The incursions of the Ottomans into Europe starting in the fourteenth century gave rise to a particular genre of literature known as “antiturcic” (antiturcica), by turns warlike, prophetic, and historical. In this vein, the Dalmatian Marko Marulić of Split (1450–1524) composed a Prayer against the Turks (of uncertain date), the Lament of Jerusalem (ca. 1517), and a letter requesting the help of Pope Adrian VI (1522). Marulić was closely familiar with the Ottoman threat: during his life the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, Jerusalem, Syria, Egypt, Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and finally Belgrade (in 1521)—a victory which cleared their way into Hungary and Croatia. Out of the passionate study comprising these three Marulian antiturcica emerges a rhetoric demonizing the Ottomans, which not only attests to the violent emotions experienced by their author, but also justifies a merciless war against an enemy portrayed as cruel, insatiable, and invincible.

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Original publication: Kraljić, Ivan C. "« Nous sommes morts de peur » : considérations pathémiques sur les opuscules antiturcs de Marko Marulić de Split." Renaissance and Reformation 42 (2): 2019. 105-140. DOI: 10.7202/1065127ar. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Iter Canada / Renaissance and Reformation. Copyright © the author(s). Their work is distributed by Renaissance and Reformation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.