Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.17234/Croatica.69.6
THE POETRY BOOK "HORVATSKE POPEVKE SVETSKE" (1814) BY ZAGREB CANON AND LINGUIST MARKO MAHANOVIĆ
Jasmina Lukec
orcid.org/0000-0002-5397-9916
; The Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Given that early modern Kajkavian lyric poetry has been preserved mostly in manuscript poetry books, it remains largely unknown and insufficiently researched. Such poetry books have rarely been subjected to literary historical analysis in their entirety. Instead, most analyses focused on individual poems, often published repeatedly in various selections, and included attempts to determine their authorship. This paper focuses on the previously unstudied manuscript poetry book "Horvatske popevke svetske" (1814), compiled by the linguist and priest Marko Mahanović. The manuscript is kept at the Department of Ethnology of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. It was produced in response to a circular issued by Bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovac in 1813, calling on the priests of his diocese to collect Croatian linguistic heritage. The paper will describe the poetry book and focus on certain poems within the manuscript that were transmitted within the Kajkavian milieu in various versions, which indicated both their popularity and likely changes due to prolonged circulation. As poems in Kajkavian poetry books were typically copied anonymously, with little concern for their authorship, the compiler’s attribution of certain poems to, among others, Janko Drašković, Ivan Franjo Čikulin, and Josip Keresturi, is particularly noteworthy. Like many old Kajkavian manuscript poetry books, "Horvatske popevke svetske" includes drinking songs, which hold cultural and historical significance, as well as intimate spiritual and religious songs, adapted for seminary theatre.
Keywords
Marko Mahanović; Kajkavian literature; poetry book
Hrčak ID:
341283
URI
Publication date:
16.12.2025.
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