Tituš Brezovački

Tituš Brezovački (January 4, 1757 – October 29, 1805) was a Croatian playwright, satirist and poet.

Tituš Brezovački
Born	(1757-01-04)4 January 1757 Zagreb, Kingdom of Croatia, Habsburg Monarchy
Died	29 October 1805(1805-10-29) (aged 48) Zagreb, Kingdom of Croatia, Habsburg Monarchy
Occupation	Poet, playwright, writer, priest
Nationality	Croatian
Literary movement	Classicism, Enlightenment
Notable works	Sveti Aleksij Matijaš Grabancijaš dijak Diogeneš

Brezovački, as the great comedian of the period, wrote all of his dramatic works in Kajkavian dialect. His poems were chiefly written in German and Latin, but few of them have also been preserved in Ijekavian Štokavian, as if predicting the path of Croatian national revival.

Biography

He was born in Zagreb, schooled in Zagreb and Varaždin, and in 1774 he entered the Pauline Order. He initiated the study of theology in 1776 in Lepoglava, and afterwards graduated philosophy and theology in Pest. He was ordained in 1781, serving as a gymnasium professor in Varaždin henceforth. In 1785 the Pauline Order was abolished, causing Brezovački to become a common priest. His disputes with clergy and the bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovac had often forced him to relocate, changing parishes (Varaždin, Križevci, Rakovac, Zagreb, Krapina, Požega, Zagreb).

He wrote his first known work, the religious drama Sveti Aleksij for the gymnasium in Varaždin, where it was staged before being printed in Zagreb in 1786.[1] In Križevci he wrote the Latin poem Dalmatiae, Croatie et Slavoniae, trium sororum recursus (Three sisters Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia)[2], published in 1790, which represented a strong political shift in his work. This was followed by a similar poem Ode inclytae nobilitati regnorum Dalmatiae, Croatiae, Sclavoniae, printed in 1800, to encourage resistance against Napoleon. During this period, he was a vocal critic of the higher clergy in Zagreb, which he criticized in the poem Jeremijaš nad horvatskoga orsaga zrušenjem narekujuči by the end of the 18th century, ending its censorship in 1801.[3] He dedicated another poem to the newly constructed foundation hospital located on today's Ban Jelačić Square in 1804.[1]

Between 1803 and 1805, he wrote his most known works; a comedy about a sorcerer Matijaš Grabancijaš dijak (first staged in 1804) and Diogeneš.[1][4]

He died in Zagreb on October 29, 1805, exhausted by a lung disease.

Works

• "Sveti Aleksij", a drama (1786)
• "Matijaš Grabancijaš dijak", a comedy (1804)
• "Diogeneš ili sluga dveh zaljubljenih bratov", a comedy (1805)
• "Jeremijaš nad hrvatskoga orsaga zrušenjem nerekujuči", a satire

Footnotes

1. http://hbl.lzmk.hr/clanak.aspx?id=2802
2. Latin at the Crossroads of Identity: The Evolution of Linguistic Nationalism, pp. 197
3. Peoples of the Eastern Habsburg Lands, 1526-1918, Robert A. Kann, Zdenek David, pp. 464
4. Die Literaturen Südosteuropas: 15. bis frühes 20. Jahrhundert. Ein Vergleich, Valther Puchler, pp. 172

References

• Fališevac, Dunja; Nemec, Krešimir; Novaković, Darko (2000), Leksikon hrvatskih pisaca (in Croatian), Zagreb: Školska knjiga d.d, ISBN 953-0-61107-2
• Tituš Brezovački on Enciklopedija.hr