Pohvalni govor Pavla Paladinića za Fridrika Aragonskog (1496)
Authors: Jovanović Neven 
Published: December 2023

In 1496, Pavao Paladinić (Paolo Paladini, Paulus Paladinus, c. 1465 – c. 1513), a humanist from Hvar, composed his longest preserved text, The Oration of Pavao Paladinić of Hvar delivered in Taranto, in praise of the divine Frederick, Prince of Altamura, Illustrious Admiral of the Kingdom of Sicily and Governor-General. The text survives in a codex held today in Valencia (Universitat de València, Biblioteca Històrica, MS 132). The manuscript was a gift for Frederick of Aragon (1451–1501), the second son of the king of Naples, Ferdinand I (Ferrante). Frederick himself became king of Naples in October 1496. The paper introduces both Paladinić and Frederick, outlines the rhetorical features of Paladinić’s panegyric, and evaluates two modern editions of the Latin text (VALERIO 2001, GRACIOTTI 2005). The panegyric is provided in Latin and Croatian translation. Frederick of Aragon was the last king of Naples from the House of Aragon, ruling briefly in 1496–1501, after French King Charles VIII seized Naples in February 1495 and claimed the kingdom’s crown. Frederick spent much time abroad and refused to take part in the revolt of the barons, remaining loyal to his father, brother, and nephew. As king, he was forced to abdicate when confronted with the treaty of Granada in 1500. He had a keen interest in the arts and literature; in 1476 Lorenzo de’ Medici presented him with the gift of the Libro di Ragona, a collection of 500 poems by Dante, Cavalcanti, Cino da Pistoia, Pulci, and Boiardo. In the preface Frederick is compared to Peisistratos of Athens, who organised the transcription of Homer’s poems. Frederick’s court at Naples included a number of Petrarchist poets. The Paladinić family came to the Adriatic island of Hvar at around 1430 from Lecce, which in 1463 became directly subject to the Aragonese Kingdom of Naples. In Hvar the Paladinići became one of the richest families. Nikola Paladinić (born ca. 1419), Pavao’s father, served as the sopracomito of the Hvar galley in the Venetian navy several times between 1471 and 1497. In 1475 he was awarded the Order of Saint Mark. He had three sons: Pavao, Toma (killed in 1514 during the Hvar Rebellion) and Frano. Pavao accompanied his father in military expeditions, taking part in the capture of Monopoli in 1495 and in the battle at the Bocca d’Arno in 1497. In 1510, he composed a report (in Italian) on the crucifix from Hvar that perspired blood. Pavao Paladinić was in contact with the Dalmatian and Italian humanist poets Ilija Crijević, Tideo Acciarini, Frano Božićević Natalis, Pietro Contarini and Cassandra Fedele. The little known humanist Joannes Perlotus wrote De Nicolai Palladini Pharii equitis aurati Paulique eius filii militia ac memorabilibus gestis historiola per Joannem Perlotum edita, a brief celebration of the military achievements of Nikola and Pavao in 1475–1497 (preserved today as a manuscript in the National and University Library of Split); Nikola and Pavao were praised briefly in the Latin oration by Vinko Pribojević, De origine successibusque Slavorum (delivered in Hvar in 1525, printed in Venice in 1532). Pavao Paladinić praised Frederick of Aragon during the siege of Tarento, undertaken by joint forces of Naples and Venice, with a clear political goal: Frederick had to be persuaded to spare the city of Taranto, whose citizens were eager to surrender to Venice (and even to the Ottomans) to avoid massacre and destruction by the Aragonese army. For this reason, Paladinić insisted on the humanitas of the Aragonese prince. Paladinić’s panegyric follows the chronology of Frederick’s life, but mentions important events of that life only in very vague terms. The main themes of the panegyric are Frederick’s activities at home and abroad; there are remarks on the dignity of the human soul, on the best form of governance, on the island of Hvar and the Paladinić family, on his travels, and on the Necessity which rules human life. Paladinić cited or mentioned a number of names from Greek and Roman Antiquity (Tibullus, Xenocrates, Porphyry of Tyre, Plotinus, Augustine, Cicero, Strabo, Polybius, Aristotle, Apuleius and Hermes Trismegistus, Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Pythagoras, Vergil); while VALERIO 2001 identified most of Paladinić’s sources, I have been able to prove that Paladinić used – without naming it – the popular Italian commentary on Petrarch’s Trionfi by Bernardo da Siena (Bernardo Illicino, ca. 1430), first printed in 1475. Of the two modern editions of Paladini’s Latin panegyric, VALERIO 2001 is more reliable philologically, while GRACIOTTI 2005 is better on the Dalmatian context, and edits both Paladini’s prose and poetry from the Valencia codex.