THE MERCANTILE PRACTICE AS LITERARY TEMPLATE IN CROATIAN RENAISSANCE LITERATURE

Abstract

The work deals with mercantile practice which is idiomatic to renaissance man on the examples from Croatian literature of 16. century. In their literary works some authors tried to concretialise renaissance rationalism and practicality (M. Kaboga, A. Sasin, N. Nalješković, M. Držić, M. Benetović). We try to find motif terms of references in compliance with economic, materialistic understanding of the world. Money, scraping of goods, market offer and supply and goods-money exchange become motif and thematic complexes in creation of literary text.
Mercantilistic spirit of renaissance present in literature in two ways is getting analysed. Through practical, egzistential domain: knowledge that life and even artistic creation obey mercantilistic laws, to be able to create someone has to finance the creation. But in the same time through the perception of this paradox as attribute of renaissance optimism: mercantilistic ideal in literature will autoironise it self through comical domain. Laugh as starter story in the sense of expose greed, covetousness, Držić's amor is not amor, gold is amor.