Pavao Ritter Vitezović

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Pavao Ritter Vitezović (January 7, 1652 – January 20, 1713) was a noted Croatian writer, historian, linguist and publisher.

Pavao Ritter Vitezović was born in Senj to a family of a frontier soldier. His father was descended from a German immigrant from Alsace, and his mother was Croatian. He finished six grades of the Jesuit gymnasium in Zagreb before moving to Rome, where he stayed at the Illyrian College, and met the renowned Ivan Lučić. He then moved to the castle of Bogenšperk (German: Wagensberg) near Litija in Carniola, where Janez Vajkard Valvasor influenced him to start analyzing his national history and geography. There he also learned German, how to print and how to etch.

In 1677 he wrote a treatise on the clan Gusići, published in 1681, the same year he wrote a number of poems for one Aleksandar Mikulić, a Zagreb canon. As he developed a reputation of a learned man, his native town of Senj elected him as their representative in the Hungarian diet in Sopron. On April 19, 1683, due to the efforts of Ritter Vitezović, the diet proclaimed a charter granting the town of Senj their ancient rights, protecting them from the local military commander captain Herberstein who had terrorized the citizens at the time.

Because of the Ottoman wars he was enlisted and stationed in the Međimurje tabor (garrison) under ban Nicholas Erdödy. In 1683, when the Great Turkish War started, he participated in the capture of the forts of Lendava and Szigetvar. After the war, ban Erdödy employed him as an officer of his court, where he also met Adam Zrinski, the son of Nikola Zrinski. He was initially named the podžupan of Lika a purely honourable title with no actual significance. Croatian Parliament then named him as their representative in the Imperial commission for the delimitation with Venice and Turkey, but despite his contribution, the borderlines were drawn against the Croatian interests, which greatly frustrated Ritter Vitezović.

During his work at the royal and imperial diets in Vienna and Bratislava, Vitezović met many dignitaries from Croatia, and at one point wished to return home to live in Zagreb. He found out that there was an abandoned printing house in the Bishop's Palace in the city, and asked his long time friend Aleksandar Mikulić, who had by that time become the bishop, to let him put it to use. He was soon in business, printing calendars and leaflets, and appealed to the Croatian Parliament to give that printing house an official capacity. On November 11, 1694, the Parliament did indeed appoint him as the manager of the facility. He then proceeded to move it from the Vlaška street to his house on Grič, and travelled to Vienna where he bought a new printing press and everything else necessary for the printing of books. He named the new printing office the "Museum" (like Valvasor before him), and printed the first books in Latin and in Croatian.