Original scientific paper
Marulić’s Private Letters: Selection of Language as Means of Diaphasic and Diastratic Differentiation
Smiljka Malinar
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
We are here dealing with certain aspects relevant in the socio-linguistic context
of a rather recently discovered segment of Marulić’s prose, providing an array
of interesting information about the circumstances surrounding the writing of
Marulić’s published and unpublished, or not yet discovered, texts. At issue are
seven of Marulić’s private autograph letters from the period 1501-1516, which are
kept in the Venetian State Archives, and were discovered and published by Miloš
Milošević. Three are written in Italian, more precisely in the Venetian dialect, and
are addressed to Jerolim Ćipiko from Split, canon of the St Doimus’ Cathedral and
a close friend of Marulić. The other four letters are written in Latin, and form part
of the correspondence between Marulić and Venetian canon, notary and chancellor
of the Senate of the Republic, Jacopo Grasolari, who took upon himself to care for
the printing of Marulić’s works. Private and family affairs, as well as considerations
arising from current events, are reserved for the letters to Jerolim Ćipiko, written in
Italian. Individual circumstances relating to the process of the printing of Marulić’s
works are the main topic of three letters sent to Jacopo Grasolari, while in one of
them he discusses the traits of genuine Christian love and friendship. The author’s
communicational intention and his selection of topic, and partially the linguistic
medium, determine the dominant formal and constructional features of two bodies
of letters, or rather, of their particular segments.
Keywords
Marulić; private correspondence; Latin; Italian; Croatian; diaphasic and diastratic differentiation
Hrčak ID:
17402
URI
Publication date:
9.1.2006.
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