Juraj Ratkaj (also known as Juraj Rattkay, born in

Veliki Tabor Veliki Tabor ( hr, Great Camp) is a castle and museum in northwest Croatia, dating from the middle of 15th century. The castle's present appearance dates back to the 16th century. Most of the castle was built by the Hungarian noble family of ...

, on December 22, 1612 —

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...

, on September 1, 1666) was a Croatian

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

, priest and nobleman. Born in the Ratkaj Croatian noble family, barons of

, he was a member of the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

. Later on he became a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

and the

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

. He took part in the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

in 1647 and fought the Ottomans as well. His best known work is ''Memoria regum et banorum regnorum Dalmatiae, Croatiae et Sclavoniae''.

Biography

He was born on December 22, 1612, to Peter Ratkaj and Barbara Erdödy. He began as a member of the

Jesuit Order , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

(1632-1639), then as a priest, and finally as Canon of

from 1642. He was a participant in the wars against the Ottoman Empire (1641, 1648), and in the

. He was a close friend and associate of

Ban of Croatia Ban of Croatia ( hr, Hrvatski ban) was the title of local rulers or office holders and after 1102, viceroys of Croatia. From the earliest periods of the Croatian state, some provinces were ruled by bans as a ruler's representative (viceroy) an ...

Ivan III Drašković, as well as other nobles and dignitaries. His best known work ''Memoria regum et banorum Regnorim Dalmatiae, Croatiae et Sclavoniae'' was published in Vienna in 1652, representing the first historiographical work of the Croatian lands. He died in Zagreb in 1666.

References

External links

Ratkaj (Rattkay), Juraj

Memoria regum et banorum regnorum Dalmatiae, Croatiae et Sclavoniae
on

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

1612 births 1666 deaths Croatian Jesuits Croatian soldiers 17th-century Croatian historians 17th-century Croatian military personnel 17th-century Croatian nobility {{Croatia-historian-stub