GIBRALTAR STAMPS OFFER: SPEND £50 GET £5 OFF
Shipping: Shipping fees start from GBP £4.17

Famous Croats

Set
GBP £1.51
First Day Cover
GBP £1.51
Full sheets
GBP £30.26
About Famous Croats

PETAR HEKTOROVIĆ

Petar Hektorović (Petre), Croatian erudite and poet, was born between 18 February and 1 July 1487 in Stari Grad or Hvar on the island of Hvar as a descendant of a patrician family, the didići nobility class. He was probably educated at the Hvar Humanities School and continued his education with the Dominican Order in Split. Around 1520, he began to build Tvrdalj in Stari Grad, a palace-fortress with a park and a pond. He corresponded with dignitaries and humanist writers from Dubrovnik through Stari Grad and Hvar to Split, Trogir and Zadar. He traveled to Dubrovnik in 1557 to visit friends and was hosted by the poet Nikola Nalješković. He died in Stari Grad on 13 March 1572. He left the property to his natural daughter Margarita and distributed the movable property to the servants and the poor.

He included literary texts in the epistolary framework as letters to friends. Among the translations, his work Knjiga Ovidijeva od lika ljubenoga (1528) stands out the most, and in its accompanying epistle he presents his views on translation. It is assumed that he wrote love poems in the first phase of his literary career, but his preserved work reveals a man who thought about the futility of worldly possessions and God's grace (Tombstone of Frane Hektorović, etc.). The famous book Fishing and Fishermen's Conversations (completed in 1556, printed in 1568) contains other literary forms in addition to the travel eclogue written in dodecasyllable. The building block of Fishing and Fishermen's Conversation is a real journey he took with fishermen Paskoje and Nikola from Stari Grad to Nečujam and back. Adhering to the principles of truthfulness and authenticity, he wrote down folk songs and other folklore forms (riddles, wise sayings, etc.) and stands out as the first recorder of folk songs and tunes. He also made a historically valuable description of the Tvrdalj Castle and its flora.

He praised Marko Marulić in Fishing and Fishermen's Conversation, and with a trip to Dubrovnik and a prose letter to Mikša Pelegrinović (1557) he paid tribute to the culture and literature of the Croatian south and affirmed the idea of canons and classics, role models in the past and present. His immediate Chakavian expression and the directness of the description have a particular value: “We came to Zavala hunting, as if in a mirror, all at the bottom seeing.” In one record he left a testimony about the Croat migration to the Italian shores, from which descended the Croats from Molise. Hektorović's oeuvre is a prominent example of awareness of the value of “heritage”.

GRGO MARTIĆ

Fr. Grgo Martić (Grga, Mato) was a participant in the Croatian National Revival Movement, poet, travel writer, collector of oral poems, participant in the Illyrian movement in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, correspondent in Croatian periodicals and translator. Born on 24 January 1822 in Rastovača near Posušje in Herzegovina, he entered a Franciscan monastery at the age of twelve (1834), attended high school in Kreševo and Požega, graduated in philosophy in Zagreb, and in theological studies in Stolni Biograd in Hungary (Székesfehérvár). He was ordained in 1844 in Travnik. He traveled through Bulgaria, Turkey, Austria, Italy and Croatian regions, and he was well-versed in classical and modern languages. He worked as a priest in several places in Bosnia: until 1878 he was a parish priest in Sarajevo and a representative of the Franciscan Province in the Council for Relations with Turkey and Consular Authorities, head of the Franciscan People's Agency of Sarajevo, and from 1878 he lived in Kreševo in a Franciscan monastery. He is known for his patriotic saying from 1860: “Woe to the people without brotherly love, much like to Bosnia without the land of Croatia.”

His work is synonymous with writing for a wide readership. He published memoirs, historical and narrative, epic and occasional poetry, political and religious works, as well as textbooks in Zagreb, Osijek, Đakovo and Sarajevo. At the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America in Rome, he read his poem dedicated to Christopher Columbus. Together with Ivan Frano Jukić, he prepared a collection of epic poems, Folk Songs of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1858). The epic poems Avengers (1893), written in the decasyllable, enjoyed great popularity, as did other individual poems. In his poetic travelogues, he benevolently portrayed all the peoples inhabiting Bosnia and Herzegovina (Journey to Dubrovnik from Kreševo in 1882, Journey to Makarska in 1884). The religious poem Defense of Biograd in 1456: Celebration of St. John of Capistrano (1887) is dedicated to the defense of Christians from the Turkish invasion, and Devotees (1895), modeled on Gundulić's Tears of the Prodigal Son, speaks of persons and events from the Catholic Church. He died on 30 August 1905 in Kreševo, Bosnia. Memoires (1829–1878), autobiographical memories of life and encounters with people who played an important role in the last decades of Turkish rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina were published posthumously.

AUGUST ŠENOA

August Šenoa was born on 14 November 1838 in Zagreb. He finished elementary school in Zagreb, started high school in Pécs and completed in Zagreb, attended universities in Zagreb, Vienna and Prague. He edited the newspapers Glasonoša (The Messenger), Slawische Blätter, Pozor (The Notice) and Vienac (The Wreath). He was the artistic director and then playwright at the Croatian National Theater, city notary and city senator, and vice-president of Matica hrvatska. He was instrumental in arranging the arrival of Ivan pl. Zajc to Zagreb and the founding of the permanent Croatian opera. He attracted a large number of readers and created a Croatian readership that no longer preferred German-language literature.

In his feuilletons The Eternal Jew in Zagreb and Zagrebulje, and the comedy Ljubica he advocated realistic satire; he affirmed the genre of historical novel (Goldsmith's Treasure, Beware of the Hand of Senj, The Peasant Rebellion, Diogenes, Curse), historical ballads – historical tales (Doom of Venice, Cursed Shed, etc.), poetic stories (The Shoemaker and the Devil, The House Of The Plague, The Petrified Wedding, The Snake Queen, etc.) and novels and short stories from modern life (Beggar Luka, Friend Lovro, Vladimir, Young Gentleman, etc.). He convincingly portrayed various social strata from history and modern era (The Cannon of Turopolje, Souls of the People's Guard, Baron Ivica, Carnation from the Poet's Grave, A Canary Lover, Branka, etc.). Historical tragedy Slavka remained unfinished. He followed theatrical events, laid the foundation for the modern feuilleton and turned it into a literary genre. He translated classic and contemporary literature and compiled poetry anthologies. His poems were set to music and became part of traditional culture (Posavke – Oh You, the Soul of My Soul!, Fisherman's Jana, etc.). He expressed the political program of the people (Be yourself!, Greetings to Dubrovnik, etc.), he codified the Croatian literary language and reached the peak of late Romanticism, and at the same time laid the foundations of Croatian realism. He contributed to the Croatian national integration and modernization: “Loud and of mind bright / Over valleys, over mounts / Flies to us Croatian song / To sea of blue it carries on / (…) Let brothers sing all as one: / Long live Croatia!”

He discovered a number of new writers and supported their work. After the earthquake in Zagreb on 9 November 1880, he worked tirelessly on the sites of the ruined city, writing in parallel, and he died from inflammation on 13 December 1881 in Zagreb. His work is a symbol of the successful reconciliation of two literary functions: popular literature and aesthetic writing. He marked the Croatian cultural life of the second half of the 19th century to such an extent that the period in which he worked is called by his name – the Age of Šenoa (1865–1881).

prof. dr. Cvijeta Pavlović
Department of Comparative Literature
Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences