FAMOUS CROATS 2005 - 300TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF ADAM BALTAZAR KRČELIĆ

ADAM BALTAZAR KRČELIĆ (February 5th, 1715 – March 29th, 1778) Adam Baltazar Krčelić was born in Šenkovac near Zaprešić, on a small landed gentry’s estate on the 5th of February 1715. He was educated by the Jesuits in Zagreb, and continued his education at the bishopric gymnasium. Having distinguished himself by his talent, diligence and smartness, he was sent to the Croatian college in Vienna and afterwards to the Illyrian college in Bologna where he stayed for four years. He completed his studies by achieving a Ph.D. in philosophy and theology, and he was well-educated in both ecclesiastical and secular law. When he returned to Croatia he was first appointed chaplain of St. Martin’s church below the mountain of Okić, and later he was made parish priest in Sela near Sisak, a parish that can boast of a fine baroque church dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, admittedly built after his stay in the parish. Soon afterwards he was appointed prefect of the Zagreb junior seminary and then he was made canon. After that bishop Branjug appointed him rector of the Croatian college in Rome (1747). When Franjo Ksaver Klobušicki came to the bishop’s throne he appointed him, as his nearest collaborator, to be his assistant head. However, the arrival of Franjo Thauszy to rule the Zagreb bishopric marked the beginning of hard times for Krčelić. The new bishop proved to be a disruptive element regarding his scientific work, his promotion in ecclesiastical services, in the reception of honours and income. This is why in his testament Krčelić left his rich library to the Royal Academy which nowadays constitutes the fundamental part of the University and National Library in Zagreb. Krčelić died on the 29th of March 1778. Adam Baltazar Krčelić was an ardent follower of enlightened absolutism and considered that it was necessary to restrain the influence of the Church and the religious orders upon the social and political life of the society. He was a Court’s man which gained him numerous enemies in Croatia. He was strongly attacked but he retaliated in full measure. All this can be easily interpreted from his memoirs Annuae sive Historia – Yearly records or History, from the year 1748 inclusively and the following years (until 1767) for the enlightenment of the coming generations. The work remained in manuscript form, and after a certain period that had to pass before it could be read, a special committee read the manuscript and on some twenty pages used thick ink to cover those placed that could scandalize the readers. What had been written there can still not be read nowadays. The work was first published in Latin in 1901, and it was translated by Veljko Gortan into Croatian and published in 1952. Krčelić has written some very important books in Latin and Croatian. The first of them is the widely designed and only partly completed Historium cathedralis ecclesiae Zagrabiensis – the History of the Zagreb Cathedral (1770), a part of which was published only, i.e. the history from Bishop Duch to Bishop Nikola Stepanić (1602). Using the inheritance of the Zagreb canons Toma Kovačević and Juraj Marcelović, he added and supplemented their work on ecclesiastical history, while in the area of political ideas he followed his ideal – Pavao Ritter Vitezović. In the second part he described historical and ecclesiastical events, from bishop Šimun Bratulić to bishop Petar Petretić, but this part has remained in manuscript form to the present days. His second great work is De regnis Dalmatiae, Croatiae, Sclavoniae notitiae praeliminares – Preliminary notes on the kingdoms of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia (1770), where he wanted to prove that the inheritors of the Hungarian crown, i.e. the Hapsburgs, were entitled to the crown (and, naturally, to the power) in Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia, but also in Bosnia and Serbia. Using the pseudonym Adalbert Barits, in Varaždin he published a booklet in Latin about the Croatian writers of the period from the 14th century to the end of the 17th century, i.e. from Bishop Augustin Kažotić to Pavao Vitezović. He wrote a booklet in Croatian about the Zagreb bishop Augustin Kažotić – Živlenje blaženoga Gazotti Augustina, zagrebačkog biskupa (‘The Life of the blessed Gazotti Augustin, the Zagreb Bishop’), (1747). For the third edition of Vitezović’s Kronika (‘Chronicle’) Krčelić wrote Pridavek Kronike iliti Spomenka pripečenj od leta po narodjenju Kristuševom 1744 do leta 1761 (‘Annex to the Chronicle or In memory of the years 1744 to 1761 A.D.’), (1762). August Šenoa read the manuscript of the Annuae and, based on its material, wrote his novel Diogenes. Josip Tomić made ample use of the news from the manuscript for his novels Za kralja – za dom (‘For the king – for the home’) and Udovica (‘Widow’). Marija Jurić Zagorka also attentively read the Annuae.