Split
The central figure in the Split humanist circle was Mark Marulić (Marcus Marulus, 1450–1524), known in Europe for his Latin morality tales and didactic works: Making Merry: Lives and Examples of the Saints (De institutione bene vivendi per exempla sanctorum, 1506; also known by its fourth title in 1530: Making Merry and Blessed in Life—De institutione bene vivendi beateque) and Evangelistarium (1516). 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 (Bernardus Claravallensis, 1090–1153), 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 Zadranin Kožičić Benja Simon (Simon Begnius, ca. 1460–1536) wrote to Pope Leo X about the devastation in Croatia (De Croatiae desolatione, 1516); this letter is reminiscent of Marulić's anti-Turkish letter to Pope Adrian VI (Epistola ad Adrianum Pontifice maximum VI, 1522). These letters were only a few in a series addressing concerns in Western Europe about the preservation of antemuralia Christiana ("the first Christian works").
Marulić's chief Latin work was Davidijada (Davidias, written between 1506 and 1516). 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 (Vincentius Priboevius, 15th-16th century), who focused on the origins of the Slavs. De origine successibusque Slavorum (1532) is the first work in Croatian literature promoting the idea of Pan-Slavism.
Read more about this topic: Croatian Latin Literature
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