work, for tracing their trajectories might give us some idea of how these writers came to the information contained in it.
