Paul Ritter Vitezović

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Paul Ritter Vitezović (1652-1713)
Coat of arms of the Ritter Vitezović family, awarded in 1650
"Kronika aliti spomen vsega svijeta vikov" (1744)

Paul Ritter Vitezović , also Pavao Ritter Vitezović (born January 7, 1652 in Senj (German: Zengg), † January 20, 1713 in Vienna ), was a Croatian writer, historian and politician. He is considered to be the first Croatian writer and is given a prominent role in the formation of the Croatian national consciousness. In addition, he was one of the few scholars of his time who did not belong to the clergy. As a member of the lower nobility, Knight Vitezović was almost destitute and depended on wealthy patrons throughout his life, who made the publication of his works possible and whose favor he gained through his writing. He also wrote under the pseudonym Ljubmir Zelenlugović.

Life

Origin and education

From the late 11th century until 1918 Croatia was united in various ways with Hungary and for a long time with Austria. In the 15th century, the Ottomans had conquered almost all of Croatia except for a small remainder between the Adriatic and the Danube. In 1527 the Sabor at the castle of Cetin elected Ferdinand I , who became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1558 , as King of Croatia.

Knight Vitezović was born on January 7, 1652 in Senj as the first son of the royal official Anton Ritter and his wife Dorotea Lučkinić. Ritter Vitezović's family came from Alsace and was named Ritter von Vrendorf, but Anton Ritter was not raised to the nobility until October 1653 in the Kingdom of Croatia. Vitezović is the Croatian translation of the name knight . From around 1665 Ritter Vitezović attended a Jesuit-run school in Zagreb under the rector Juraj Habdelić. This school had already acquired a printing press the year before, but was unable to put it into operation. In 1669, Emperor Leopold I granted the school the same rights and privileges as the universities in Germany, Austria and Hungary. Nevertheless, Vitezović left the school in 1670 without completing his studies and began to travel in Italy and Carniola .

First work

In 1671 the Croatian counts Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan were beheaded in Vienna for their participation in the magnate conspiracy . From 1676 to 1677, the knight Vitezović was the guest of the Carniolan scientist Johann Weichard von Valvasor at his Wagensberg Castle in Carniola. There he began to work on a story of the Gusić family , from which his work Apographum ex Joanne Lucio , published in 1681, emerged . In 1679 knight Vitezović returned to Senj, where he probably took part in the fight against the Turks.

Deputy and Envoy

In 1681, King Leopold I convened the Hungarian parliament in Sopron (German: Ödenburg), at this meeting Nikola Erdődy was appointed Croatian ban as the successor to Count Zrinski, who was executed in 1671 . Knight Vitezović was among the deputies as the representative of his hometown Senj elected by the city council. In the following year Ritter Vitezović continued his studies in Vienna and appeared as an envoy from the city of Senj at the imperial court. That year, on the occasion of his thirtieth birthday, he wrote a poem in which he characterized his own life as a failure. At the beginning of the Great Turkish War in 1683 Knight Vitezović was in the city, but left it after the siege to serve in the army under Ban Nikola Erdődy. In 1684 Erdődy sent him to Linz as an envoy, where he published the first part of his work Oddilenye Szigetsko and was promoted to captain in Count Ricciardi's regiment. With the dissolution of his regiment, Ritter Vitezović's military service ended in 1685, and that year he published the second part of Oddilenye Szigetsko . Ritter Vitezović spent the following two years as a representative of the Croatian parliament in Vienna.

Return to Croatia

Memorial plaque on the Croatian State Printing Office in Zagreb

In 1687 King Leopold I convened the Hungarian state parliament in Pressburg , where Joseph I was granted the right to inherit the Hungarian royal dignity. Knight Vitezović took part in the state parliament as a representative of the city of Senj and was knighted by the golden spur . In the same year knight Vitezović asked the emperor for a plot of land in Pravutina. In 1691 he became vice span of the Lika and Krbava , at that time he was Count Ricciardi. In 1694, Ritter Vitezović was the secretary of a delegation of the Croatian Sabor in Vienna, which protested against the kingdom's excessive taxation. The Sabor gave him the management of the royal printing works in Agram ( Zagreb ), and in the same year knight Vitezović married Katarina Vojnović, a member of a noble family. He continued his work as a historian and writer and unsuccessfully asked Emperor Leopold I in 1697 for the Dvorac Brezovica Castle near Zagreb.

In 1698 Knight Vitezović was back in Vienna as a representative of the city of Senj to appeal against the introduction of a new salt tax by the Inner Austrian War Council. After the Peace of Karlowitz, the Sabor appointed knight Vitezović to accompany the imperial envoy Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli . For him he wrote the font Responsio ad postulata comiti Marsiglio , in which he underpinned Austria's claim to the Croatian coast and other areas in the Balkans conquered by the Turks. Less than a year later he was called to Vienna by Emperor Leopold I and was commissioned to study the borders of the Kingdom of Croatia. In 1701 the order followed to write a memorandum on the rights of the imperial financial administration in Croatia and Slavonians . For this purpose he received an imperial letter of protection , with which he was granted access to all archives in the kingdom. While working on this script, in 1702 he applied in vain for the office of the Lika and Krbava team.

1707 hired Ritter Vitezović of the canons Ivan Ivanović Jonata the castle Ščitarjevo with the associated land. The following year, Emperor Joseph I declared Knight Vitezović to be Ivanović's heir and guardian.

Last years in Vienna

After the defeat in a trial against him in Zagreb in 1710, Ritter Vitezović left Croatia and retired to Vienna. From there he sent his work Geneticon to Tsar Peter the Great . From Pope Clement XI. he hoped that the Congregation for the Dissemination of the Faith would publish his dictionaries. In the following two years, Ritter Vitezović completed two more extensive works, the Serbia Illustrata and Banalogia , but his patrons could not provide the sum necessary for publication. In 1711 knight Vitezović tried in vain to get a castle in Novi and an office in the Hungarian financial administration. Meanwhile, the sisters of a convent in Zagreb sued for repayment of a sum of money owed by Knight Vitezović, and in 1712 they tried to gain possession of his house in Zagreb. In March 1712, the Croatian Sabor accepted the Pragmatic Sanction . Knight Vitezović again took part in the Hungarian state parliament in Bratislava as Senj's representative . In November he petitions the Emperor and the Hungarian Palatine on behalf of the city regarding the rights and obligations of the citizens of Senj . Knight Vitezović died in Vienna on January 20, 1713.

Later appreciation

In modern terms, Ritter Vitezović is considered to be of lesser importance than Johannes Lucius , whose conclusions he tried to refute, but whose works he often referred to. Contributing to this was that Ritter Vitezović, on the one hand, carried out intensive source studies, but, on the other hand, frequently resorted to recognized authorities and traditions, and mixed the following scientific findings from his studies with legends in his publications. In later times he was said to be a lack of thoroughness and reliability. However, his patriotism and his contributions to the promotion of the Croatian language and the establishment of the printing plant in Zagreb are undisputed.

Fonts

A complete overview of his writings can be found in the works of Johann Christian Engel , Pavel Jozef Šafárik and in the “Catalogus Bibliothecae hungaricae Francisci com. Széchényi ”, Vol. II, p. 259. Ritter wrote in Croatian and Latin.

In Croatian language

  • Oddilenye Szigetsko, ie the storming of Sziget (first edition Vienna 1684; 2nd edition ibid. 1685; 3rd edition augmented with the biography of Nikolaus Zrinyis , edited by Prof. Monjes, Agram 1836, Zupan 8 °.);
  • Kalendarium aliti misečnik verstatski za leto 1695, ie the calendar or Croatian journal for the year 1695 (Agram 1695, 4 °.), Published under the pseudonym Ljubmir Zelenlugović ;
  • Prirečnik aliti razlike mudrosti cvetje, di Spruchbuch or some sayings of wisdom (Agram 1703, 12 °.);
  • Kronika aliti spomen svega svieta vikov, di Chronicle or History of the Centuries (1st edition Agram 1696; 2nd edition ibid. 1744; 3rd edition ibid. 1762. 4 °.) (Compare on this later by Stephan Raffay, Chronicle continued by Nikolaus Laurenchich and Balthasar Adam Kercelich, what Šafařík 's "History of South Slavic Literature", published by Jireček , II. Croatian and Illyrian literature, pp. 336 and 337, contains about it);
  • Lado horvacki iliti Sibilla zverka mnejia…, di Croatische Sybille (1st edition (?); 2nd edition Agram 1783; 3rd edition ibid. 1801; 4th edition ibid. 1837, 4 °.), A social one Game of fortune telling; It is not known whether this little book, originally written by Ritter in primorial dialect, appeared during his lifetime, the editions from 1783 and the following are croatised by an unnamed person;
  • Ritter left a grammatica croatica in handwriting in Croatian and a lexicon latino illyricum, where the former is now is unknown, the latter is kept in the episcopal library at Agram;

In Latin

  • Apographum ex Joanne Lucio , 1681;
  • Stemmatographia sive Armorum Illyricorum delineatio descriptio et restitutio. Cum icon. (see 1. eta. 4 °.);
  • Stemmatographiae Illyricanae liber I. Editio nova auctior (Zagrabiae 1702, 4 °.);
  • Croatia rediviva regnante Leopoldo M. Caesare deducta (ibid. 1700, 4 °.), The introduction to a larger work which, according to the Catalogus Bibliothecae Széchénianae, is said to be in handwriting;
  • Plorantis Croatiae Secula duo carmine descripta (Zagrabiae 1703, 4 °.);
  • Ungaria pullata ad manes Josephi I. regis sui occinens etc. (sl 1711, 4 °.);
  • Bosna captiva, sive Regnum et interitus Stephani ultimi Bosniae regis (anno 1463, cum Glossario) (Tyrnaviae 1712, 4 °.);
  • Fata et Vota sive Opera Anagrammaton. Partes duae (sl et a., 8 °.)

literature

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ The year of birth 1650 is given in other sources
  2. ↑ Vjekoslav Klajć: Život i Dela Pavla Rittera Vitezović. 1652-1713 , p. 9.
  3. ^ A b Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , p. 26.
  4. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Zelenlugović, Ljubmir . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 59th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1890, p. 300 ( digital copy ).
  5. ↑ Vjekoslav Klajć: Život i Dela Pavla Rittera Vitezović. 1652-1713 , pp. 4-5.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , p. 271.
  7. ^ Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , p. 40.
  8. ^ Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , pp. 271-272.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , p. 272.
  10. ^ A b c Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , pp. 272–273.
  11. ^ A b Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , p. 273.
  12. ↑ a b c d e Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , p. 274.
  13. ^ A b Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , pp. 274–275.
  14. ^ Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , p. 275.
  15. ↑ a b c d e f g Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , p. 276.
  16. ^ A b Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , pp. 276–277.
  17. ^ Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , p. 277.
  18. ^ Catherine Anne Simpson: Pavao Ritter Vitezović: defining national identity in the baroque age , pp. 41–42.
  19. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Ritter, Paul . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 26th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1874, pp. 189–192 ( digitized version ).
personal data
SURNAME Knight Vitezović, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Knight, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Croatian writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1652
PLACE OF BIRTH Zengg (Senj)
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1713
Place of death Vienna