Apart from the Kajkavci dialect, the whole body of Serbo-Croatian literature up to the 19th century may justly be regarded as the common heritage of Serbs and Croats. The linguistic and literary reforms which Dossitey Obradovich and Vuk Stefanovich Karajich carried out in Servia about the close of this period helped to stimulate among the Croats a new interest in their national history, their traditions, folk-songs and folk-tales. One result of this nationalist revival was the unsuccessful attempt made between 1814 and 1830 to raise the Čakavci dialect to the rank of a distinctive literary language for Croatia-Slavonia; but the Illyrist movement of 1840 led to the adoption of the Štokavci, which was already the vernacular of the majority of Serbo-Croats. Ljudevit Gaj (1809-1872), though he failed to create an artificial literary language by the fusion of the principal dialects spoken by Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, was by his championship of Illyrism instrumental in securing the triumph of the Štokavci. Gaj was a poet of considerable talent, and one of the founders of Croatian journalism. Among other writers of the first half of the 19th century may be mentioned Ivan Mažuranić (1813-1890), whose first poems were published in the Danica ilirska (“Illyrian Dawnstar”), a journal founded and for a time edited by Gaj. In 1846 Mažuranić published his Smrt Smail Aga Čengića (“Death of Ismail Aga Čengić”), called by Serbo-Croats the “Epos of Hate.” This remarkable poem, written in the metre of the old Servian ballads, gives a vivid description of life in Bosnia under Turkish rule, and of the hereditary border feuds between Christians and Moslems. In later life Mažuranić distinguished himself as a statesman, and became ban of Croatia from 1873 to 1880. Other writers representative of Croatian literature before 1867 were the lyric poet Stanko Vraz (1810-1851) and Dragutin Rakovac (1813-1854), the author of many patriotic songs.
With the foundation of the South Slavonic Academy at Agram, in 1867, the study of science and history received a new impetus. Under the presidency of Franko Rački (1825-1894) the academy, with its journal the Rad jugoskovenske Akademije, became the headquarters of an active group of savants, among whom may be mentioned Vastroslav Jagić (b. 1838), sometime editor of the Archiv für slavische Philologie; the historians Šime Ljubić (1822-1896) and Vjekoslav Klaić, author of several standard works on Croatia and the Croats; the lexicographer Bogoslav Šulek (1816-1895); the ethnographer and philologist Franko Karelac (1811-1874). In Dalmatia, where the Ragusan journal Slovinac has served, like the Agram Rad, as a focus of literary activity, there have been numerous poets and prose writers, associated, in many cases, with the Illyrist or the nationalist propaganda. Among these may be mentioned Count Medo Pučić (1821-1882), and the dramatist Matija Ban (1818-1903), whose tragedy Meyrimah is considered by many the finest dramatic poem in the Serbo-Croatian language.
Authorities.—For the topography, products, inhabitants and modern condition of Croatia-Slavonia, see Bau und Bild Österreichs, by C. Diener, F. E. Suess, R. Hoernes and V. Uhlig (Leipzig, 1903); Die österreich-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild, vol. xxiv., edited by J. von Weilen (Vienna, 1902); Führer durch Ungarn, Kroatien und Slawonien, by B. Alföldi (Vienna, 1900); Reiseführer durch Kroatien und Slawonien, by A. Lukšić (Agram, 1893); Vegetationsverhältnisse von Kroatien, by A. Neilreich (Vienna, 1868); “Die Slowenen,” by J. Šuman, and “Die Kroaten,” by F. Staré, in vol. x. of Die Völker Österreich-Ungarns (Vienna, 1881-1882); Die Serbokroaten der adriatischen Küstenländer, by A. Weisbach (Berlin, 1884); and the map Zemljovid Hrvatske i Slavonije, by M. Katzenschläger (Vienna, 1895). The only detailed history is one in Serbo-Croatian, written by a succession of the highest native authorities, and published by the South Slavonic Academy (Agram, from 1861). It is largely based on the following works: Vetera monumenta historica Hungariam sacram illustrantia, containing documents from the Vatican library edited by A. Theiner (Rome, 1860); Vetera monumenta historiam Slavorum meridionalium illustrantia, published by the South Slavonic Academy (Agram, 1863, &c.); Jura regni Croatiae, Dalmatiae, et Slavoniae cum privilegiis, by J. Kukuljević (Agram, 1861-1862); Monumenta historica Slavorum meridionalium, by V. Makushev, in Latin and Italian, with notes in Slavonic (Belgrade, 1885); De regno Dalmatiae et Croatiae, by G. Lucio (Amsterdam, 1666; see [Dalmatia], under bibliography); Regno degli Slavi, by M. Orbini (Pesaro, 1601); and, for ecclesiastical history, Illyricum sacrum, by D. Farlatus and others (Venice, 1751-1819). See also Hrvatska i Hrvati, by V. Klaić (Agram, 1890, &c.); and Slawonien vom 10. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert, translated from the Serbo-Croatian of Klaić by J. von Vojničić (Agram, 1882).
(K. G. J.)
[1] Also written Sirmia and Sirmium; Serbo-Croatian Sriem; Hungarian Szerém.
[2] It is impossible to exclude Fiume from any survey of Croatian trade, although Fiume belongs politically to Hungary proper, and is the main outlet for Hungarian emigration and maritime commerce.
[3] It is important to notice the value of the following letters and signs, which recur frequently:—c = ts; č = ch (hard); ć = ch (soft); j = y, or j in German; š = sh; ž = zh, or j in French.
CROCIDOLITE, a mineral described in 1815 by M. H. Klaproth under the name Blaueisenstein (blue ironstone), and in 1831 by J. F. Hausmann, who gave it its present name on account of its nap-like appearance (Gr. κροκύς, nap of cloth). It is a blue fibrous mineral belonging to the amphibole group and closely related to riebeckite; chemically it is an iron sodium silicate. Its resemblance to asbestos has gained for it the name Cape Asbestos, the chief occurrence being in Cape Colony. The mineral suffers alteration by removal of alkali and peroxidation of the ferrous iron, and further by deposition of silica between the fibres, or by their replacement by silica; a hard siliceous mineral is thus formed which when polished shows, in consequence of its fibrous structure, a beautiful chatoyance or silky lustre. This is the ornamental stone which is known when blue as “hawk’s-eye,” and when of rich golden brown colour as “tiger-eye.” The latter, which represents the final alteration of the crocidolite, has become very fashionable as “South African cat’s eye,” and is often termed “crocidolite,” though practically only a mixture of quartz with brown oxide of iron. The following are analyses by A. Renard and C. Klement of the unaltered crocidolite and of the blue and brown products of alteration:—