MATE ZORIĆ STUDIOSO DI ALESSANDRO MANZONI

The article focuses on Mate Zorić’s scientific production dedicated to Manzoni and to the reception of The Betrothed among Croatian writers and readership. His critical interest is due to Manzoni’s close ties to Marko Kažotić and Niccolò Tommaseo, writers amply studied by Zorić since the 1950s. A third reason of his critical interest, discussed in this article, is Manzoni’s popularity among the Croatian readership through the translations of his works. The merit of Zorić is not only that of having identified the first attempt at translating Manzoni’s masterpiece in the archives of the National and University Library in Zagreb, but also of having applied the results of the studies of Croatian and Comparative Literature to the studied material. Attributing (along with the literary critic Emil Štampar) the translation published in 1875-1876 to the Croatian writer and translator Josip Eugen Tomić, Zorić also illustrates “the echoes of Manzoni” in the formation and flourishing of the Croatian historical novel. Mate Zorić’s work continues to stimulate further research on the subject from the perspectives of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies.