MARULIĆ (Marulus, MARULO), MARKO. — Croatian humanist, moralist, and poet, of noble family, born in Split in 1450, died there in 1524. He attended the University in Padua. He lived almost always in Split. After a carefree youth, around the age of thirty he withdrew and fully embraced the Christian conception of life, whose principles he also applied in his literary work, both in Latin and Croatian.
Among his Latin works of moral-didactic content, the *De institutione bene vivendi per exempla Sanctorum* (Venice 1506) stands out. Until 1686, the work was published in various European cities in 15 editions (sometimes with altered titles) and had many translations. St. Francis Xavier esteemed it so highly that, on his missionary travels, he carried it with him alongside the Breviary (cf. *Epistolae s. Francisci Xaverii*, II, 99° 2, Rome 1945). He composed other Latin works: *Evangelistarium* (1516); *Quinquaginta parabolae* (1516); and other minor writings, some of historical character. Many other works by M. remain unpublished in manuscript form. Only one canto survives of the *Davidiade*.
M. is the author of the first classical-style work of art in Croatian, *Istoria svete udovice Judit u versih hrvacki složena in 6 canti*, written in 1501 and first printed in Venice in 1521. In narrating the biblical story of Judith, the author had in mind the epic struggle of his people against the Turks, with the intention of stirring patriotic fervor in those troubled times.
Marulić’s Croatian poetic works were published in Zagreb in 1869 under the title *Pjesme Marka Marulića* in the collection *Stari pisci hrvatski*, I, under the care of the Croatian Academy; some poems are of doubtful authenticity.