Davidias

by Marko Marulić

Zagreb 1954. Priredio Josip Badalic. Stari pisci hrvatski -- knj. 31. Marko Marulic, 1450-1524, is known as the father of the Croatian Renaissance. His masterpiece, the monumental heroic epic Davidias, had remained as an unpublished Latin manuscript until 1954, when it was published in Latin and Croation editions. This copy is in Croation. Hardcover. Sm.4to., 229pp., plates, yellow boards with maroon cloth spine. 11 page Adenda et Corrigenda pamphlet laid in. Although this edition has undergone extensive revisions and corrections, it remains the basis for the scholarly study of Marulic's epic. Good, inner hinges cracking, in VG DJ, top right corner and head of dj spine lightly chipped. Scarce.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1954

About the author

Marko Marulić was a Croatian national poet and Renaissance humanist, known as the Crown of the Croatian Medieval Age and the father of the Croatian Renaissance. He was also the first who defined and used the notion of psychology, which is today in current use.

The central figure of the humanist circle in Split, Marulić was inspired by the Bible, Antique writers and Christian hagiographies. Main topics of his writings were Christian theological by nature. He was a poet and writer who wrote many poems, discussions on theology and Christian ethics, stories and some epics. He wrote in three languages: Latin, Croatian and Vulgar Italian (three letters and two sonnets are preserved).

In the works written in Croatian, Marulić achieved a permanent status and position that has remained uncontested. His central Croatian oeuvre, the epic poem Judita written in 1501 and published in Venice in 1521, is based on the Biblical tale from a Deuterocanonical Book of Judith, written in Čakavian dialect – his mother tongue.