Marko Marulić

Marko Marulić was born in Split on August 18, 1450, to an aristocratic patrician family. Educated in classical humanities at the University of Padua, Marulić became a renowned European Latinist whose moral-philosophical treatises, such as De institutione bene vivendi, were read across the continent by Sir Thomas More and King Henry VIII.

In 1501, he completed Judita, the first epic poem written in the Croatian language, using Chakavian verse to encourage his compatriots facing devastating Ottoman incursions. In his Latin treatise Psichiologia, he was the first scholar to coin the word 'psychology'.