Professional paper

Turks as a Global Danger in the Speeches of Croatian Humanists before the Popes from 1493 to 1526

Saša Vuković

Abstract

In this paper the author analyzes anti-Turkish speeches made by Croatian humanists and sent to the Pope in the period between the Battle of Krbava Field and the Battle of Mohács. The aim of such an analysis is to explore the process which created the image of Turks as not only a direct threat to endangered Croatian regions but also to the whole Christian world. The method of intratextual axiology is used to analyze the fourteen texts (direct speeches, epistles, anti-Turkish prayers, and epigrams) delivered to the Bishop of Rome. Aside from expanding the already existing semantic fields of Turks as animals and demonic forces, murderers and rapists, plunderers and enslavers, the author also introduces an analysis of the expectations that Croatian humanists had from the Papacy regarding the Turkish threat. To illuminate these expectations, the author discusses the direct instructions about possible actions that the Bishop of Rome could take against the seemingly invincible enemy. The author analyzes how Croatian humanists in the aforementioned speeches accentuated the danger that the Turkish invaders posed even for those at the very heart of the Christian world. In the end, the author argues that they did so through the already existing semantic fields but also through constructing a semantic “super-field” labeled by the author as the global threat.

Keywords

Ottoman conquests; Antiturcica; Croatian humanists; global threat; Papacy; intratextual axiology

Hrčak ID:

277570

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/277570

Publication date:

31.12.2021.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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