Colloquia Maruliana ..., Vol. 4 , 1995.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
The Historical Role of the Evangelistarium and the De institutione in the 16th Century
Franz Leschinkohl
Sažetak
Carrying on his investigation of the presence of Marulić’s books in German libraries (see: Colloquia Maruliana III), the author produces some new data. Namely, according to his latest results the total of 513 copies of Marulić’s books are kept in 80 libraries across Germany (Fig. 1).
Judging from the frequency with which his works were put out in Germany be-tween 1529 and 1532, these years could be called Marulić’s “Golden Age”. In single two years, 1529 and 1532, no less than six Köln editions of the Evangelistarium appeared (Figs. 3, 4, 5); in the same period the De institutione was printed twice, in 1530 and 1531. The author claims that such a demand for Marulić’s works in Germany in the first decades of the 16th century must have had some deeper motive. And really, the years in question were not only the flourishing period of the printing art, but also the time of great religious fervent. Among the first to realize the power of the printed word was Martin Luther, who engaged several printers to work simultaneously on his books. One of them was Adam Petri who in Basle, in 1513, printed Marulić’s De institutione and in 1519 the Evangelistarium. The author suggests that the series of consecutive printing of Marulić’s works in the early 30s should be viewed in light of the growing number of Luther’s editions. It seems that the two books by Luther printed in 1529, the Big Catechism and the Small Catechism were the drop that filled the cup: The Catholic Church felt forced to react and, in all probability, Marulić’s Evangelistarium was assigned the role of the Catholic shield against Luther’s teaching.
The chart (Fig. 7) clearly shows the link between the diffusion of Marulić’s books in Germany and the contemporary religious fervent. In the provinces which remained faithful to the Catholic Church, i.e. in the south and the west, in 42 towns 388 copies of Marulić’s books have been found. At the same time northern and eastern Germany, where the power-holders accepted Luther’s teaching, show significant blanks. The author has found Marulić’s books only in 15 towns, and the total number of copies is 125.
In the second part of the article the author describes the life and missionary work of St Francis Xavier (according to the book by Otto Schurhammer). Namely, the famous saint always carried two books on his voyages (Fig. 9): the usual Breviary for priests and Marulić’s De institutione. According to Schurhammer, Marulić’s book influenced the saint’s life and his treatment of people. Also it provided him with spiritual refection during his missionary travels and it gave him material for his sermons. That St Francis never separated from the two books witness his letters, as well as the annotations that two famous missionaries in the east, Gil de la Mata and Juan de Cardenas, entered on the saint’s copy of the book after his death. In later times the saint’s copy was kept in the house of those consecrated to the Company of Jesus in Madrid, but was lost in a fire, along with the rest of the library of inestimable value, in the Spanish Civil War. However, it is known that the copy in the saint’s possession was the Köln edition of 1531 under the title Marci Maruli opus de religiose uiuendi institutione per exempla ex ueteri nouoque testamento collecta (Fig. 8).
Another witness to the role that Marulić’s De institutione played in the mission-ary campaign in the Far East would be the book Sanctos nogosagveono..., printed in Japanese but in Latin characters, in 1591 (Fig 10). According to the research work of some scholars (Charles Béné) the anonymous author of the book largely drew on Marulić’s De institutione. However, these claims could be ascertained only by a close examination of the copy of the mentioned book kept in the Biblioteca nazionale in Venice.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
9819
URI
Datum izdavanja:
22.4.1995.
Posjeta: 1.587 *