Zoranić’s poetic composition Planine (»The Mountains«) includes poetry distinctive of Croatian literature, in the sixteenth century; but it reveals at the same time some general characteristics of contemporary literature, as Zoranić — creating his work in the districts of Zadar and Šibenik — was well-read in the dominant, namely Italian literature of that time. The principles of Zoranić’s poetics can be traced in his dedication to Matej Matijević, canon of Nin. It suggests Zoranić’s genuine and literary inspiration, his ability to follow simultaneously his native and foreign tradition, expressing at the same time quite spontaneously his belonging to the soil on which he had grown as man and writer. In Planine elements of a real world can be felt, Zoranić’s actual world — the settlements, mountains and rivers of north Dalmatia, besides elements of literature he had used in creating his work — the current conventional motifs, as well as stylistic figures of permanent value — allegory, symbolism, metaphor — together with an expression of his individuality, his patriotism and his spontaneously realistic and imaginative experience of the world and man. Relying upon his own experience of time and space, the place where he lived, and exploiting the literary tradition of his country (Marulić, popular poetry) and foreign tradition (Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca, Girolamo Vida, Sanna- zaro), Zoranić has in creating his Planine contributed to the growth to our — at that time still undeveloped — literary language. Through the linguistic structure of his work the writer reveals his talent, literary acquirement, ethic, aesthetics, poetics, and above all his attachment to his country and people who in Zoranić’s time were exposed to Turkish invasions.
