WHO IS JUDITA?
Judita, or Judith, is the Old Testament heroine of the book of the same name, a widow who saved her city from the Assyrian encirclement, standing up against Holofernes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar. After prayers of contrition, she went to liberate the Jewish city of Bethulia from the siege and her fellow townspeople from certain death. She put on her finest robes, her best ornaments and, with her maid, who bore food and drink, went to the tent of Holofernes, pretending she would show him the easiest way to conquer the town. Intoxicating Holofernes with her beauty and wit, she finally cut off his head with his own sword and brought it to Bethulia as a trophy. In art, Judita is depicted holding the sword and the severed head of Holofernes.
Judita, is the name of Marko Marulić's epic masterpiece, a work that stands at the very beginning of Croatian literature. The first Croatian book written entirely in Croatian, it earned Marulić the title of "father of Croatian literature". The original manuscript dates back to 1501 and after it was first printed in 1521, it has been translated into many world languages and has been recognized throughout Europe. Marulić laid the foundations for the development of the Croatian literary language based on the old Čakavian dialect characteristic for Split. Judita is the most significant work of Croatian humanistic and renaissance literature.
