The Dorothy Dunnett Society

“Is there no one will take up this priceless thing and say, here is a nation, with such a soul; with such talents; with these failings and this native worth?” The Game of Kings
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    • “Is there no one will take up this priceless thing and say, here is a nation, with such a soul; with such talents; with these failings and this native worth?” The Game of Kings
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    DunNETt Lecture 2

    Domagoj Krapan

    The Influence of Marko Marulić on 16th Century European Intellectual Life

    Domagoj Krapan, University of Rijeka, Croatia

    This talk first describes the political situation in Croatia/Dalmatia in the late 15th-early 16th century: the Ottoman invasion, the Venetian Republic, the decline of the Hungarian kingdom. Into this historical and geopolitical setting was born Marko Marulić whose work in a range of fields – eg, poet and author, visual artist, lawyer, theologian – carried his fame and influence far from his birthplace in Split. His Latin poems were held in such high regard that he was called the Christian Virgil. St Francis Xavier took only two books for his mission efforts in Asia: a Roman Breviary and De Institutione, a work by Marulić. A copy of his Evangelistiarium, which is kept in the British Library, is full of handwritten notes by Henry VIII. Many of his works were considered lost or unknown until recently. For example, his Latin poem Davidiad was discovered in 1952, and poems about animals were first discovered in the Glasgow codex in 1995.

    Watch the lecture below:

    Find out more about the DunNETt Lecture Series.

    Author: Domagoj Krapan
    Website Publication Date: 10th August 2026
    Theme: History
    Publication Type: Talk
    Medium: Video
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