Putni tovaruš (English: ''Travel companion'') is a

prayer book A prayer book is a book containing prayers and perhaps devotional readings, for private or communal use, or in some cases, outlining the liturgy of religious services. Books containing mainly orders of religious services, or readings for them are ...

written in 1660 by

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

n poet and noblewoman

Katarina Zrinska Countess Ana Katarina Zrinska (c. 1625–1673) was a Croatian noblewoman and poet, born into the House of Frankopan, Croatian noble family. She married Count Petar Zrinski of the House of Zrinski in 1641 and later became known as Katarina Zrinsk ...

on her estates in

Ozalj Ozalj (, hu, Ozaly, german: Wosail or ''Woseil'') is a town in central Croatia, located north of Karlovac and southwest of Jastrebarsko, on the Kupa River. It is close to Žumberak in the north and the border with Slovenia in the northwest, wi ...

. It was first published a year later in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

Contents and description

The book was completed on August 1, 1660 on Katarina Zrinski's estates in Ozalj, as can be seen from the introductory text, and was published in the printing press ''Babiani'' in Venice during 1661. In the same foreword titled ''Vsega hervatckoga i slovinskoga orsaga gospodi i poglavitim ljudem obojega spola'' (To all noble people of the Croatian and Slavic states of both sexes), Zrinska introduces herself as a enlightened Croatian noblewoman whose work is motivated by her religious convictions and patriotism. This was followed by a skillfully constructed poem ''Vsakomu onomu, ki štal bude ove knjižice'', written in

octosyllable The octosyllable or octosyllabic verse is a line of verse with eight syllables. It is equivalent to tetrameter verse in trochees in languages with a stress accent. Its first occurrence is in a 10th-century Old French saint's legend, the '' Vie de ...

, which is reminiscent of high quality

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

poetry of the 17th century, which further reflect the author's intentions:Putni tovaruš Katarine Zrinski
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Ni za drugo navom svitu Človik stvoren od ruk Boga, Kad mu dušu plemenitu Da srid raja zemaljskoga, Neg da ovde tako hodi, Tako živi i putuje, Da se v smerti prav nahodi I da v nebu gospoduje. Zač Bog stvori vnoge staze, Vnoge pute i načine, Neg da po njih ljudi plaze Do nebeske domovine. Zato knjige, zato pisma, Zapovidi i zakoni Poda, da ki ide š njima, Večnu radost mu nakloni. ...Putna tovarušica Ana Katarina Zrinski
/ref>

Most of the

prayer Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified a ...

s of the book were translated from

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

into Croatian, using a dialectal mixture of

Chakavian Chakavian or Čakavian (, , , sh-Latn, čakavski proper name: or own name: ''čokovski, čakavski, čekavski'') is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats along the Adriatic coast, in the historical regions of Dalmat ...

, Štokavian and

Kajkavian Kajkavian (Kajkavian noun: ''kajkavščina''; Shtokavian adjective: ''kajkavski'' , noun: ''kajkavica'' or ''kajkavština'' ) is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats in much of Central Croatia, Gorski Kotar and nort ...

, as a representative of the Ozalj literary circle. Much of the text is considered to be of high literary quality, which led to its reissues in 1687 and 1715,

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

. According to critic and poet , some of the

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

texts reach the expressive achievements of poetry, calling the work a jewel in the Croatian baroque literature and one of its most important achievements.Putni tovaruš : transkripcija / Katarina Zrinski ; transkribirao, za tisak priredio i priloge napisao Zvonimir Bartolić.

Matica hrvatska Matica hrvatska ( la, Matrix Croatica) is the oldest independent, non-profit and non-governmental Croatian national institution. It was founded on February 2, 1842 by the Croatian Count Janko Drašković and other prominent members of the Illyri ...

Contents and description

Example

References

Further reading