[Luko Stulli and His Endorsement of Vaccination in the Context of the Recent Coronavirus Pandemic].

In the context of the recent coronavirus pandemic, we wanted to highlight the importance of vaccination as one of the greatest medical achievements and the most effective preventive measure for protecting the population from infectious diseases. Over 200 years ago, the pioneer of vaccination in Dubrovnik, Luko Stulli, one of the most renowned physicians of the early 19th century, proudly and enthusiastically wrote about it. Immediately after the discovery of vaccination and inspired by this new medical method, he wrote a Latin poem in 1804 titled “Vaccinatio, carmen elegiacum” (Vaccination, an elegiac poem). This is probably one of the few poems in Croatian literature dedicated to a medical theme, and one of the last written in Latin. So far, three original printed copies have been found, and recently a fourth, printed in 1828, was discovered. Recent events related to the COVID-19 pandemic have once again sparked interest in Stulli’s Elegy, brought it into focus in discussions of vaccination and quarantine, and reaffirmed the value and universality of the views and messages expressed in this Latin poem, written in the spirit of classical poetics and the canon. Exactly 220 years have passed since the printing of the Elegy, yet doubts about the value and usefulness of scientific discoveries have not disappeared, nor has the distrust in medical science and vaccination as a civilizational achievement.