Smisao Petrićeva mita o povijesti
The Meaning of Petrić’s Myth of History

Summary/Abstract: The article aims to tackle the following problem: why was Petrić the only philosopher who, within sixteenth-century discussion on ars historica, decided to employ the myth? The answer to this problem is being sought through the analysis of the myth of history (una lunga historia… de’corrompimenti del mondo, & de’suoi rinascimenti), comprised in the dialogue “Il Contarino, overo che, sia l’historia” (15a–18a) in Petrić’s work Della historia diece dialoghi (1560). viewed formally, mythological account places Petrić in the tradition of poetical theology, in which, through ingenuity and inspiration, a poet lays the foundations of human history and knowledge as a whole. Given the contents, this myth owes greatly to Petrić’s leaning on diverse traditions of the antiquity and the Renaissance. In the manner of a poet theologian, Petrić endeavours to combine different traditions into a unique picture and from the chaotic res gestae to create the first prerequisite for the history: the past as its subject-matter.

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