Croatian literature refers to literary works attributed to the medieval and modern culture of the Croats, Croatia, and Croatian. Besides the modern language whose shape and orthography were standardized in the late 19th century, it also covers the oldest works produced within the modern borders of Croatia, written in Church Slavonic and Medieval Latin, as well as vernacular works written in Čakavian and Kajkavian dialects.
Croatian medieval literature Croatian medieval prose is similar to other European medieval literature of the time. The oldest testaments to Croatian literacy are dated to the 11th and 12th centuries, and Croatian medieval literature lasted until the middle of the 16th century. Some elements of medieval forms can be found even in 18th-century Croatian literature, meaning their influence was stronger in Croatia than in the rest of Europe. Early Croatian literature was inscribed on stone tablets, hand-written on manuscripts, and printed in books. A special segment of Croatian medieval literature is written in Latin. The first works on hagiography and the history of the Church were written in the Dalmatian coastal cities (Split, Zadar, Trogir, Osor, Dubrovnik, Kotor), for example the "Splitski evanđelistar" (6th–7th century) and other liturgical and non-liturgical works. The beginning of Croatian medieval literature is marked by Latin hagiography, with texts about Dalmatian and Istrian martyrs: Saint Duje, Saint Anastasius, Saint Maurice and Saint Germanus. In Panonia in northern Croatia, works about Christian cults were created, such as that of Saint Quirinus, Saint Eusebius and Saint Pollio. For centuries, the Croats wrote all their works regarding law, history (chronicles) and scientific works in Latin, so they were available as part of a wider European literature.
Croatian medieval prose was written in two languages, Croatian and Church Slavonic, using three different alphabets, Glagolitic, Latin and Bosnian Cyrillic. Among these, there was some interaction, as evidenced by documents carrying two forms of letters, especially with respect to Glagolitic and Cyrillic texts, and some Latin relied on Glagolitic forms. That interaction makes Croatian writing unique among Slavic prose and even in European literature. Croatian medieval literature reflects the general trends within European literature, though there were some different traits, for example, literature directed at the common people, a strong background tradition of oral literature, blending of religious topics and interweaving of genres. A significant part of Croatian early literature is based on translations, with typical Central European edits. Croatian early literature was influenced by two spheres: from the East (Byzantine and Church Slavonic inheritance) and the West (from Latin, Italian, Franco-Italian and Czech traditions).
From the 14th century, western influence remained strong in Croatian literature. Recognizing these patterns, Croatian authors, mostly anonymous, adapted their work to the specific needs of the community in which and for which they wrote. Despite their writings being largely translations, this literature achieved a notably artistic level of language and style. One of the most significant achievements was keeping alive the Church Slavonic written language (especially in the Glagolitic alphabet). In later periods, elements of that language came to be used in expressive ways and as a signal of "high style", incorporating current vernacular words and becoming capable of transferring knowledge on a wide range of subjects, from law and theology, chronicles and scientific texts, to works of literature. Such medieval works in the people's own language are the starting point for the literature of later periods. Anonymous poets and singers, developing their own styles of typically religious poetry of this period, were referred to as the "začinjavci" by later authors and sources.
As such, the first secular poetry in the native language also began appearing during the middle of the 14th century, both written in Glagolithic and Latin scripts, most notable of which is Svit se konča ("The world is ending").
The oldest artefacts of Croatian medieval prose are Glagolitic inscribed stone tablets: Valun tablet, Plomin tablet and the Krk inscription from the 11th century, and the Baška tablet from the 11th or 12th century. The Baška tablet is the first complete document on the people's language with elements of literal Church Slavonic. It is often regarded as the "birth certificate" of Croatian, and carries the first mention of the Croats. The inscribed stone records King Zvonimir's donation of a piece of land to a Benedictine abbey in the time of Abbot Drzhiha. It provides the only example of the transition from the Glagolitic of the rounded Macedonian type to the angular Croatian alphabet.
Other early writings are the Senj tablet, Plastovo tablet, Knin tablet and Supetar tablet, all dating to the 12th century and the Humac tablet from the 11th or 12th century. The fragments of the Vienna leaves from a Glagolithic codex dating from the 11th/12th century, written somewhere in Western Croatia, represents the first liturgical writing of Croatian recension in the Church Slavonic. The Povlja tablet (Croatian: Povaljska listina) is the earliest document written in the Cyrillic script, dating from the 12th century and tracing its origin to Brač,Rački, F. 1881. Najstarija hrvatska cirilicom pisana listina. Starine 13, JAZU, Zagreb, 197–210. it features the standard "archaic" Chakavian dialect.
Other legal documents such as the Vrbnik Statute, Vinodol statute and Kastav Statute describe the regulations of those coastal cities as administrative centres.
Only fragments are saved from hand-written documents, and they bear witness to a rich literary tradition on Croatian soil. These are part of biblical-liturgical works: fragments of apostles, such as Mihanović's apostle and Grašković's fragment, both created in the 12th century; fragments of missals, such as the first page of Kievan papers from the 11th or 12th century and the Vienna papers from the 12th century, those are the oldest Croatian documents of liturgical content; fragments of breviaries, like the London fragments, Vrbnik fragments and Ročki fragments, all dating to the 13th century. All of the Glagolitic documents form a continuity with those created simultaneously in Bulgarian, Macedonian, Czech and Russian areas. But by the 12th and 13th centuries, the Croats had developed their own form of Glagolitic script and were adapting Croatian with Chakavian influences. In doing so, the Croats formed their own version of Church Slavonic, which lasted into the 16th century. At the same time, biblical books were written according to the model of the Latin Vulgate. From that time come the oldest surviving texts of hagiographic legends and apocryphal prose, an example being the Budapest fragments (12th century with part of a legend about Saint Simeon and Saint Thecla from the 13th century, part of apocryphal works of Paul and Thecla).
Renaissance literature
The first book printed in Croatian is the Missale Romanum Glagolitice (). Dating from 1483, it was notable as being the first non-Latin printed missal anywhere in Europe. It is also the first printed book of the South Slavic idiom.
New poetical forms from elsewhere in Europe were absorbed during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Croatian Renaissance, strongly influenced by Italian and Western European literature, was most fully developed in the coastal areas of Croatia.
In the Republic of Ragusa (today's Dubrovnik), there was a flowering of vernacular lyrical poetry, particularly love poems. One of the most important records of the early works is Nikša Ranjina's Miscellany, a collection of poems, mostly written by Šiško Menčetić and Džore Držić. Poems in the miscellany deal chiefly with the topic of love and are written predominantly in a doubly-rhymed dodecasyllabic meter.
In Split, the Dalmatian humanist Marko Marulić was widely known in Europe at the time for his writings in Latin, but his major legacy is considered to be his works in Croatian,Marulianum Center for study of Marko Marulić and his literary activity. – Retrieved on 28 November 2015. the most celebrated of which is the epic poem Judita, written in 1501 and published in Venice in 1521. It is based on the Biblical tale from the Deuterocanonical Book of Judith and written in the Čakavian dialect. The work is described by him as u versi haruacchi slozhena ("arranged in Croatian stanzas"). It incorporates figures and events from the classical Bible, adapting them for contemporary literature.Dunja Fališevac, Krešimir Nemec, Darko Novaković (2000). Leksikon hrvatskih pisaca. Zagreb: Školska knjiga d.d. .
The next important artistic figure in the early stages of the Croatian Renaissance was Petar Hektorović, the song collector and poet from the island of Hvar, most notable for his poem Fishing and Fishermen's Talk. It is the first piece of Croatian literature written in verse in which travel is not described allegorically but as a real journey, describing the beauties of nature and homeland. Hektorović also recorded the songs sung by the fishermen, making this one of the earliest examples in Croatian literature to include transcribed folk music within the text. This makes Ribanje a work that blends artistic and folk literature. At the same time in Hvar, Hanibal Lucić was translating Ovid's work (Croatian: ""). He also wrote drama - his play (The Slave Girl) being the first secular play in Croatian literature - and love poetry.
Croatian literature expanded into prose and plays with authors such as Dinko Zlatarić, Mavro Vetranović and Marin Držić. The first Croatian novel, (Mountains) written by Petar Zoranić and published posthumously in 1569 in Venice, featured the author as an adventurer, portraying his passionate love towards a native girl. It was uniquely stylized and provided a description of the surrounding land against the backdrop of the then-current political situation of invading Turks.
Baroque literature The prevailing Baroque culture emerged in Croatia later during the 17th century, where it was a period of counter-reformation. Literature was marked by flamboyance, with pious and lofty themes using rich metaphors in which the form becomes more important than the content. Regional literary circles developed, such as Dubrovnik, Slavic, Kajkav and Ozalj.Hrvatska barokna knji%C5%BEevnost (Croatian baroque literature) At this time, the lack of a standard Croatian language became a prominent issue.
Dubrovnik became the chief literary centre, with Ivan Gundulić playing a leading role. Gundulić's most famous play is Dubravka, a pastoral written in 1628, where he rhapsodises on the former glory of Dubrovnik, and it contains some of the most famous verses in Croatian literature: O liepa, o draga, o slatka slobodo (Fair liberty, beloved liberty, liberty sweetly avowed). In his greatest work, , Gundulić presents the contrasts between Christianity and Islam, Europe and the Turks, West and East, and what he viewed as freedom and slavery. The work is firmly rooted within the rich literary tradition of the Croatian Baroque in Dubrovnik and Dalmatia and is considered one of its masterpieces.
Other notable literary figures in Dubrovnik at the time were Junije Palmotić, Ivan Bunić Vučić, Ignjat Đurđević, Stijepo Đurđević, Vladislav Menčetić, Petar Bogašinović, Petar Kanavelić, Jerolim Kavanjin and Rafael Levaković. Many works were translated from Latin and Italian into the local vernacular language and specifically, that used by the lower-class peasantry of the city.Stephen R. Graubard (1998). A New Europe for the Old?, Transaction Publishers,