Mavro Vetranović

The life sentence, however, did not last so he returned to Lokrum in 1522. He performed different services in Benedictine monasteries in the Dubrovnik Republic, and he was even, for a time, the only inhabitant of the islet of St. Andrew. He was buried in the monastery of St. Jacob on Višnjica. He wrote works of different genre, and his oeuvre comprises 30 to 40,000 verses, extant in several short and three extensive manuscript “books.” He wrote religious poems, masquerades, political, satirical and reflexive poems and epitaphs. Although we have no reliable data about the chronology of his works, it is presumed that when he was younger he wrote dramatic texts with secular themes (pastoral-mythological plays) and in his mature age he wrote religious plays (Od Uskrsnutja Isukrstova, Prikazanju od poroda Jezusova, Prikazanje kako bratja prodaše Jozefa). Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac in Posvetilište Abramovo exists in five different versions. He is also the author of the mythological drama about Orpheus and Eurydice, that he subsequently named Orfeo. The famous myth is dressed in religious apparel and in his version, it is Eurydice who turns back instead of her lover Orpheus. None of his works were published during his lifetime, and most of his oeuvre exists in the form of 17th century, or earlier, copies. In his poems, he criticized current political and social events and the corrupt nature of Dubrovnik’s society. Mavro enjoyed a great reputation in the Dubrovnik literary circle, he was respected and celebrated among Dubrovnik and Dalmatian Renaissance poets. When Marin Držić was accused of plagiarism, after he returned from Siena and showed his first pastoral drama Tirena in front of the Ragusan public, Vetranović responded with the epistle entitled Pjesancom Marinu Držiću u pomoć, in which he, in 132 octosyllabic lines, defended then young Marin and addressed the “noble” Ragusans as those who sing “heavenly songs” by which he alluded to accusations of plagiarism that came from poetic circles. On the basis of this prologue to Držić’s Tirena, it could be concluded that Mavro also wrote love poetry, however it was not preserved. After Držić died, Vetranović wrote two epitaphs; one long, entitled Na priminutje Marina Držića Dubrovčanina tužba and one short, Nadgrobnica gornjega rečenoga Marina. In 19th century historiography, there was some confusion about attribution of works between these two authors. One of Držić’s tragedies and his last performed work – Hecuba was attributed to Vetranović, and Vetranović’s Prikazanje od poroda Jezusova and Posvetilište Abramovo to Držić. Nevertheless, history left enough evidence for us to “give” each his own.