Vinko Pribojević

Vinko Pribojević
Born	mid-15th century Hvar, Republic of Venice
Died	after 1532
Nationality	Venetian
Other names	Vincentius Priboevius
Known for	founder of the pan-Slavic ideology
Notable work	On the Origin and Glory of the Slavs (Latin: De origine successibusque Slavorum)

Vinko Pribojević (Latin: Vincentius Priboevius mid-15th century - after 1532) was a Venetian Slavic historian and ideologue, best known as one of the founders of the early pan-Slavic ideology.

Pribojević was born on the island of Hvar, in Venetian Dalmatia (now Croatia). American historian John Van Antwerp Fine, Jr. emphasizes that Pribojević and Juraj Šižgorić did not consider themselves to be Croats, but rather Slavic language-speaking Venetians. Pribojević alone considered himself Dalmatian first and foremost and then Slavic, shunning the Venetian tag later in his life. He was educated in the humanist spirit and joined the Dominican Order around 1522.

His most famous work is the speech De origine successibusque Slavorum (On the Origin and Glory of the Slavs), where he exalts Illyrians and Slavs as the ancestors of the Dalmatian Slavs. His speech, most probably made in Venice in 1525, left a deep impression on the Venetians, who published it in Latin and Italian several times over the following years. Its passionate glorification of Slavs (in which the book includes Alexander the Great and Aristotle, Diocletian and Jerome) and its strong pathos played a major role in the birth of the pan-Slavic ideology. It was the first time that such ideology was formulated as a program, which was further developed by Mavro Orbini and Juraj Križanić.

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