''Planine'' () is a work of

prose fiction Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, ...

, generally considered to be the first Croatian

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

. It was written by

Petar Zoranić Petar Zoranić (1508 – before 1569) was a Croatian writer and poet from Zadar. He is most important as the author of '' Planine'', regarded as the first Croatian novel. Pastoral in nature, the novel A novel is an extended work of narrative ...

in 1536 and published posthumously in Venice in 1569. The story tells about a poet's imaginary seven-day journey across Croatian mountains on which he embarks to forget his love miseries. Although

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

in form, the principal line of the story is patriotic. It is composed of 24 chapters, and the introduction contains a dedication to Matej Matijević, the canon of Nin.

Plot summary

The hero is the shepherd Zoran (i.e. Zoranić himself), who for seven years has been suffering from unrequited love towards a maiden Jaga. One morning, wandering around, he arrives at a well called Vodica, having gotten bored with his life. Suddenly, from a well a fairy Zorica (Napeja) appears, advising him to go to the mountains to find a particular plant which will cure his love pain. Then, on a golden apple, he makes a note of a beautiful fairy named Grace (Milošća), who transports him across the seas to Podgorje, where he continues his journey alone. 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 The Paklenica karst river canyon is a national park in Croatia. It is near Starigrad, northern Dalmatia, on the southern slopes of Velebit mountain, not far from Zadar. It contains two canyons, Mala (Small) and Velika (Big) Paklenica. History ...

), where the fairy tells him a tale of 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 a story from shepherds about the origin of Velebit and heads further st. 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 is a mountain range in the Dinaric Alps, located on the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. It has four major mountains or peaks, from north-west to south-east: * Ilica or Ujilica (1,654 m) * Sinjal or Dinara (1,831 m), epony ...

. Dinara frees him by her 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 about 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, fairy Krka, which drives him across

Knin Knin () is a city in the Šibenik-Knin County of Croatia, located in the Dalmatian hinterland near the source of the river Krka (Croatia), Krka, an important traffic junction on the rail and road routes between Zagreb and Split, Croatia, Split. ...

Skradin Skradin is a small town in the Šibenik-Knin County of Croatia. It is located near the Krka (Croatia), Krka river and at the entrance to the Krka National Park, from Šibenik and from Split, Croatia, Split. The main attraction of the park, Slapo ...

and

Šibenik Šibenik (), historically known as Sebenico (), is a historic town in Croatia, located in central Dalmatia, where the river Krka (Croatia), Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea. Šibenik is one of the oldest Croatia, Croatian self-governing cities ...

down to the mouth of Krka (where she makes her disappearance). Thence, fairy Grace returns him to Zaton, the place of his departure. There he finds a grave of Juraj Divnić, the bishop of Nin, and swears to follow the path of the Lord's love.

Meaning and edification

Zoranić lived in times of great danger from invading Ottoman Turks, and that consciousness has inspired his work; it pervaded it with patriotic fervour, against which all poets' sufferings, wishes, and troubles pale and retreat. It is a pastoral-allegorical novel (a very common type of prose in that period), written mostly in prose but with many passages in verse. Typologically, it's a unique piece of its kind in

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 motifs borrowed from Latinate and Italian literatures, with clearly discernible influences of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

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 ...

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was s ...

Petrarch Francis Petrarch (; 20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374; ; modern ), born Francesco di Petracco, was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest Renaissance humanism, humanists. Petrarch's redis ...

Jacopo Sannazaro Jacopo Sannazaro (; 28 July 1458 – 6 August 1530) was an Italian poet, Renaissance humanism, humanist, member and head of the Accademia Pontaniana from Kingdom of Naples, Naples. He wrote easily in Latin language, Latin, in Italian and in Neap ...

, as well as domicile writers such as

Marko Marulić Marko Marulić Splićanin (; ; 18 August 1450 – 5 January 1524), was a Croatian poet, lawyer, judge, and Renaissance humanist. He is the national poet of Croatia. According to George J. Gutsche, Marulić's epic poem '' Judita'' "is the first ...

and Croatian ''začinjavci''. ''Planine'' are in fact an

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

: they are a dream, transferred to the alleged Zoran's path from Nin across the sea to Starigrad under the

Velebit Velebit (; ; ) is the largest, though not the highest, mountain range in Croatia. The range forms a part of the Dinaric Alps and is located along the Adriatic coast, separating it from Lika in the interior. Velebit begins in the northwest near ...

, and thence uphills, over

, across the

, and from

Lika Lika () is a traditional region of Croatia proper, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by t ...

, where he would by the river of Krka settle down to

and thence by the sea back to Nin. Accompanied by stanzas of Petrarchan and pastoral voice, Zoranić's novel, imbuing with life an Arcadian idyll, echoes with "sorrowful shepard's tune of dispersed legacy" (''tužbenim pojem pastirov od rasute bašćine''), 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 naučeni jesu, ki sebe i jazik svoj zadovoljno pohvaliti i naresiti umili bi'') but are ashamed of their Croatian (''jezika hrvackoga'') and rather prefer to write in a foreign tongue. So Zoranić, three centuries before the advent of the

Illyrian movement The Illyrian movement (; ) was a pan-South-Slavic cultural and political campaign with roots in the early modern period, and revived by a group of young Croatian intellectuals during the first half of the 19th century, around the years of 1835 t ...

, made a defense of Croatian, which is one of the most important attributes of this piece. Although the work was praised by modern literary analysts for its aesthetics, some criticized it for being too derivative in some aspects.Petar Zoranić i njegove Planine u književnoj historiografiji
Katarina Dukovac, 2017, pp. 9-12

References

External links

* *{{cite web, url=http://www.lektire.eu/lektira/planine-petar-zoranic, title=Planine, Petar Zoranić, language=hr, accessdate=22 May 2021 1560s in Croatia 1569 novels Croatian novels Novels published posthumously 1536 novels Novels set in Croatia

Plot summary

Meaning and edification

See also

References

Further reading

External links