Marulić (Marulus, Marulo), Marko

MARULIĆ (Marulus, Marulo), Marko. - Croatian humanist, moralist and poet, of a noble family, b. at Split in 1450, d. there in 1524. He attended the University of Padua. He lived almost always at Split. After a carefree youth, around the age of 30 he withdrew and fully embraced the Christian conception of life, whose principles he also applied in his literary work, both Latin and Croatian.

Among his Latin works of moral-didactic content, the De institutione bene vivendi per exempla Sanctorum (Venice 1506) stands out. By 1686 the work had appeared in various European cities in 15 editions (here and there with the title changed), and it had many translations. St. Francis Xavier esteemed it so highly that on his missionary journeys, besides the Breviary, he carried with him only this work (cf. Epistolae s. Francisci Xaverii, II, 99ᵃᵈ, Rome 1945). He composed other works in Latin: Evangelistarium (1516); Quinquaginta parabolae (1510) and other minor writings, some of them of a historical character. Many other works of M. still remain in manuscript. Of the Dawidiade only a single canto is preserved.

M. is the author of the first work of art of the classical type in Croatian, Istoria svete udovice Judit u versih hrvacki složena in 6 cantos, written in 1501 and printed for the first time in 1521 at Venice. In narrating the biblical story of Judith the author has in mind the epic struggle of his people against the Turks, with the intention of stirring up their patriotic ardor in those tormented times.

M.'s Croatian poetic works were published at 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.

Ivan Vitezić