Original scientific paper

A Contribution to Knowledge of the Versification of Croatian Latinists: The Frano Gundulić Collection of Poems in Latin

Leon Cvitić ; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
Tamara Tvrtković ; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb

Abstract

The manuscript collection of the Dubrovnik poet Frano Gundulić (1587–
1629) contains 169 poems in various metres. It is held in the Archives of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb (I a 55), under the title Francisci
Gondolae carminum et Junii Antonii Restii orationum liber. The author himself
divided the poems into five groups, if not entirely consistently: carmina, elegiae, emblemata, odae and epigrammata. The current paper provides a list of all the
poems, arranged according to these groups, with their titles, locations in the manuscript and number of lines. The first group – carmina – comprises 12 poems in
hexameters, mainly with religious topics, devoted to Christian saints, most often
to the Virgin Mary. On average, these poems are 140 lines long, although one of
them is damaged and incomplete. In group 2, the elegiae, there are 6 poems written
in elegiac couplets. Because of the later damage done to the manuscript, leaves
having been cut, only two couplets of one of the poems have survived, and only
the title of another. Most of the poems are devotional, although one was written
to mark the passing of the rector of the Dubrovnik Republic, Ivan Marinov Rastić
(obiit 1605). Then comes a list of 15 emblems or emblemata, five of which are in
elegiac couplets and one in phalaecian hendecasyllables. Mostly they consist of 8
lines, and all are devoted to the Blessed Virgin. The fourth group consists of 111
epigrams (epigrammata), the most numerous group of poems in the collection,
also devotional; they are written in elegiac couplets, with one poem each in phalaecian hendecasyllables and iambic trimeter. Outliers in terms of subject matter
are epigrams devoted to Konavle (epigram 101) and to the rector of the Republic
Ivan Marinov Rastić (epigram 65), The final group of poems in the manuscript,
discussed in the most detail, is that of the odes (odae), 25 of them. They too are
mainly religious, the most common subject matter being the lives of Christ and
the Virgin, with several encomiastic odes (in praise of Venice, the human mind,
harmony). The paper gives a review of the subject matter of each individual ode
and an accompanying brief commentary. The last section is given over to the metrical features of the poems in the ode group. All the poems are analysed in terms
of their metrical structures, revealing that the most featured is the Anacreontic ode
(6), followed by poems in the Sapphic stanza (5); in this group there are poems
written in seven other metres.

Keywords

Frano Gundulić; odes; Neo-Latin metrical structure; 17th century Neo-Latin poetry

Hrčak ID:

352793

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/352793

Publication date:

2.11.2026.

Article data in other languages: croatian

Visits: 0 *