Matija Antun Relković (also Reljković; 6 January 1732 – 22 January 1798) was Habsburg military officer and a Croatian writer.

Early life and military career

Born in the village of Davor in Kingdom of Slavonia (today a part of Croatia) as a son of a Military Frontier officer, Relković too enlisted in the Austrian army at the age of 16. He fought in the Seven Years' War until he was captured by Prussians in Wrocław (Breslau), and spent a few years of rather "relaxed" imprisonment at Frankfurt (Oder). soaked in common sense wisdom of Enlightenment and consisting mainly of pragmatic counsels on agriculture, small manufacture and, the most amusing part for the contemporary reader — sexual and behavioral codes of inhabitants of Slavonia which survived the Turkish expulsion and which were, as a sign of "Oriental" sensualism and dissoluteness, particularly abhorrent to the Rationalist moralist Relković. However — one must not be too severe in criticism of Relković's reforming zeal, since the general state of affairs in Slavonia was at so low a level that his outrage was in many ways justified.

Legacy

Relković's enduring legacy is, even more than in the content of his didactic epic, contained in his linguistic idiom and grammatical and philological works (which, by the way, his son continued). Having spread neo-štokavian idiom in the second half of the 18th century, he is, along with Adam Tadije Blagojević and Andrija Kačić Miošić, a Dalmatian friar, considered to be one of the most decisive influences that helped shape Croatian standard language. Although modern Croatian linguists sometimes squabble about the range and actual value of his opus (some are of the opinion that Croatian owes more to the period of Baroque Slavism in early 17th century (with central authors like Bartol Kašić, Jakov Mikalja and Ivan Gundulić), or to the Ragusan writers of the late 15th century/early 16th century- crucial writers being Džore Držić and Šiško Menčetić) — no one denies Relković's popular appeal that was, at least, the final touch that helped neo-štokavian dialect prevail as the basis of Croatian. Matija Antun Reljković Gymnasium, university preparatory high school in Vinkovci, is named after him since 1966.

Selected works

  • Copies of 1767 edition: AT-As BE.5.V.72 ALT PRUNK<sup>(GB|IA)</sup> (2014-11-27), HR- RIIE-8°-185; GB-UkxBLl Cup.401.b.20.; SI-5001 GS 19105; SI-5001 GS 20360.
  • Copies of 1774 edition: DE-18 K001824; HU-HuBpTAK Nyelvt.O.4065; MH-Li KC 14691; SI-5001 GS 0 6851; SI-5001 GS 6883.
  • Copies of 1789 edition: GB OkOxU 3259 e.1<sup>(GB)</sup> (2007-06-28); DE-7 8 LING IX, 1258 (2011); AT-As 230541-B ALT MAG<sup>(GB)</sup> (2015-04-14); CZ-PrNK 65 D 000681/1789.Bd.3<sup>(GB)</sup> (2016-07-08); AT-As 279121-B FID MAG<sup>(GB)</sup> (2018-08-27); DE-1 Bibl. Diez oct. 9098; DE-14 Ling.Slav.70; DE-27 8 Gl.XI,20; GB-4 K.137.f; GB-UkxBLl 628.d.3.; GB-UkxBLl 628.d.4.

References

Literature

  • Republished in Reviews: