Croatian Latin literature


Croatian Latin literature is a term referring to literary works, written in the Latin language, which have evolved in present-day Croatia since the 9th century AD. Since that time, both public and private documents have been written in a local variant of medieval Latin. Some works have been found which were written in a variant more closely resembling classical Latin.

Medieval period

Croatian Latin literature has been found in modern-day Croatia since the 9th century, and is evident from numerous epigraphs cast in stone and even more numerous in public and private writings; some are in verse. The sarcophagus of Peter the Black in the 11th century has an inscription pertaining to the transience of life written by the deacon Dabrus. A better-known example is the tombstone inscription of Vekenega, head of the Benedictine convent of St. Mary in Zadar. This inscription is written on four tablets with 20 verses, in which an unknown poet credits Vekenega's work for the convent. An inscription exists for the knez of Bribir,, consisting of 22 goliardic verses. There are also fragments of two inscriptions important in Croatian history: Knez Trpimir I and Queen Jelena of Zadar, starting with In hoc tumulo quiescit Helena famosa and ending with Icque aspiciens vir dic . The oldest document of a Croatian ruler is Trpimir's charter, the first record of a Croatian name in a Croatian document.
Traces of Latin in medieval Croatia date from the 9th century, in stone inscriptions and well-preserved public and private documents. Some of these inscriptions are in verse. On the sarcophagus of the Split nobleman Peter Black are 10 verses about the transience of life, drawn up by the deacon Beaver. Notable is the tomb inscription of the nun Vekenega, director of the Benedictine Convent of St. Mary in Zadar, with 20 verses in which an unknown poet celebrates her and the monastery. An inscription on the sarcophagus of Prince Mladen Subic in the Trogir Cathedral consists of 22 verses. Fragments are preserved, the two above of which are noteworthy.
From the 11th century, two charters of King Peter Krešimir IV of Croatia survive: a grant commemorating the foundation of the monastery of St. Mary in Zadar and a grant in which St. Grisogono of Zadar bestows the island of Maun, off the Dalmatian coast. Other documents are notary records : a statute from Split in 1240 and the Statute of Zagreb, composed by Zagreb Canon John Archdeacon Gorički and the oldest urbarium in Croatia. The Supetar kartular ; the second involves the Christmas story, depicting the Biblical Magi and their visit to Herod.
The medieval Croatian chronicles were written in Latin. The earliest preserved chronicle is that of a priest in Duklja from the mid-12th century; in the introduction, the author states that the chronicle was written in "Slav" and translated into Latin Libellus Gothorum or Sclavorum regnum). The author of the Chronicles was from Bar and called "Pop Dukljanin" by Croatian historian Ivan Lučić, who had it published as a contribution to his own work. Entitled Presbyter Diocleatis Regnum Sclavorum, the Latin text contains 47 chapters; however, the original "Slavic" version is lost. There is an old Croatian translation, which was compiled by an unknown author in the vicinity of Split. This was translated during the 16th century by Dmin Papalićev, who discovered the manuscript in the Makarska Riviera and copied it. This translation covers 23 chapters of the Latin original, describing the history of Croatia and adding five chapters on the reign of King Zvonimir and legends surrounding his death. The Papalićev transcript was then translated into Latin by Marko Marulić in 1510; this is the Latin translation which Lucius published in his aforementioned work. The Chronicle is divided into three parts: the genealogy of Slavic rulers, the legend of Vladimir the Great and the Dukljanska Chronicle from the 11th and 12th centuries. The historical value of the work is not great; the absence of a timeline, inventing and mixing of various historical figures and events and interpretations by later copyists significantly impede the work's historical basis.
During the 13th century Thomas Archidiaconus of Split, a clergyman and politician from a Roman family, wrote Historia Saloni in 1266. It presented in chronological order the life and work of the Archbishop of Split-Solin since Roman times, representing a valuable historical source for the eras of Krešimir IV and Zvonimir. This contemporary history vividly describes the inrush of the Tatars, conflicts between Split and Trogir and political disputes in the city.
The Siege of Zadar and Obsidio Jadrensis are two books by unknown authors from the 14th century. They are a detailed overview of Zadar in 1345–1346, when it was threatened by the Venetians over land and sea. The author of Obsidio Jadrensis is sympathetic to the Venetian cause, unlike the author of the Siege of Zadar. A verse chronicle of the earliest history of Dubrovnik, the Milecijeva Chronicle, is preserved in 91 hexameters.

Renaissance humanism

Due to its proximity to Italy, humanism had already reached the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea by the early 15th century. Beginning in the late 14th century, the philosophy began to appear in inscriptions by the local elite and traveling humanists in Croatia. At the end of the 15th century, Primorsky was under Venetian rule, while northern Croatia came under Habsburg rule in 1526–1527. Humanists from the coastal regions left in increasing numbers to study in Italy and other European countries and strengthen cultural ties with centers of European humanism. Humanists from northern Croatia primarily traveled to Budapest. Only Dubrovnik and its surroundings maintained relative independence until the Napoleonic era, and Croatian literature in Latin flourished until well into the 19th century.
The central figures of the Croatian circle in Buda were Archbishop Ivan Vitez of Sredna and his nephew Ivan Česmički, both of whom were educated in Italy. Česmički was a Latin poet, who established a scriptorium in Buda and a library in Pozsony in 1467. This library was modeled on the University of Bologna, and was the first institute of higher learning in the territory of Slovakia and Hungary. Česmički was considered the greatest Latin poet of his time outside Italy; Italians valued his education in Italy, he was prominent in Hungary as a feudal aristocrat and humanist, while the Croats cherished his Croatian origins. He influenced Hungarian, Croatian, Italian and primarily European Latin literature. His Latin poems were the best Latin poetry of 15th century— particularly his epigrams, which are simple, clear and reminiscent of Martial's. They explored the themes of love, argument, literary discussion and the naivety of pilgrims. His later epigrams are calmer, and often imbued with melancholy. Česmički also wrote an elegy which, although written in humanistic style, has many allusions to classical themes.

Zadar

Bishop Juraj Divnića was a historian and Latin poet who influenced Zadar-area humanists.

Šibenik

In Šibenik, the 15th-century Croatian humanist George Hafner published a book of poetry and three books of elegies, lyrical songs which were also the first Croatian incunable in 1477. This collection of elegiac poems explores the usual classical themes, but the poet also saepenumero Doloris cruciata affectus, as he says in the introduction, where he reflects on his suffering. His own deeply felt pain can best be seen in the elegy on the death of two brothers, one of whom fell Pro Patria pugnans, pro laribusque suis. In an elegy on fields laid waste in Šibenik, Hafner expressed sadness and outrage because at Turkish incursions into his home country. The poet would have to fight Pro and, fides sacra, et patria dulcis, pro and / sit vita mea dedit barbaricis viris. Three prose letters, sent to his friends, which were also included in the collection illustrate Hafner's classical leanings. The manuscript also featured a work about Illyria. Although he wrote exclusively in Latin Hafner praised the national language, especially its songs and proverbs.
The first humanistic educator in Šibenik was Antun Vrančić, uncle of the historian Faust. On his journeys, Vrančić collected Roman inscriptions in the Balkans. During a diplomatic mission in the Ottoman Empire with Flemish humanist A. B. Busbecqom in Ankara, he found autobiographical writing by Augustus ; this was later known as the Monument Ankara. Since its publication, the inscription has become known as the Codex Verantianus. In addition to histories and travelogues, Vrančić published a collection of elegiac poems in 1542 which examine love, life's joys and social events.

Trogir

Ćipiko Coriolanus was a humanist in Trogir who wrote a biography titled Maritime: Three Books on the Works of Commander Peter Mocenigo in 1477. Also from Trogir was Fran Trankvil Andreis, who studied at Dubrovnik, Padua and other Italian universities and in Vienna, Ingolstadt and Leipzig. His extensive scientific and literary works in Latin include discussions, dialogues, epistles and songs. Particularly interesting are an epistle depicting the situation in Hungary after the first Battle of Mohács and a letter of Pope Pius V, in which politicians sharply criticized the church. Parthenius also published a hexametric prayer-speech in 1518 at Augsburg, reminding Germans of the Turkish presence overshadowing Europe.

Split

The central figure in the Split humanist circle was Marko Marulić, known in Europe for his Latin morality tales and didactic works: Making Merry: Lives and Examples of the Saints and Evangelistarium. The first work was published in 15 editions and translated into Italian, French, German, Czech and Portuguese, while the second had nine editions and was translated into Italian. These were practical guidance on how believers could achieve a decent life with basic Christian virtues, written in the spirit of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a chief exponent of ascetic mysticism. Marulić also wrote in Croatian; although he was a Catholic, some of his teaching were considered reformist by church elders.
Marulić's contemporary Šimun Kožičić Benja from Zadar wrote to Pope Leo X about the devastation in Croatia ; this letter is reminiscent of Marulić's anti-Turkish letter to Pope Adrian VI. These letters were only a few in a series addressing concerns in Western Europe about the preservation of antemuralia Christiana.
Marulić's chief Latin work was Davidijada. This is a heroic-historical epic with distinctly Christian tendencies in 14 books and 6,765 hexametric verses. The theme is from the Old Testament, combined with Mediterranean humanism. The poem was written in a Virgilesque style in classical Latin, with additions of biblical and medieval Latin.
Another Croatian humanist was Vinko Pribojević, who focused on the origins of the Slavs. De origine successibusque Slavorum is the first work in Croatian literature promoting the idea of Pan-Slavism.

Dubrovnik

In Dubrovnik the oldest Latin poet was Elias Crijević, who wrote elegies, epistles, and an unfinished poem about Epidaurum. His best-known work was a cycle of love poetry dedicated to the Flavian Dynasty. While these poems demonstrated Crijević's classical influences, they also emphasized sensibility. He had a talent for describing natural beauty, and his poetry features descriptions of Lopud, Dubrovnik and Rijeka.
Crijević's fellow citizen and contemporary was James Bunić, who composed religious poetry. His short poem The Rape of Cerberus, written in his youth, is the oldest poem in Croatian literature. Another Christian poem, Christ's Life and Works, was a paraphrase of the Gospels and the first poem in New Latin literature on the life of Christ. This work, published nine years after Martin Luther's 95 Theses, embodied the spirit of the Reformation. A younger contemporary of Bunić was Damian Beneš, author of the epic poem De Morte Christi, which remained in manuscript form until its publication in 2006.
Secular literature also flourished in Dubrovnik. Historian Louis Crijević Tuberon emulated Sallustius and Tacitus in his picturesque descriptions of events, personalities, social and economic conditions over wide areas of Buda and Constantinople from 1490 to 1522. Due to Tuberon's harsh criticism of church policy, in 1734 his work was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
Philosopher George Dragišić hailed from Srebrenica in Bosnia; after initial training in Dubrovnik, he studied in Italy, Paris and at Oxford. In Florence, he became a member of the Platonic Academy and was noted as an expert in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. After 30 years stay in Italy he returned to his native Dubrovnik, soon returning to Italy. His philosophical works were written in Renaissance dialogue and sought religious reconciliation.

Istria and Kvarner

hailed from Labin in Istria, a humanist center home Flacius founded a radical school of thought, named "Flacianism" after him. Due to his uncompromising attitude, for the rest of his life he was persecuted by the Catholic Church. His theological, philosophical, historical and philological work is vast: he left more than 300 books and papers. His major works are the Witness of Truth Catalogue, which presented 650 witnesses, A Renegade from the Roman Church and The Key to the Scriptures, an encyclopedic Hebrew dictionary which became fundamental to the Protestant interpretation of the Bible.
Franciscus Patricius, from Cres, studied mostly in Padua; although the city was a center of Aristotelianism, he was inclined toward Platonism. After traveling around the Mediterranean, Patricius returned to Rome and became a professor of philosophy.
He wrote in Italian about poetry, rhetoric, philosophy, history, mathematics, geometry and medicine, but is best known as an anti-peripatetic philosopher. His work in Latin, Peripatetic Discussions emphasizes a pre-Socratic philosophy of nature and seeks to minimize the importance of Aristotle. In his New Philosophy of the General Patricius exposes his metaphysical conception of the world, based on several sources: Plato, the Stoics and Hermes Trismegistus. Since the biblical account of Genesis was substantially different from the teachings of scholastic Aristotelianism, the work was banned in 1594.

17th to 20th centuries

The transition between the humanist and classicist period began during the 17th century, with humanists becoming scientists. For about a century, epochal works appeared in Latin from representatives of the sciences and philosophy: Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz. Among the Croatian Latinists of this period was Stephanus Gradius, a Dubrovnik diplomat at the Roman Curia who was curator and director of the Vatican Library. He wrote treatises on philosophy, theology, mathematics and physics, and speeches and songs. Among Gradius' best-known poems is "Prejasne Venetian Republic", which explored the troubles faced by his native city in 315 hexameters, providing a striking description of the 1667 Dubrovnik earthquake.
Among 17th-century Latinists was Ivan Lučić 1604–1679), whose best-known work was The Kingdom of Dalmatia and Croatia, which provides an overview of Croatian history from prehistoric times to the 15th century supported by source material and illustrated with six maps. Lucius is considered the founder of Croatian historiography, and was involved in a dispute about the authenticity of Trimalhionove Feast by the Roman satirist Petronius, which was found in Trogir. Another historian of this era was Paul Ritter Vitezović ; although his best-known work, Revived was only 32 pages long, portions of his other historiographical works remain in manuscript.
During the 18th century, Latin was less a part of European literature; what Latin literature was still written lacked its previous creativity and thematic cohesion. However, in the Republic of Dubrovnik Latin literature flourished until its abolition by Napoleon in 1808. Cultural creativity revived after the earthquake and fire of 1667. Dubrovnik had no deep cultural ties with the rest of Croatia, preferring to remain in contact with the rest of Europe by retaining Latin as a lingua franca.
The last four prominent Croatian Latinists primarily lived and worked abroad. Georgius Ferrich, on the contrary, spent his life in his hometown. His first literary work was a version of the Psalms; first in hexameter, and then in lyrical verse. Since folk literature was popular, in 1794 Ferrich assembled a collection of 113 fables in Latin verse entitled Fabulae ab Illyricis adagiis desumptae. This work, along with correspondence with Johannes Müller and Julius Bajamonti during the late 18th century, is still extant. In these letters and poetry, Ferrich includes observations about local folklore. One of Müller's letters concerns translations of 37 folk songs, including "Hasanaginica". Ferrich compiled a collection of Latin translations of Slovenian poems, written in the spirit and style of folk poetry. Ferrich's interest in folk literature is a precursor of Romanticism. He also wrote many epigrams, and a verse on the Dubrovnik coast in 3379 hexameters, describing natural beauty, customs and historical events.
Raymond Rabbit is known primarily as a translator from Greek and an epigrammatic poet. He spent his life in Italy and was a member of the Roman Arcadia literary academy, established in 1690. His translation of Homer's Iliad into Latin verse, while flawed, is considered a valuable Homeric Latin translation. In addition to Homer, he translated the poet Theocritus and the Greek Anthology into Latin.
Rabbit's disciple and friend, Brno Džamanjić, published Ulysses in Latin verse in 1777. Like Rabbit, he was influenced by Virgil. Džamonjić wrote epic poetry, commemorative and educational elegies, epigrams and hexametric letters. Two short poems—"Echo" and "Airships" —established him as a Latin poet.
Mark Faustin Galjuf said of himself, "Sort Ragusinus, vita Italus, ore Latinus". Often persecuted because of his political activities, he wandered through Europe celebrated as an improviser of Latin verses. Džono Rastic was a satirist in Croatian Latinist poetry who was influenced by Horace, Virgil and Juvenal. He was a critic of the late Dubrovnik Republic, arguing that any evil came from outside Dubrovnik.
In northern Croatia, Matija Petar Katančić was the chief representative of Croatian literary classicism. He wrote poems in Latin, Croatian and Hungarian and was also known as a philologist, historian, archaeologist and numismatist. Katančić's seasonal Latin poems, influenced by Horace and published with his Croatian poems in the collection Autumn Fruits, demonstrated his mastery of classical verse. Two other works are attributed to him: a short note about Illyrian-language prosody and a booklet about Illyrian poetry and the laws of aesthetics. The former is the first attempt to develop principles for composing Croatian poetry in classical meter, and the latter discusses Croatian literature from the aesthetic point of view.
from Dubrovnik|alt=Yellowish painting of man with short hair in 18th-century dress, looking above the artist
Ruđer Bošković was one of the most distinguished East European writers of the 18th century. Versatile, equally creative in theoretical and practical scientific disciplines, he worked in the cultural and scientific centers of Europe. His theory of a single law of nature is presented in his Theory of Natural Philosophy. His poem about the solar eclipse and the moon explores the causes of these phenomena.
Bošković's countryman, Benedict Stay, lived in Italy after 1746. His philosophical poem, Six Books of Philosophy Poems, was written in his native Dubrovnik. This poem, of more than 10,000 verses, attempts to reconcile Descartes' work in philosophy and physics with Christian teaching. Known by his contemporaries as the new Lucretius. Encouraged by this success, in Rome Stay began to expound Newtonian philosophy and scientific discoveries in verse. The finished poem, with more than 24,000 lines, was entitled Ten Books of Philosophy in Verse.
During the 19th century, Latin literature began to disappear throughout Europe, and in the 20th century it almost completely disappeared. A Croatian Latinist of this period was Ton Smerdel, a classical philologist who has published seven books of Latin verse by modern neo-Latin poets.