Ars praedicandi – umijeće propovijedanja i tradicija žanra u Divkovićevim Besjedama
Ars praedicandi – the art of preaching and the tradition of the genre in Sermons (1616) by Friar Matija Divković

Author(s): Sanja Perić Gavrančić
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Croatian Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Franjevačka teologija Sarajevo
Keywords: Sermons by Friar Matija Divković; the art of preaching (ars praedicandi); Saint Augustine’s De doctrina Christiana;
Summary/Abstract: Christian sermons, which were first attested as a literary genre in the late12th century, were one of the most dominant literary forms during the High and the Late Middle Ages. The theologists and preachers of the period developed a particular form of preaching known as the scholastic or the matic sermon. The structure of these sermons was based on the principles of Mediaeval preaching theory (known as ars praedicandi), which covered a series of rhetorical strategies described in numerous Mediaeval handbooks under the generic name artes praedicandi. The prototype for these handbooks was De arte praedicatoria, compiled by Alain de Lille in 1199. The authors of the aforementioned manuals found the theoretical background for their preaching postulates in a treatise of Saint Aurelius Augustine(354–430) entitled De doctrina Christiana, which was considered the starting point of Christian rhetoric. Mediaeval preaching manuals paved the way for the written preaching practice of Divković’s European predecessors in compiling books of sermons (Johannes Herolt, Guillaume Pepin,Saint Vincent Ferrer and Bernardino de Bustis). Our analysis of Divković’s text shows that his Sermons were influenced by Augustine’s treatise and modelled after the Latin templates of his predecessors. By translating and adapting Latin sermons into Croatian, Divković adopted the main features of the genre and confirmed the affiliation of his Sermons to European homiletic prose in all key elements.

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