Fu colpa del 1817: l’uscita di Solaric dallo Zitije di Zelic

In this paper the reasons that lead the Serbian philologist Pavle Solarić (1779-1821) not to finish his editing of Žitije, the autobiography of the archimandrite of Krupa Gerasim Zelić (1752-1828), are analyzed. At Solarić’s suggestion, Zelić had decided to publish his book in Venice and for this reason he gave the manuscript to Solarić in 1817. At the time, Solarić was working for the Venetian typography of Teodosio; Solarić, however, never finished his work, prevented by ill health and ultimately death. This paper explores the possibility that Solarić’s failure to finish his editing of Žitije was also due to the fact that he gave priority to other editorial activities and to social activities with Frederick North and with members of the Shelley Circle. North, who at that time was staying in Venice, turned to Solarić with the request to teach him Slavic, and when in 1817 he succeeded his elder brother as the 5th Earl of Guilford, he invited the philologist to come with him on a journey that was to last about ten months. During this trip, thanks to the Earl of Guilford, Solarić had the opportunity to meet English intellectuals, poets and nobles, particularly in Rome. Visiting these intellectual circles would likely have distracted the philologist’s attention from the life of the archimandrite of the Krupa monastery in Dalmatia, causing him to set his editing work aside, perhaps fortunately, since this meant the manuscript did not undergo philological manipulations.