Jerolim Kavanjin, also known as Girolamo Cavagnini (4 February 1641 – 29 November 1714), was a Venetian poet from Spalato (now

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

) who wrote in the

Croatian language Croatian (; ) is the standard language, standardised Variety (linguistics)#Standard varieties, variety of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language mainly used by Croats. It is the national official language and literary standard of Croatia, o ...

Biography

Kavanjin was born into a wealthy and noble family of Split, as a descendant of the Croaticised Italian family Cavagnini. Kavanjin rose to prominence at the same time as

Ignjat Đurđević Ignjat Đurđević, also known as Ignazio Giorgi (February 1675 – 21 January 1737) was a Dubrovnik, Ragusan baroque poet and translator, best known for his long poem ("The Sighs of the Repentant Mary Magdalene, Magdalene"). He wrote poetry i ...

at the beginning of the 18th century. He was married to the sister of John Peter Marchi. In 1703, Kavanjin became a member of the Illyrian Academy Marchi founded in 1703. In his summer mansion on Sutivan, on the island of

Brač Brač is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, with an area of , making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. It is separated from the mainland by the Brač Channel, which is wide.Croatian literature Croatian literature refers to literary works attributed to the medieval and modern culture of the Croats, Croatia, and Croatian language, Croatian. Besides the modern language whose shape and orthography were standardized in the late 19th centu ...

, with approximately 32,500 verses: '' Poviest vanđelska bogatoga a nesretna Epuluna i ubogoga a čestita Lazara'', usually referred to by the later editors, according to the subtitle in the original, as ("Riches and Poverty"). This religious-philosophical epic is poetically inconsistent but stylistically marked (it is written, beside Split

Čakavian Chakavian or Čakavian (, , , proper name: or own name: ''čokovski, čakavski, čekavski'') is a South Slavic languages, South Slavic supradialect or language spoken by Croats along the Adriatic coast, in the historical regions of Dalmati ...

, in Ijekavian– Ikavian Štokavian). Expressing the spirit of philosophical movements of the 17th and 18th centuries, this "encyclopædia in verses" ( Josip Aranza) directs its Baroque spirituality towards the cogitation on life and human essentiality in the dual nature of the human and the divine. Beside the classical humanistic, Latinate, and Italian literatures (such as

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

), the Bible and other religious writings, and beside the historical authors (such as

Constantine Porphyrogenitus Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Byzantine emperor of the Macedonian dynasty, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, an ...

, priest of Duklja,

Mavro Orbini Mavro Orbini (1563–1614) was a Ragusan chronicler, notable for his work '' The Realm of the Slavs'' (1601) which influenced Slavic ideology and historiography in the later centuries. Life Orbini was born in Ragusa (now Dubrovnik), the capital ...

), writings of the Old

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...

have constituted the basic Kavanjin's reading list, above others

Junije Palmotić Junije (Džono) Palmotić, (also ''Giunio'' in Italian or ''Junius Palmotta'' in Latin) (1606 – 1657) was a Croatian literature#Baroque literature, Croatian baroque writer, poet and dramatist from the Republic of Ragusa. He was a member of the ...

and

Ivan Gundulić Dživo Franov Gundulić (; 8 January 1589 – 8 December 1638), better known today as Ivan Gundulić, was the most prominent Baroque literature, Baroque poet from the Republic of Ragusa (now in Croatia). He is regarded as the Croatian national ...

. Kavanjin identified with

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

and Dalmatia. John Fine interprets his pan-Slavism and Dalmatianism to have been close to an ethnic notion. Kavanjin died in

, aged 73.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kavanjin, Jerolim 1641 births 1714 deaths 18th-century Croatian poets People from Sutivan Writers from Split, Croatia Republic of Venice poets Venetian Slavs Illyrian Academy Croatian male poets 18th-century male writers