FAMOUS CROATS 2004 - 500 ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF ANTUN VRANČIĆ

The stamps have been issued in 20-stamp sheets, and the Croatian Post has also issued a commemorative First Day Cover (FDC). Antun Vrančić (Latin: Antonius Verantius) was born in Cibenik on May 19th, 1504. He spent his childhood age in Trogir and also in his birthplace, and following the invitation of his uncle Ivan Statilić came to the court of King János Zápolya. He was educated in Padua, Vienna and Krakow, and was afterwards made János Zápolya’s secretary, and after the king’s death secretary to his widow Isabella. Dissatisfied with the state of affairs at the court, he entered the service of King Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg in 1549. On account of services rendered in diplomacy, he was appointed Bishop of Pécs, and from there he started on his diplomatic embassy mission to Turkey where he remained for four years, waiting to be granted audience. There, together with the Dutch diplomat and humanist A.G. de Busbecq, he came across the famous Latin legal monument Monumentum Ancyranum. After his return from Istanbul he was appointed Bishop of Eger. After the fall of Sziget in 1566 he returned on his embassy mission to Turkey to reach a ceasefire agreement. Having successfully completed his task, after his return he was appointed Archbishop of Esztergom and primate of Hungary. The highest position in the ecclesiastical hierarchy that Vrančić reached was the appointment to the honour of cardinal and the King’s vice-regent. He died at Preąov, in today’s Slovakia, on June 15th, 1573. As a humanist, he wanted to devote himself to literature, primarily to history and geography, but other obligations and the diplomatic service drew him away from literature. Despite all this, stealing his own time from himself and others, he wrote a number of important papers: De situ Transylvaniae, Moldaviae et Transalpinae (The position of Erdely, Moldavia and Transylvanian Alps); Vita Petri Berislavi (The life of Petar Berislavić); De rebus gestis Joannis, regis Hungariae (The works of the Hungarian King János). His travelogue Journey from Buda to Drin remained unfinished (it was first published by Alberto Fortis). He used to write long letters from his journeys to his brother Mihovil to Šibenik. From all the texts he had written in the Croatian language, only his ‘Prayer that I composed and spoke every day’ remained, printed in The Christian doctrine by Ivan Tomko Mrnavić (1627). His best literary work is included in the collection of Latin poems Otia (‘Poems about leisure’, in J.Torbarina’s translation called ‘Lastovanja’), printed in Krakow in 1542, which contains forty-two poems. Two among them are written in Italian. The collection contains mostly epigrams. There is a variance of themes in Vrančić’s epigrams: some are satirical, the others political, and the third group are erotic epigrams. The first collection of elegies, also printed in Krakow in 1537 has, apparently, not been preserved. In Vrančić’s collection of letters (Epistolary) about a thousand letters have been preserved, written within the time range of some forty years. Most of the letters have been written by himself, but a number of letters addressed to him have also been preserved. They were written in the Latin, Italian and Hungarian languages. He used to correspond with the most eminent people of his time, with eminent European humanists, polyhistorians and heretics, as well as his Croatian friends (S.Brodarić, I.Gregorijanec, A.Dudić, J.Drašković, F.Trankvil Andreis). In these letters, immensely valuable materials on the time he lived in and the political events in which he participated can be found. Among the finest letters is his love letter to his friend, the Venetian Magdalena Millaversi. Vrančić’s figure is described in the novel Psi u trgovištu (‘Dogs in the market town’) by Ivan Aralica.