We are here dealing with certain aspects relevant in the socio-linguistic context of a rather recently discovered segment of Marulić’s prose, providing an array of interesting information about the circumstances surrounding the writing of Marulić’s published and unpublished, or not yet discovered, texts. At issue are seven of Marulić’s private autograph letters from the period 1501-1516, which are kept in the Venetian State Archives, and were discovered and published by Miloš Milošević. Three are written in Italian, more precisely in the Venetian dialect, and are addressed to Jerolim Ćipiko from Split, canon of the St Doimus’ Cathedral and a close friend of Marulić. The other four letters are written in Latin, and form part of the correspondence between Marulić and Venetian canon, notary and chancellor of the Senate of the Republic, Jacopo Grasolari, who took upon himself to care for
the printing of Marulić’s works. Private and family affairs, as well as considerations arising from current events, are reserved for the letters to Jerolim Ćipiko, written in Italian. Individual circumstances relating to the process of the printing of Marulić’s works are the main topic of three letters sent to Jacopo Grasolari, while in one of them he discusses the traits of genuine Christian love and friendship. The author’s
communicational intention and his selection of topic, and partially the linguistic medium, determine the dominant formal and constructional features of two bodies of letters, or rather, of their particular segments.
Abstract: Malinar, S. Marulić’s Private Letters: Selection of Language as Means of Diaphasic and Diastratic Differentiation. // Studia Romanica et Anglica Zagrabiensia : Revue publiée par les Sections romane, italienne et anglaise de la Faculté des Lettres de l’Université de Zagreb 49(2004), 113-140.