Junije Palmotić

Croatian writer

Junije (Džono) Palmotić, (also Giunio in Italian or Junius Palmotta in Latin) (1606 1657) was a Croatian baroque writer, poet and dramatist from the Republic of Ragusa. He was a member of the Palmotić noble family.

Palmotić was born in 1606 in Ragusa (Dubrovnik, now Croatia), the son of Juraj Palmotić (Giorgio Palmotta) and Ursula née Gradić (Orsola Gradi). His parents belonged to the notable patrician families of Palmotić and Gradić (Gradi in Italian), respectively. Through his mother, he was related to Ivan Gundulić. He had an older brother Džore and younger Ivan, who died young in his childhood.

Little is known about his schooling, but he may have attended city school as it was mandatory for male nobles. It is known that he attended a private school opened in 1619 by the Jesuits and whose lecturers included, in the next few generations, Ivan Gradić, Ignjat Tudišević, Marin Gundulić, Ivan Dražić and Bartol Kašić. As Palmotić's teachers in that school, Stjepan Gradić especially mentions Ignjat Tudišević and a Sienese Italian, Camillo Gori.

Aged 18, he became a member of the Great Council in the Republic of Ragusa. He began to write while still young, writing in continuation of the tradition of Ivan Gundulić inspired by Ovid, Virgil, Tasso and Ariosto. Although influenced by the Latin literary tradition, Palmotić wrote in his native Croatian language, as well as translating libretti from Italian. He also translated the Christias di Girolamo Vida, the Christiade, an 'Illyrian' poem in 24 verses, that was posthumously published in Rome in 1670. Although his poetry was melodramatic and dealt primarily with mythological topics, his drama focused on contemporary Dubrovnik, particularly the life of the aristocracy. In one of his songs he demonstrates his knowledge of the Serbian epic poetry mentioning its heroes, as well as Hungarian and Albanian ones, like: Lazar of Serbia, Miloš Obilić, Skanderbeg, Sekula, Mihajlo Svilojević, Vuk Grgurević and John Hunyadi. His nephew Stjepan Gradić, ambassador and Vatican librarian, wrote about his life, supplying precious material to future biographers. Alongside Vinko Pribojević and Juraj Križanić, he was an early pioneer of the ideas of Slavic unity.

All the works of Palmotić were published by the end of the 19th century by the Croatian Cultural Association. A street in Zagreb bears his name.