Antun Matijašević Karamaneo: Carmen ad Iacobum Candidum

This hexameter poem by Antun Matijašević Karamaneo, a priest and scholar of Korčula, is addressed to Iacobus Candidus and describes public festivities held on Hvar (Pharia). The poet asks what he sees on the island, where the new year resounds with joy and applause, as if nature or some god had transported a city accustomed to splendid games. Learning from the cheerful crowd, which repeatedly acclaims Marinus, that he is the author of the celebrations, the poet describes the spectacles in detail, including a wrestling or boxing contest on a raised platform, with a heap of white bedding laid around it to protect contestants who might be thrown down.

The poem is a lively description of popular entertainment in a Dalmatian town under Venetian rule at the turn of the eighteenth century, in the classical tradition of describing games. Little is known here of the persons named, but the text gives concrete detail of festivities and sport not often recorded. It is an example of the Latin verse cultivated by the clergy of the Dalmatian islands in the Baroque period.