FAMOUS CROATS 2003 - 450TH DEATH ANNIVERSARY OF HANIBAL LUCIĆ

The stamps have been issued in a 20-stamp sheet, and the First Day Cover (FDC) was also issued. HANIBAL LUCIĆ (1485-1553), poet, playwright and translator, comes from a noble and rich family of landowners on the islands Hvar and Vis. He was active in the bodies of the city and local authorities as judge, lawyer and defender of the community. He was in constant written contacts with intellectuals and writers in Split and Trogir, writing epistles in verse and prose, primarily in the Croatian language. In his language there are elements of deeper and wider expanses of Croatian linguistic reality: the Old Slavonic and Old Croatian, štokavian and čakavian vocabulary, as well as a number of expressions, all of them are intertwined into a garland of successful and impressive poetry. He wrote two epistles-letters to Trogir, and he also wrote six sonnets in Italian addressed to distinguished persons in Hvar. His poems were published posthumously in Venice in 1556, under the title Skladanja izvarsnih pisan razlicitih (in the local dialect meaning approximately “Composition of various excellent poems”). In this collection most of Lucić’s opus has been preserved: 21 love poem, one allegory U vrime ko čisto poznati nije moć (“At the time one cannot recognize”), the play Robinja (“Female slave”), the poem U pohvalu grada Dubrovnika (“Praise to the city of Dubrovnik”), eight poetic epistles, two epitaphs and one translation from Ovid’s Heroide: Pariž Eleni (Paris to Helen of Troy). Lucić’s love poetry is definitely the most interesting and finest poetry within the circle of Croatian Renaissance writers. He is especially remembered by his introductory verses Jur ni jedna na svit vila/lipotom se već ne slavi (approximately “There is no other fairy that can boast of such beauty”) in which he gives an exceptionally fine portrait of his beloved - a fairy. The poem was written in octosyllabic lines in ten stanzas, eight verses each; the introductory verses are repeated at the end of each stanza in reverse order. The poem is a masterpiece of Croatian Renaissance poetry. Lucić has also enriched the literary linguistic expression of Croatian 16th century literature and enhanced it to the highest achievements by the introduction of double rhyme dodecasyllabic lines, octosyllabic lines and long-winded lines. His play Robinja (“Female slave”) was probably put on stage in 1530, which makes it the earliest Croatian drama with a domestic secular topic, to be exact, political topic. Though the motive of the first captured and then liberated female slave - fairy, was known before, like some of his poems-dialogues also found in the folklore in the form of moreška, the Dalmatian war dance, similar to the Morris dance, Lucić’s Robinja has sprung from local tradition, with recognizable characters: the female slave came from the noble family Majer Podmanicki, and the young hero Derenčin was the descendent of the unfortunate Banus Derenčin who was killed in the battle fought against the Turks on the battlefield of Krbava. The plot takes place in Dubrovnik, the free city, the Republic, and the prince participates in the feast of the young couple’s wedding. The play as a folk play continued being performed in Pag until the 19th century. Josip Bratulić