Putni tovaruš (English: ''Travel companion'') is a prayer book written in 1660 by Croatian poet and noblewoman Katarina Zrinska on her estates in Ozalj. 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, 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
/ref>

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 prayers 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,

Štokavian Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards. It ...

and Kajkavian, as a representative of the

Ozalj literary circle 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 ...

. Much of the text is considered to be of high literary quality, which led to its reissues in 1687 and 1715, Ljubljana. According to critic and poet , some of the prose 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