Great personalities from Zadar's history

Juraj Barakovi (Plemii, Rtina near Zadar, 1548 Rome, August 1, 1628) is a Croatian Renaissance poet from Zadar. He wrote several distinguished pieces ("Jarula", Venice 1618 - Old and New Testament in storytelled form; "Draga, rapska pastirica"), but one work excels in his literary opus: complicated and the most explicitly manneristic epic in 13 books "Vila slovinka" (Venice, 1613). Most of Barakovi's poetry was dedicated to the glory of Zadar, with firm reliance on his co-citizen Petar Zorani that already left a notable mark on Croatian literature. "Vila slovinka", an epic written in the glory of Zadar, has two especially notable features: in the eighth book the eleven octosyllabic sonnets are listed, which are, beside a few anonymously written ones in Ranjina's Miscellany, the only sonnets in Croatian poetry
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before the Illyrian movement. The same book contains perfectly stylised bugarica about Mother Margarita, which astonishes both readers and philologists for centuries, still leaving to be determined whether is it a folk song that Barakovi incorporated into his own work following the model of Petar Hektorovi, or is it his own song adapted to the stylistical features of the folk poem stanzas, or the folk song enhanced by Barakovi's skillful poetical and artistical genius.

Petar Zorani (1508 - after 1569) was a Renaissance writer from Zadar. He is most important as the author of Planine, the first Croatian novel. Pastoral in nature, the novel shows influence of Virgil, Ovid, Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio. The novel was written in 1538 and published in 1569. Zorani wrote two other novels, but they have not survived.
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Planine (Croatian; "Mountains") is the title of the first Croatian novel, written by Petar Zorani in 1536 and published posthumously in Venice in 1569. It is a pastoral-allegorical novel (a very common type of prose in that period), written in combined prose and verse. Typologically it's a unique piece of its kind in Croatian literature, with motifs borrowed from Latinate and Italian literatures, with clearly discernible influences of Virgil, Ovid,Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Jacopo Sannazaro, as well as domicile writers such as Marko Maruliand Croatian zainjavci. The novel is composed of 24 chapters, and the introductory contains a dedication to Matej Matijevi, the canon of Nin. The contents of the novel:

The work tells about poet's imaginary seven-day journey across Croatian mountains on which he embarks in order to forget his love miseries. But, the principle line of the story is patriotic in character. The main hero is the shepherd Zoran (i.e. Zorani himself), which for seven years has been suffering from unrequited love towards a maiden Jaga. One morning, wandering around, he arrives to a well called Vodica, having gotten bored with his life. Suddenly from a well a fairy Zorica (Napeja) appears, advising him to go for the mountains to find a particular plant which will cure his love pain. Then on a golden apple he makes a notice of a beautiful fairy Grace (Miloa) which transfers him across the seas to Podgorje, where he continues the journey by himself. But, soon he runs into a beast, from which Grace saves him and leads him by safer pathways. Afterwards, he arrives to the Gates of hell (Paklenica), where the fairy tells him a tale on a young maiden Bura. The next day Zoran meets a company of shepherds with whom he spends the next three days. On the fifth day, Zoran hears from shepherds a story on the origin of Velebit and heads further to the east. There he discovers a small group of shepherds that complains of being attacked by the wolves from eastern sides (i.e. Turks), which has caused many of the shepherds to flee those areas. The next day Zoran is contacted by a fairy Consciousness (Svist) who directs him to the fairy Dinara. Dinara frees him by his magic powers from his love sufferings. Then Zoran dreams a vision of four fairies in a "gardens of Glory" (perivoj od Slave). These are the fairies Latinness (Latinka), Helleness (Grkinja) and Croatess (Hrvatica). While the first three hold in their arms a handful of golden apples (the symbol of a literary piece), the fairy Croatess is poor and makes a complaint on the small number of literary pieces written in folk language. The sixth day Zoran heads for home, but on his way he meets Dinara's daughter, fairyKrka, which drives him
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across Knin, Skradin and ibenik down to the mouth of Krka (where she makes her disappearance). Thence, fairy Grace returns him back to Zaton, the place of his departure. There he finds a grave of Juraj Divni, the bishop of Nin, and swears to follow the path of Lord's love. Meaning of the novel Zorani lived in times of a great danger from invading Ottoman Turks, and that consciousness has inspired his work; it pervaded it with patriotic fervour, against which all poet's personal sufferings, wishes and troubles pale and retreat. Planine are in fact an allegory: they are a dream, transferred to the alleged Zoran's path from Nin across the sea to Starigrad under theVelebit, and thence uphills, over Paklenica, across the Velebit, and from Lika to Dinara, where he would by the river of Krka settle down toibenik and thence by the sea back to Nin. Accompanied by stanzas of Petrarchan and pastoral voice, Zorani's novel, imbuing with life an Arcadian idyll, echoes with "sorrowful shpard's tune of dispersed legacy" (tubenim pojem pastirov od rasute baine), but it also answers the call of fairy Croatess in the gardens of glory (chapter 20): she objurgates Croats who "many sapient and lettered are, who thyself and their tongue joyously appraise and deck apt are" (mnozi mudri i naueni jesu, ki sebe i jazik svoj zadovoljno pohvaliti i naresiti umili bi) but are ashamed of their Croatian language (jezika hrvackoga) and rather prefer to write in a foreign tongue. So Zorani, 3 centuries before the advent of Illyrian movement, made a defense of the Croatian language, which is one of the most important attributes of this piece.

Brne Karnaruti (Zadar, 1515 - Zadar, 1573) was Croatian Renaissance poet and writer. He was born in Zadar probably in 1515 as a descent of old noble family. After schooling in Zadar he studied law, probably in Padua. He served as a captain in Venice navy, and afterwards worked as an advocate in Zadar, where he deceased probably in 1573.

Cover of the first edition of Vazetje Sigeta grada, Venice, 1584

He adapted Ovid's metamorphosis on Pyramus and Thisbe under the title of Izvrsita ljubav i napokon nemila i nesrina smrt Pirama i Tizbe (Venice, 1586). Much more famous is Karnaruti's other work - Vazetje Sigeta grada (Venice, 1584), the first Croatian historical epic on the Battle of Szigetvr and the death of Nikola ubi Zrinski and courageous defenders ofSzigetvr (1566)