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JURAJ JULIJE KLOVIĆ HRVAT — GEORGIUS IULIUS CLOVIUS CROATA (1498 — 1578)
Ivan Golub
Abstract
In spite of a voluminous bibliography on Juraj Julije Klović
(1498 — 1578), there are nevertheless periods in his l ife which
cannot be accounted for, contacts that have not been explored,
and archival holdings not yet looked into. The aim of the present
essay is to fill up this gap in part,
There is first the problem of what the Croatian name of
Georgius Iulius Clovius was. As there is no signature by his
own hand nor a contemporaneous written record of his surname
in a Croatian variant, there have been a series of attempts to
reconstruct from the Latin and Italian variants (Clovius, Clovio)
the Croatian form of Klović's surname, Upon which in Klović's
own native country was sought a name that might be most
closely related to Klović's. Thus for the Croatian from of Clovius's
surname the once or presently existing names in Klović's
native country were suggested: Glović, Gobić, Kovičić, Klarić.
The Croatian surname Klović is not to be found in the written
records of the time in Klović's natlve country, As Klović's surname occurs in his time also in the forms of Glovis and Glavis,
this essay raises the query whether Klović's surname in Croatian
could have signified something that in its root concealed
the meaning of key , s o that it was actually first translated
into Latin es Clavis, which then, on account of the Italian eu.
phony, passed into Clovio, which is possibly corroborated by
Klović's cryptogram in Missal I. de Topusko. Or it may be that
the ending of the surname in -ls, which is foreign to latinized
Croatian surnemes, is actually a Greek or Grecized form. To
be more explicit, Klovlć's father was a Macedonian«, and in
the period under discussion it was possible to Include under
this appellation also people of Greek, Albanian and Slavic nationalities,
The existence of the Greek surname Klovius is noted
by the Vatican Codex Vat. Graco 109, f. 79. The recently
rediscovered charter of Cardinal Marin Grimani from 1538 brings
Klović's surname in the form of Clerouichius, a form whicT,
however, might have been the scribe's error, for the word preceding the surname was clericus, so that -er in the surname
might have been taken from the preceding word by error,
in which stead .Clouichius ought to have stood, to which In
Croatian Klović or even Klovičić would correspond. It may also
be that the form Clerouichius represents the Macedonian.
or Greek root of Klović's surname. At any rate, of all Croatian
and Greek variants of Klović's surname that have been obtained
through a recroatization or regrecization of the latinized forms
of Klović's surname, the advantage goes to the variant Klović .
The author of the present essay suggests that Klović be
called both by the surname Klović and by the artistic name by
which he was known in the time in which he lived, to wit: Don
Iulius Croata, similarly as Pietro Vanucoi was Pietro Perugino,
and Paolo Cagliari Paolo Veronese. Thus in Croatian Clovius
would be called thus: Juraj Julije Klović Hrvat (Croata).
On his pictures Klović also signed himself as a Croat
(Croata), and as a Macedonian (Macedo). The author of the
essay sees no contradiction whatever in this, for Klović, as he
had declared in his last will, was of a Macedonian father and
.an Illyrian (Croatian) mother . As the artistic name, however,
the word »Hrvat « (Croat) prevailed.
The only written record on Klović's birthplace occurring in
the second edition of Vasari's .Le vite., from i568, states that
Klović was born in the province of Croatia, in the diocese of
Modruš, .in una villa detta Grisone . On the ground of studies
on Vasari's • Le vite «and investigations on his literary legacy,
the author of the present essay has established that Vasari
must for certain have obtained Klović's biographic data either
from Klović himself, or that they must have been authorized
by Klović himself. To put i t more exactly, in the t ime when
Vasari's »Le vite. had come into being, Klović was in connection
with the author of »Le vite, Vasari, and with Vicenzo Borghini
and Silvano Razzi, the correctors of the manuscript of
Le vite . Taken all in all, the disputes regarding the reliability
of Vasari's biographic data on Klović are quite graundless, According
to Vasari, Klović's birthplace would be Grižane in Croatia,
in the diocese of iModruš (which today is united with the
srchdiocese of Rijeka. If under the name .villa detta Grisone.
are to be understood the castle and estate of Griže, owned
by the Frankopana or the Trsat Franciscans, then the tradition
which still today lives in Klović's native country and which
says that »a Friar and Frankopan. had discovered a gifted boy
whom they gave an education, is quite understandable. If little
Juraj Julije was born on a feudal estate, as a commoner naturally,
this too would be in accord with the tradition according
to which Klović was a child of poor parents who toiled on other
people's soil. If under the appellation .villa detta Grisone the
village of Grižane is meant, then, of course, these traditions
cannot be precluded, and the query to be raised is, Where exactly
was Klović born on the territory of Grižane? The traditions
are at variance. Some place Klović's house of birth into Grižane's
hamlets Antovo or Gobiće and poirrt to the foundations
of some dilapidated house which was allegedly Klović's, while
others hold that the village of Klarlći was Klović's birthplace,
which does not lie at all on the territory of Grižane but on the
territory of the adjacent village of Drivenik. They too would
know the territory where Kiović's house of birth had stood. Still
others believe that the village of Rudenice, which today belongs
to Drivenik, is the birthplace of Klović,
In the traditions relating to Klovlć's native country literary
and original elements are intervowen. Of the traditions which
the author of the present essay has recorded in Klović's native
country it would seem that the one is the most original which
expresses in folk language the miniaturistic talents of little
Klović. Namely, the people, ignoring what miniaturistics spells,
relate that little Juraj Julije had painted the Last Supper on one
of his fingernails, while another variant has it that on a fingernail
he had painted the Frankopan Castle Griže. Having noticed
this, the Frias and Frankopan would have taken Klović to the
Pauline Monastery at Crikvenica.
The author of the present essay has investigated the
archive of the Crikvenlca Paulines, but there is no trace of any
record about Klović or the Pauline School, although the entire
text makes it likely that Klović had received his first education
from the Paulines of Crikvenica. Yet the possibility still remains
that the Trsat Franciscans might have been concerned.
Grižane, Klović's native place, was recorded not only by
Vasari in print, but likewise by El Graco's brush, for accordigg
to Lj. Babić, El Greco had contributed in Klović's portrait also
a picture of the Grižane landscape.
The author of this essay made a study of the Archive of
the Congregation of the Lateran Regular Canons of St. Redeemer
in Rome — Archivum pretiosum Congregationis Sanctissimi
Salvatoris Canonicorum regularium Laterenensium in Urbe«.
In the old inventory of the Archive is to be found also a written
record reading, .Giullo Clovio P. Inf, 7 (2?) • . What had been
contained here is not certain. Maybe the truth ought to be
sought in the yet non-arranged part of the Archive. In the Codex
»A 955: Notae historicae Saneti Petri in vinculis i s t o be
found an abstract from a charter on Klović from the year 1536.
Under the signature M 665 there is a charter issued by Cardinal
Marin Grimani on the 24th August, 1536, at Perugia, to the following
addressee: . . . di lecto nobis in Christo Georgio alias
lulio clerico clerouichio de crouatia professori ac familiari nostro
continuo commensali . Because of the conformity of the
name (Juraj Julije), native land (Croatia), monastic belonging
(Order of Regular Canons), place and Maecenas (Perugia, Cardinal
Grimani), it was concluded that Klović was in question.
However, the name Clerouichius is either the rull form of
Klović's surname, which had not been used in unabbreviated
form except in documents, or will most probably be an error
committeed by the scribe on account of cler. in the name of
the preceding word. The appellation »professor«may mean the
monastic profession of the vow, that is, the status In the Order,
but might well have meant the teacher. Maybe these are
coincidences in respect of Klović, that is, that he was both a
professor by monastic belonging and a professor by his teaching
activities at Candiana and other monasteries, where, as evidenced
by the Constitution of the Order from 1592, free skills
and sacral sciences would have been taught. The benefice Klović
had received through this charter was the parish church of
St. Bartholomew, Castel Rigone, Perugia. By the very fact that
Klović was appointed director and possessor of the parish
:hurch, he will probably have been released ipso iure from
his vows as a friar, transforming from a monastic into a lay
priest. In the archival holdings of St. Sebastian at Mantua there
Is no mention of Klović, truc, but there is a record of the numerical
state of the monastery 'in the time when Klović joined
it (Codex A 378), while another inventory, although one whole
century after Klović's coming to that monastery, notes several
miniatures, for which it i s not imposslble that they were by
Klović (Codex A 376).
Owing to the fact that Klović had left his body in chains
to the Basilica of St. Peter to be buried, and some of his movable
objects such as pictures, large and small, to the church and
the vestry as an inalienable decoration, the writer of this essay
came through his investigations to the following conclusion:
Klović's bones remained in the basilica, but they were placed
into a common ossuary, which now lies in the crypt of the basilica
beneath the right-hand aisle between the first and second
altars from the entrsnce door.
In the inventories of the Archive of the Regular Canons
there is no trace of the pictures that Klovlć had left to the
church and the vestry. However, there is uncertainty as to whose
are the pictures on the altar which lies between Michelangelo's
Moses and Klović's memorial tablet. Furthermore, in the
old vestry, which is not accessible to the public, one may find
a number of pictures, large and small (numbered), which ought
to be investigated as to whether they might come from Klović's
legacy.
Klović had willed to the Church»leatae Mariae consolationls
de Vrbe unum offitium parvulum antiquum Dive Marie
in parte miniatum quod modo penes se habere dixit perhaps
for the reason that he might have belonged to the society of
that hospital and church, and also maybe because he was treated
in the hospital .La Consolazione, which was near the FarKlović
was in contact with Girolamo Dai Libri, Bartolomeo,
Sebastiano Luciani del Piombo, Torri (whose teacher he was),
Silvano Razzi, Miniato Pitti, Vincenzo Bor ghini, Francesco de
Medici, Giorgio Vasari and, as we know, El Greco. The author
of the preserrt essay is also concerned with these contacts as
they were recorded in the time of Klović's life.
The author of the essay also investigated holdings in the
secret archive of the Vatican that would maybe contain some
data by Klović or on Klović. They are Garte Farnesiane and
Fondo Pio (Vols. 56 and 57). The result was negative, most
likely for the reason that, as an inmate of Cardinal Farnese,
Klović was not in touch by correspondence with him.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
148751
URI
Publication date:
15.12.1977.
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