Pavao Ritter Vitezović

Depiction of Kompolje, Slovenia, signed as P.R.f (Paul Ritter fecit - made by Pavao Ritter) c. 1679

Vitezović contributed between 54 and 60 prints to Valvasor's Topographia Ducatus Carnioliae Modernae (1679) and Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (1689), both as draftsman and engraver.[16][17] These were typically cities and places of Croatia and Carniola, which according to Vjekoslav Klaić, he "visited carrying a sketchbook, drew them, transcribing them later onto copper plates".[16] His abilities as a graphic artist were later used in his 1701 heraldic book Stemmatografia. He studied cartography under Austrian Georg Matthäus Vischer, whose maps of Austria influenced his later works, which he used in his 1700 work Croatia rediviva.[16]

As a skilled cartographer, he became a member of the Austrian military commission for the demarcation of the Croatian lands and the Ottoman Empire (1699), under Ferdinand Luigi Marsigli. He, along with other contributors sketched the neighbouring areas, much of which is preserved in the National Archives of Austria. A total of five maps are preserved in the Croatian State Archives, which are attributed to him.[18][19]

He wrote his poems both in Latin and Croatian.[20] His first poetical work Odiljenje sigetsko (The Separation of Siget) was first published in 1679, in Linz. The third edition of the work was later self-published in Zagreb in 1695.[21] It is variously described as an epic poem centered on the aforementioned siege (similar to Vazetje Sigeta Grada) or a lyrical commentary of Petar Zrinski's Adrianskoga mora Sirena[22] (Siren of the Adriatic Sea), all written in doubly rhymed dodecasyllable, typical rhyming scheme in Croatia at the time.[20] He wrote Latin epistles to a number of Croatian, Austrian and Hungarian dignitaries and friends, numbering roughly 9000 lines of verse. In 1703, he self-published (Zagreb) Plorantis Croatiae Saecula Duo (Two Centuries of Croatia in Mourning), a work which is described as a poeticized chronicle[23] framed as a pseudo-autobiography, and an allegory to the baroque Stabat Mater topos.[24] It is centered on first-person narration by a personified Croatia (presented as mother-homeland), which tells its tale as a personal history of suffering with detailed psychosomatic manifestations. This was followed by a vernacular poem Senjčica (1704), which demonstrates Vitezović was primarily motivated by patriotism, making him a precursor of such Croatian poets of the 19th century.[25]

Overall reception to Vitezović's poetry has been mixed. While the historian Violeta Moretti praised his epistolaries as "mainly rich, well formed and fluent", she criticized his other Latin poems as being elusive in their meaning.[20] Zrinka Blažević of the University of Zagreb praised his work Two Centuries of Croatia in Mourning as among the best Croatian poetical works in Latin, containing great aesthetic qualities and an unusual narrative structure.[26] Conversely, Mihovil Kombol regarded his work Odiljenje sigetsko as lacking great poetic invention, instead treating its value primarily in historiographical terms. This interpretation was criticized by literary historian and writer Pavao Pavličić, stating Vitezović had excellent knowledge of language and skill in versification, managing to create great and inventive poetry in certain places within the work. Pavličić claimed this negative view stemmed from misinterpretation of Vitezović's intentions, which is not to create an epic, but a lyrical collection intended to expand the existing aspects of the Siege of Siget.[27]

Map of Velebit and the surrounding area, as drawn by Vitezović in 1701 (detail)

Literary historians such as Branko Vodnik, Mihovil Kombol regard him as a major figure of his age, particularly important for his ideas, using his vast energy and considerable talent to produce more works than perhaps all other individuals combined within Croatia proper during the 18th century. They also describe him as the most visionary and complete Croatian author of his time. In his literary works, he was traditional and innovative on one hand drawing parallels with Ignjat Đurđević, and on the other strove to bring his books to the masses and those less educated, which brought him closer to the Age of Enlightenment. He wrote his works in Latin and Croatian, covering a great variety of genres and themes, which included his many interests in historiography, heraldry, poetry, copper engraving, publishing and printing monthly calendars, proverbs, puzzles, poetics, linguistics and geography.[28]

Ritter Vitezović proposed an idea for orthography solution for the Croatian language that every sound should have only one letter, and this idea later inspired the linguist Ljudevit Gaj to reform the Croatian variant of Latin script and create Gaj's Latin alphabet.[8]

He created the Croatian exclusivist discourse within the early Illyrian movement and introduced the 'historical appropriation' concept to the Balkans which is actually an idea to claim national territory on the basis of the past conquests.[29][30] He was the first ideologist of Croatian nation who proclaimed that all Slavs are Croats.[31] The foundations of the concept of Greater Croatia are laid in Vitezović's works.[32] His works were used to legitimize the expansionism of the Habsburg Empire in southeastern Europe by asserting its historical rights to claim Illyria.[31][33] "Illyria" as Slavic territory projected by Vitezović would eventually incorporate not only most of southeastern Europe but also Hungary.[34] Vitezović defined Croatian territory, as including, besides Illyria and all Slavic-populated territory, the territory between the Adriatic, Black and Baltic seas.[33] Ferdo Šišić consequently regarded "Croatia Rediviva" as a "Bible of Croat national policy in the 19th century", inspiring such individuals as Ljudevit Gaj, Eugen Kvaternik and Ante Starčević.[35]

His heraldic works influenced Balkan nationalistic iconography of the 19th century in Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. He also wrote the first history of the Serbs, which remains in manuscript.[29] He skillfully fabricated numerous genealogies and forged most of the Trophaeum nobilissimae domus Estorasianae (a genealogical treatise ordered by Pál Esterházy).[36]

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