Illyrian Movement - Early Modern Period

Early Modern Period

Illyrism first arises in the late 16th century, in the context of the Counter-Reformation. This "Counter-Reformation Illyrism" or "Early Modern Illyrism" was the first revival of the notion of a realm or nation of Illyria since the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. This idea, harking back to the Byzantine Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum, was a crucial factor in the re-emergence of a national identity in the Balkans. Illyrism constructed a Christian identity, in opposition to the Muslim Ottoman Empire.

An expression of this were the armorials compiled in the late 16th and the 17th century, which collected historical coats or arms predating the Ottoman conquest. The Fojnica Armorial goes as far as constructing a fictional "coat of arms of Illyria" and attributing it to the 14th century. The fiction of an "Illyrian Empire" begins with the so-called "Illyrian Emperors" who once ruled the Roman or Byzantine Empire and who originated on "Illyrian soil". The number of such emperors given in period sources fluctuates between 25 and 59.

Two early representatives of humanist Illyrianism were Georgius Sisgoreus (1444–1509) and Vincentius Priboevius (late 15th century – after 1532), who took as their model humanist Italian historiography.

Blazevic (2010) distinguishes four types of Counter-Reformation Illyrism in the later 16th century:

• Interconfessional Illyrism, represented by the Ohmućević Armorial (1595), which postulates an "Illyrian Empire", commissioned by Petar Ohmućević, a Spanish admiral of Ragusan origin. Another example is The Kingdom of the Slavs by Mavro Orbini (before 1611).
• Franciscan Illyrism is represented by the foreword to "The Flower of the Saints" by Franjo Glavinić (d. 1652), and by the Latin poem "A short account of the glorious nation of the whole Illyrian tongue" (Breve compendium nationis gloriosae totius linguae Illyricae) by Martin Rusić (d. 1660).
• Curial-Habsburg Illyrism is represented by Ivan Tomko Mrnavić (d. 1637), who wrote about "Illyrian saints" and "Illyrian Emperors".
• Dalmatian Illyrism arose in the 1660s in the "Illyrian Congregation of Saint Jerome" in Rome, due to Jeronim Paštrić (1615-1708).