Croatian Book Day
Spotlighting the most famous work by Marko Marulić, “the father of Croatian literature”, the Croatian Book Day this year is observed against a background of the Year of Marko Marulić, Croatia’s year-round programme marking the 500th anniversary of Marulić’s passing.
Established by the 1996 decision of the Croatian Parliament, the Croatian Book Day is celebrated on 22 April to commemorate the date of the completion of Judita, the first epic in the Croatian language, which earned its author, Marko Marulić (1450-1524), the title of “the father of Croatian literature”.
The cornerstone of Croatian literature
Also referred to as “the Croatian Dante”, Marulić completed Judita on 22 April 1501. After its publication twenty years later, on 13 August 1521, Marulić lived to see his masterpiece get another two editions, within less than a year and a half. Until the present day, Judita appeared in more than 50 unabridged or partial editions.
An epic in six cantos written in Chakavian, one of three major dialects of the Croatian language (along with Shtokavian and Kajkavian), Judita thematises the bravery of Judita (Judith), the biblical widow who saved her people, the residents of the Jewish city of Betulija (Bethulia), from the Assyrian general Holoferno (Holofernes). Rendering this biblical story in a unique verse characteristic of Croatian cultural space, a twelve-syllable verse with a double rhyme, and additionally using a characteristic cross rhyme, Marulić poignantly addressed the conditions of his age, marked by fear and uncertainty of the people of Split, Marulić’s native town, facing the threat of the Ottoman invasion. Judita’s complex and demanding versification scheme reflects all the skill and agility of Marulić’s poetic talent, which enabled him to combine the conventions of the humanistic poetry with those characteristic of Petrarch.
Judita got its most recent edition in 2021, on the 500th anniversary of the publication of its first edition, when alongside the original’s reprint the Institute for the Croatian Language published its adaptation in standard Croatian.
Judita in the NSK collections
The NSK Manuscripts and Old Books Collection boasts the 1522 edition of Judita, which became part of the Library’s holdings in 1886, when Croatian historian, writer, bibliographer and politician Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski (1816-1889), one of Croatia’s historic figures deserving the greatest credit for the official status of the Croatian language, gave it to the Library as a gift, along with five other books by Marulić and Marulić’s 16th-century manuscript.
The Library’s Music Collection holds manuscript and printed music thematising Judita, written by distinguished Croatian composers and librettists for various important occasions in the history of Croatian culture, of which the first was the opening in 1940 of the Croatian National Theatre in Split.
Judita’s digitised version is available as part of the Library’s NSK Digital Collections website, which offers access to the digital collection NSK created in 2018 with the support of the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media to make widely available all Marulić’s works held by the Library (Digitalna zbirka djela Marka Marulića).
Relevance in the context of European cultural heritage
Marulić’s masterly adaptation of the biblical theme and motifs in the Croatian vernacular make Judita a significant work of the European Renaissance whose outstanding characteristics, far surpassing the bounds of Croatian literature, resulted in its being translated into English, Hungarian, Italian, French, Lithuanian, partially translated into Slovenian, Spanish, German, Czech and Esperanto and included in the world’s most relevant library catalogues and reference works.
As part of the international presentation of Croatia’s history and culture during Croatia’s presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2020, the Library, which acted as the presidency’s seat, organised the Marko Marulić – A European Humanist exhibition, which was subsequently put on across Lithuania and in Switzerland, and whose content particularly focused on Judita – as Marulić’s major, groundbreaking work and a landmark work of Croatian literature.
Since 2012, the Croatian Book Day has been marked as part of the Croatian Book Night, whose programme this year will feature over 1,150 programmes promoting books and reading.