Marulić was born on 18 August 1450 into the
Croatian nobility in
Split,
Dalmatia. He was the first of seven children. The palazzo in which he was born still stands on Papalić Street in Split. His father, Nikola Marulić, was descended from the Pečenić family (
Pecinić,
Picinić, Pezzini in
Italian). Marulić came from a
15th century branch of the family whose founder was named Petar, and who only began calling themselves Marulić,
Marulus or
De Marulis, in the 15th century. Marko Marulić identified himself primarily as a citizen of Split and, secondly, as a Dalmatian. On the title pages of his books, he consistently signed as a native of Split. Very little is known about his life, and the few facts that remain are often unreliable. It is certain that he attended a school in Split run by the Italian Renaissance humanist scholar Tideo Acciarini (1430–1490). Marulić's education is known also to have included instruction in the
Greek language by Hieronymus Genesius Picentinus. Although his library later contained many textbooks on the language, Marulić read and spoke it imperfectly and only rarely used Greek words. After completing school, Marulić is believed to have studied law at
Padua University, after which he spent much of his life in his home town. His star-crossed love affair with a Split noblewoman ended when her father, the commander of the city's Venetian military garrison, allegedly
buried her alive. A grieving Marulić lived for about two years as a
postulant at a
monastery on the island of
Šolta, in the
Adriatic Sea. Returning to Split, Marulić practiced law, serving as a
judge, examiner of notarial entries and executor of wills. Owing to his work, he became the most distinguished member of Split's humanist circle. Marulić's
Evangelistarium ("Evangelistary"), a moral and theological compendium of Old and New Testament texts, was first published in 1487. The book was later republished by
Italian Jewish publisher
Gershom Soncino at
Pisa and a copy of that edition was purchased by the German humanist scholar and
Hebraist Johann Reuchlin in 1492. In 1519, another edition of the "Evangelistary" was published by
Sebastian Münster. Between 1496 and 1499, Marulić worked on a compendium of
Christian morality, entitled
De institutione bene vivendi per exempla sanctorum ("Instruction on How to Lead a Virtuous Life Based on the Examples of Saints"). According to
Latinist and
Classicist Edward Mulholland, Marulić's primary model for
De institutione was the
Memorable Deeds and Sayings of
Valerius Maximus. Maximus had intended in the writing of his book, "to spare those who want to learn the lessons of history the trouble of prolonged researches" and accordingly organized the nine books of his volume, "to illustrate a particular virtue or vice", and it became a widely used textbook in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, both of
rhetoric and as, "a gallery of practical moral instruction." In addition to Old and New Testament examples, Marulić also drew upon the writings of
St Jerome,
Gregory the Great,
Eusebius of Caesarea,
John Cassian, the lives of the saints, and other Ecclesiastical writers. Marulić's
De institutione was first published in Latin at
Venice in 1507 and became well known in the
Germanosphere when
Adam Petri reprinted it at Basel in 1513. The compendium was widely and repeatedly reprinted and translated into many
vernacular languages, which established Marulić's fame throughout Europe. Occasionally Marulić visited Venice (to trade) and
Rome (to celebrate the year 1500). According to his friend and early biographer Franjo Božičević, "for nearly forty years he sweated, shut up with the
Muses, in divine volumes, nocturnal study, vigils,
fasting, a
hair shirt, prayers and
rough floggings, not without
harsh penance day and night." He was a great admirer of the late medieval religious movement known as
Devotio Moderna. By 1509, Marulić had finished translating
Thomas à Kempis'
The Imitation of Christ, a highly important literary and devotional work of the movement, from Medieval Latin into Croatian. His translation, however, remained unpublished until 1989. His friend and fellow humanist Dmine Papalić found an old volume of
local history composed in the
Illyrian language and in the
Early Cyrillic alphabet. At his friend's urging, Marulić both paraphrased and translated the volume into Latin as
Regum Dalmatiae et Croatiae gesta ("The Deeds of the Kings of Dalmatia and Croatia"), as he completed
Quinquaginta parabole ("Fifty Parables"), which is, according to Edward Mulholland, "Modeled after the
parables of the
New Testament, they consist in moral lessons in elegant Latin prose drawn from simple stories". Both books were first published in 1510. He finished writing
The Life of St. Jerome in 1513. The following year, he completed
Carmen de doctrina Domini nostri Iesu Christi pendentis in cruce ("Poem about the Teaching of Our Lord Jesus Christ Hanging on the Cross"), which has usually been published as part of
De institutione bene vivendi and which remains his most famous work of Christian poetry in Latin. In 1517, Marulić finished his epic poem the
Davidiad, which was considered lost for more than 400 years, only rediscovered in 1952, and published for the first time in 1954. Similarly to both Catholic and Protestant humanists of the same era, Marulić used
The Davidiad to preach a multilayered interpretation of the Old Testament, as pre-figuring the foundation of
Christianity through the later events described in the
New Testament. For example, Marulić compared
David to
Jesus Christ, King
Saul to
Caiaphas, the
Pharisees, and the
Sanhedrin, while comparing
Goliath to
the Devil. Marulić also used his description of David and his warriors eating the
Bread of the Presence while fleeing from King Saul an opportunity to praise the Catholic doctrine of the
Real Presence in the
Blessed Sacrament. Furthermore, Marulić's study of the
Hebrew language was just as often on display in the
Davidiad; as, despite the difficulties he routinely faced in fitting Hebrew words into the rhythm of Latin
dactylic
hexameter, he regularly made humorous comments about how very well the
etymology of Hebrew personal names fit the character or appearance of their bearers. According to Edward Mulholland, "Most early modern poets chose as their heroes either ancient historical characters -
Petrarch's
Africa (written 1339-43, first published in
Venice in 1501) on the
Second Punic War showing the lead - or medieval figures such as
Charlemagne in
Ugolino Verino's
Carlias (1480), or, most frequently, contemporary rulers. Marulić was the very first author to write a Neo-Latin Biblical poem, and he would remain unique in having found his inspiration in the
Old Testament. Though certainly a Dalmatian patriot, Marulić did not choose to write a
national epic. He is retelling the Biblical story first and foremost, but from the fullness of his multifaceted persona as, in Baumann's words, 'a Croat, a humanist, a conservative Catholic, an intellectual and a patrician of Split." Marulić wrote
De humilitate et gloria Christi ("On the Humility and Glory of Christ") and
An Account of Illustrious Men of the Old Testament the following year. His final works were
De ultimo Christi judicio ("On the Last Judgment of Christ") and
Judita, Marulić's
Christian work of epic poetry retelling the
Book of Judith in the Croatian language, which he produced between 1520 and 1522. The latter, which also drew very heavily upon the
Italian poetry of
Dante Alighieri and
Petrarch, earned Marulić the title "Father of
Croatian literature." Upon completing the poem on 22 April, which is still celebrated in Croatia as
National Book Day (
hr), Marulić wrote to a friend, "See it and you will say that the
Slavonic language also has its Dante." Marko Marulić died in Split on 5 January 1524 and was buried in the Church of St. Francis in the historic city center. Marulić's
Liber de laudibus Herculis ("A Book in Praise of Hercules"), in which he, "lets the followers of
Hercules, the titan of the pagans, compete with the titan of the Christians, that is, Jesus Christ, who, of course, is ultimately the victor", was posthumously published in 1524. It is also known under the title
Dialogus de Hercule a Christicolis superato ("The Dialogue about Hercules, Who was Surpassed by Those Who Worship Christ"). According to Edward Mulholland, "In it he makes the argument that one who has conquered beasts and monsters, as Hercules did, is not as strong as one who has mastered himself, which is the ideal of every Christian. But Marulić also shares his thoughts on the use of mythology and epic. The dialogue is between a theologian and a poet. The question underlying the dialogue seems to be which way is the most secure to arrive at the truth... For Marulić, as Elisabeth von Erdmann points out, pagan myth and poetry gained a certain legitimacy when employed in the service of theology." == Legacy ==