De Officio Boni Regis Aphorismus: On the Publication of Juraj Križanić's “Politics”

Abstract

The life and work of the encyclopaedist, Catholic priest, propagandist of the Slavic idea, Croatian Juraj Križanic (c. 1618–1683) have received considerable attention in historiography. Almost the most popular in his vast creative legacy is the treatise “Razgowory ob wvladatelystwu” (“Discourses on Government”), known in literature under its conventional name Politika (“Politics”). Its text, written partly in the “pan-Slavonic” language (Ruski jezik) invented by the author, partly in Latin, was initially partly (three-fifths) published in 1859–1860 by Pyotr Bessonov. In 1965, the first third of the manuscript was republished and translated into Russian. At present, Russian historiography considers it as a complete edition of the entire treatise, although for a decade and a half numerous attempts have been made to bring into the academic circuit the unpublished part of the manuscript, kept in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, in the form of quotations and excerpts accompanied by a translation. This publication contains the original text and the first Russian translation of the Latin chapter “On the Duties of a Good King”, which precedes the entire manuscript and survives only in photocopy, as well as the author's analysis of it. In this fragment, Križanic 's basic ideas about the principles of good government are reproduced in a concise form as a commentary on the story of the biblical King Solomon. The text illustrates the ambiguity of its author's views (dislike of foreigners, idealisation of autocracy and, at the same time, radical criticism of tyranny) and sheds light on the intent of the whole work.