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 the

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n poet and noblewoman Katarina Zrinska on her estates in Ozalj. It was first published a year later in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

. The book contains poetry by Zrinska, written in the style of

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

poetry. It also contains prose texts. The language used is a dialectal mixture of Chakavian, Štokavian and

Kajkavian Kajkavian is a South Slavic languages, South Slavic supradialect or language spoken primarily by Croats in much of Central Croatia and Gorski Kotar. It is part of the South Slavic dialect continuum, being transitional to the supradialects of Č ...

, the representative style of the Ozalj literary circle. The book was reprinted twice in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

, first in 1687 and secondly in 1715.

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 Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to one's country or state. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one's homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, politic ...

. This was followed by a skillfully constructed poem ''Vsakomu onomu, ki štal bude ove knjižice'', written in octosyllable, which is reminiscent of high quality

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 File:Prayers-collage.png, 300px, alt=Collage of various religionists praying – Clickable Image, Collage of various religionists praying ''(Clickable image – use cursor to identify.)'' rect 0 0 1000 1000 Shinto festivalgoer praying in front ...

s of the book were translated from the

German language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...

into Croatian, using a dialectal mixture of Chakavian, Štokavian and

, 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 {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

. According to critic and poet , some of the

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

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

Contents and description

Example

References

Further reading