Original scientific paper

Marulić and Dante (new information)

Mirko Tomasović

Abstract

“Old” knowledge about the connection between the Croatian humanist and the Italian classic includes: Marulić possessed a biography of Dante, written by Boccaccio; he translated the introductory canto of The Divine Comedy into Latin; he paraphrased in the foreword to Judith Dante’s distinction between poets of the vernacular and poets of Latin. However, to these facts should be added certain important statements and intertextual features established as a result of recent research. First and foremost is Marulić’s “self-nomination” as the Dante of the Croatian language as stated in the letter to Jeronim Ćipiko in July 1501, as part of the joy he was expressing at having finished Judith. That he had read Dante’s poem with care is shown by two examples of intertextual importance from his oeuvre: reminiscences in one of Marulić’s Italian sonnets of the beasts of Canto I of Inferno; the similarities in the descriptions of hell in some of his works with those in Dante’s visions. It can be concluded that Marko Marulić modelled himself literarily on the author of the Divine Comedy more than has been previously, and currently, stated, and that this modelling bears out his humanist position.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

2478

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/2478

Publication date:

22.4.2001.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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