The Croats, having come under the influence of the Latin. Church, did not produce an early national literature of any impor tance. Practically the only works of secular literature were those on jurisprudence and legal statutes; the "Code of Vinodol" (1238) and the "Statute of Krk" (1388).
While the other peoples of Europe progressed the Yugoslays were doomed to lose their inde pendence at the hands of the Turks. Literature in Cyrillic script was almost wiped out in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro. The Glagolitic literature in Croatia suffered repression from Rome and Venice. The first Cyrillic printed book is ascribed to Cetinje,
and the first Glagolitic to Venice, 1483. Dalmatia by reason of geographical position and political relations, was saved from the general overthrow, and the city of Ragusa became a literary centre. The first influence was that of the troubadours, as shown in the lyrics of S. MenCetk (d. 1527) and Gj. Drzic (d. 1501). Their work has come down in a collection of 62o songs in Serbo Croat. The Carnival burlesques of Florence also had their imi tators, the principal being A. eubranovie (d. 153o?). The most prolific writer of the 16th century was the Benedictine monk M. Vetranovk (1482-1576). His most original work is the "Her mit" (Remeta), in which his own retired existence is compared with the gay life of Dubrovnik. A reaction from Italian influ ence, in favour of the Greek and Latin classics, makes itself felt in the work of D. Ranjina (d. 1607) and D. Zlatark (d. 1609) in the second half of the 16th century. M. Drik (b. c. 15r9), a writer of Plautine comedies, strikes original ground in his Dundo Maroje (155o). The 17th century is the golden age of Ragusan literature. There are three outstanding names in poetry. Ivan Gundulk (1558-1638), the greatest poet produced by Dubrovnik, owes his fame to his epic Osman, and his pastoral play Dubravka. I. Bunk (d. 1658) excelled in lyrics, especially love songs (Plan dovanja). J. Palmotie (d. 1657) was a creator of national drama with his Pavlimir. A decline set in in the i8th century, though it was marked by the establishment of literary academies. Two names may be mentioned: A. Glegjevie, (d. 1728), a playwright, and I. Gjorgjk (d. 1737), the only gifted poet of the republic in this century.
Conditions in Dalmatia generally were not favourable to litera ture, owing to the domination of Venice and Hungary, and the incursions of the Turks. M. Marulk (d. 1524), wrote the epic Judita (1521), the first book printed in the vernacular. H. LuciC's (d. 1553) Robinja is one of the earliest attempts in European drama to create a secular romantic play. P. Hektorovk (d.
1567) is noteworthy for his Ribanje ("Fishing and Fisherman's Talk"), while P. Zoranies pastoral Planine may be considered the first novel in Serbo-Croat literature. More important are the collections of popular poems that began to be made in the i8th century. The outstanding work of A. KaCie (1702-60), Razgovor Ugodni, a national chronicle from the earliest times, contains numbers of these. It was published in Venice four years before Percy published his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.
In the Slovene, Bosnian and Croatian portions of Jugoslav lands, the literary development was largely directed by Jesuits and Franciscans, following on the counter-Reformation. The Franciscans in Bosnia published numerous religious works in the itokayski dialect, which gradually attained supremacy as the literary medium of Serbo-Croat.
References to popular poetry have been traced to Serbian biog raphies of the 13th century and to Dalmatian poets of the 15th. This poetry, known as narodne pesme (people's songs), corre sponds to the popular ballads of other European countries. Mod ern collections have brought the number of popular ballads up to nearly 10,000. Other evidences of popular literature are a large number of folk-tales. The chief collector of all these as well as of the popular songs was Vuk Karadiis (1787-1864).
The first writings of the modern period appear among those Serbs and Croats who had remained under Habsburg rule. They were not based on previous native tradition, but on modern European literature. In an effort to preserve their orthodoxy, the Serbs imported books written in the Russian recen sion of Old Church Slavonic, thus creating an artificial literary language known as "Slav-Serbian" (Slavcno-Srpski), the effect of which was to retard the development of the vernacular. Among the early writers Zaharija Stefanovie Orfelin and Jovan Rajk are the most important ; the former produced in 1768 a Review in the vernacular, while the latter, besides a history of the Slays (the Southern Slays in particular), written in the "Slav-Serbian" language, wrote also a vernacular epic. But the real father of modern Serbian literature is Dositej Obradovh (1739-181i), who after early training in a monastery started on a series of journeys to different European countries. The result was his Life and Ad ventures (1783), followed by his Counsel of Sound Reason, his Fables and his Ethics. An encyclopaedic writer rather than an original thinker, his work was directed towards the enlightenment not only of his countrymen, but of Yugoslays in general. His work was continued by P. Solari and other disciples.