Marko Marulić (1450–1524), was a Croatian poet, lawyer, judge and a Renaissance humanist who coined the term psychology and wrote the first Split travel guide, praising the beauty of the Peristyle.
Owing to his work, he became the most distinguished person of the humanist circle in Split, known as“the father of the Croatian Renaissance“. His Latin poetry is of such high quality that his contemporaries called him "The Christian Virgil."
Legend has it that Henry VIII was a fan, but the influence and legacy of Marko Marulić stretches far beyond the violent hands of England’s most infamous king. When discussing Croatian literature, Marulić is Ground Zero. Born into a wealthy noble family in Split in 1450, the man known in Latin as Marcus Marulus Spalatensis was the quintessential Renaissance Man, a humanist as focused on innovation and creativity as he was on faith and matters of the soul. Yet, there is a veil of mystery shrouding Marulić's life, with little concrete information and much of what we know being conjecture. He was educated in Split and almost certainly studied further in Italy before returning home to become a poet, lawyer, judge and man of influence. Some believe he even coined the term “psychology,” while his writings found favour far and wide.Marulić primarily wrote in Latin (it was the 15th and 16th centuries, after all), but his desire to bring literature to the uneducated led to “Judita,” the first epic poem written and published in the Croatian language. Completed in 1501, it took 20 years for the story to reach the masses, but it was then published three times while Marulić was still among the living. The epic poem and its trailblazing language marked Marulić forever as the Father of Croatian Literature, the man who established Croatian as a literary language for all eternity. 2024 marks the 500th anniversary of Marulić’s death, and the year has been given over to this most influential Croatian humanist.
In his honour, the idea of holding the premiere of Judita, the opera, was conceived. You can witness this incredible musical sensation at the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb on October 4, 5, 8, and 12.
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