Davidiad
Likely finished in AD 1517, the poem, as its Latin title suggests, details the ascension and deeds of David, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah, who is said to have reigned c. 1010–970 BC.
[3][4] When he grew older, Marulić practised law in the city of his birth, serving as a judge, examiner of notarial entries, executor of wills, prosecutor, plea bargainer, and advocate.
[5] Prior to writing the Davidiad, Marulić composed the Croatian poem Judita in 1501, which most scholars today consider his most important work.
[3] In addition to the small portions that attempt to recall Homer, the Davidiad is heavily modeled off Virgil's Aeneid.
"[6] Marulić opens the poem by stating his intentions "to tell ... the glorious deeds of David [the] pious king" (Davidis memorare pii gesta inclyta regis).
The Lord then leads Samuel to Jesse of Bethlehem, where the prophet discovers David and secretly appoints him as the future King of Israel.
Jonathan warns his beloved friend and then beseeches his father to spare him; Saul eventually acquiesces and promises not to harm David, who returns to Israel and fights off an army of Philistines.
David then journeys to Gath—a Philistine city from whence Goliath came—and seeks refuge under the king, Achish, but eventually he decides that he is in danger and feigns insanity so as to escape.
Saul initially gives chase, but his attention is diverted by a renewed Philistine invasion and David is able to secure some respite in a cave at Ein Gedi.
The medium, unaware of his identity, reminds him that the king has made witchcraft a capital offence, but he assures her that Saul will not harm her.
Eventually, twelve chosen men from both Ish-Bosheth and David's side fight at Gibeon, and it is here that Asahel, the brother of Ioab is killed by Abner.
While the Ark is being brought into the city, David dances before it; Michal criticizes the king for this action, and for this she is punished with not having children until her death.
[28][29] In Book IX, David finds Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth, restored Saul's inheritance to him, and permits him to live within the royal palace in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Hanun of Ammon embarrasses some of David's men and allies himself with the Syrian king Hadadezer against Israel; however, he is defeated and deposed.
They encamp in Gilead, and David's forces, led by Joab, Abishai, and Ittai, defeat Absalom, who is killed while fleeing.
Barzillai the Gileadite, invited to live in Jerusalem, declines due to age and leaves his son Chimham with David.
He sees an angel striking the people and builds an altar on Araunah's threshing floor, offering sacrifices to end the plague.
On his deathbed, David instructs Solomon to worship God, punish Joab for killing commanders Abner and Amasa in peacetime, control the seditious Shimei, and treat Barzillai's sons kindly.
[40][41] When Marulić completed his poem, he affixed a prose appendix to the work, known as the Tropologica Davidiadis Expositio ("A Tropological Explanation of the Davidiad").
However, as Miroslav Marcovich argues, "it is not difficult to discover that Marulić's allegoric Tropology does indeed aberrare a relgionis nostrae fide [stray from the faith of our religion]"; for instance, how could David be the "prefiguration of Christ", Marcovich asks, when David committed grave sins like adultery and murder?
[9] Marcovich points out that the line dummodo a religionis nostrae fide nusquam aberret ("So long as it never deviates from the orthodoxy of our religion") in the Tropologica manuscript is marked by the autograph of someone who was not Marulić.
Given that the Davidiad was never officially published, Marcovich reasons that Grimani marked the aforementioned line and used it as justification to withhold an imprimatur.
[44] Unfortunately, by 1567 this copy had been misplaced, which prompted the chancellor of Split, Antonius Proculianus, to bemoan that such a great work of art had been lost.
[45] Marulić's copy eventually found its way to the National Library at Turin, where it remained uncommented upon and relatively unnoticed for hundreds of years.
[13][46] The editio princeps was published by Josip Badalić of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1954, but this work "proved to be a failure," as whole verses were ignored and many words were misread by the editor.
[13][48] Several years later, in 1957, Miroslav Marcovich over came the difficulties that plagued Badalić's work and produced a more usable critical edition.
Third and finally, the text was damaged both by a fire that broke out at the Turin National University Library in 1904, as well as the water which was used to extinguish the blaze.
[44] A literary translation of the Davidiad into Croatian hexameters was made by Branimir Glavačić and published facing the Latin original by Veljko Gortan in 1974.
[50] In 2024, Edward Mulholland, a Classicist from Benedictine College, published the first complete English translation of the Davidiad in un-rhymed iambic pentameter.
The work, which also includes an English translation of the Tropologica Expositio, was released as an entry in LYSA Publishers's "LYNX" book series dedicated to neo-Latin texts.
