MARULIĆ, MARKO
(1450–1524)

Marko Marulić, the Croatian poet, historian, and philosopher, was born in Split, Dalmatia. Marulić's epic, Istorija Svete Udovice Judit (The History of the Holy Widow Judith; Vinegia, 1521), is the oldest Croatian epic and the first printed Croatian literary work. Like all of Marulić's poetry, it is both epic and didactic. Marulić's philosophical works were written in Latin and translated into German, French, Italian, Portuguese, and other languages. His De Institutione Bene Beateque Vivendi per Exempla Sanctorum, first published in Venice in 1506, was reprinted, in the original or in translation, fifteen times in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His Evangelistarium (Venice, 1516) was printed nine times.

Marulić was influenced by the Renaissance humanists and was also a student of the classical Greek philosophers, but he was at the same time an outstanding representative of then-modern Christian philosophical thought. He enriched Christian moral teaching with the abundant wealth of Stoic-Platonic moral thought and revived traditional philosophy in the spirit of humanism. Marulić regarded Epicurean and Stoic ethics as antithetically opposed and Stoic ethics as superior to Epicurean. In general, he rejected all forms of hedonism and utilitarianism, and with them ethical subjectivism and relativism.

Marulić's exposition of a Christian ethics combined with elements of Stoicism and Platonism was enlivened by examples from life. This original synthesis of ancient elements, rejuvenated by humanism, was greatly appreciated in its day, especially for its service in the Catholic fight against the Reformation. Although ethical problems were Marulić's main concern, he also considered the fundamental problems of philosophy.

See also Epicureanism and the Epicurean School; Ethical Subjectivism; Ethics, History of; Hedonism; Humanism; Platonism and the Platonic Tradition; Reformation; Renaissance; Stoicism; Utilitarianism.

Bibliography

For additional philosophical works by Marulić, see Quinquaginta Parabolae (Venice, 1510); De Humilitate et Gloria Christi (Venice, 1519); and Dialogus de Laudibus Herculis a Christianis Superacto (Venice, 1524).

For works on Marulić, see Zbornik Marka Marulića 1450–1950 (Zagreb, 1950), a commemorative volume honoring Marulić, published by the Yugoslav Academy of Arts and Sciences, with a complete bibliography of Marulić's works and of works about his life and writings.

Vladimir Filipović (1967)