Man proposes, God disposes

Abstract

This article considers Hanibal Lucić’s 1522 poetic epistle to Jeronim Martinčić (Knjižica od tvoje pameti sabrana) with the aim of identifying its thematic unity and some of its sources. Although this epistle has often been treated as a typical example of a ‘familiar letter’ dealing with a great variety of topics in different registers, the discussion advances the argument that it is in fact held together by a series of reflections on divine intervention, fate, and human will. It speculates about the influence of Pico della Mirandola’s work on Lucić’s treatment of astrology (particularly in relation to the Great Conjunction of 1524) and identifies the source of his remarkably accurate description of the tactics employed at Rhodes as the eyewitness accounts sent to Venice by way of Hvar during the course of the siege (interesting not only in their parallels with the epistle’s text but even more so in the way Lucić differs from them in his presentation). An appendix includes an English translation of Lucić’s epistle in the hope of making the work of this accomplished and versatile poet more easily accessible to Anglophone readers.