Antun Vrančić

Antun Vrančić or Antonio Veranzio (30 May 1504 – 15 June 1573; Lat. Antonius Vrancius, Wrancius, Verantius iWerantius, It. Antonio Veranzio, Hung. Verancsics Antal) was a Croatian prelate, writer, diplomat and Archbishop of Esztergom in the 16th century. Antun Vrančić was from the Dalmatian town of Šibenik (modern Croatia), then part of the Republic of Venice. refer to him as Verancsics Antal.

Biography

Family origins The Vrančić family name was originally recorded as Wranijchijch, Wranchijch and Veranchijch, later additionally latinized as Veranzio and Verancsics.

According to one hypothesis it originates from Bosnia as one of the Bosnian noble families that had moved to Šibenik in the era of Ottoman military incursions of the 15th century, or before due to some political events. However, Bosnia fell in 1463 and according to the family genealogy and Federico Antonio Galvani (1884), the Vrančić family members were citizens of Šibenik already from the 14th century, when is recorded Nicolo nicknamed Cimador (1360) who had a son Giovanni, mentioned in 1444 as member of the noble council, who in marriage with Agnesia Gambara of Venice had son Antonio (b. 1423) whose sons were Pietro (b. 1474) and Francesco (b. 1482-d. 1563). In his official talks with Rüstem Pasha, upon request of Pasha himself, spoke Croatian language because it was their mother tongue. His father was Francesco/Frane Vrančić (c. 1481/82-1563), paternal grandfather Antonio/Antun Vrančić (b. 1423) and great-grandfather Zuanne/Giovanni/Ivan Vrančić (mentioned 1444), while his mother was Marietta/Margareta Statileo/Statilić. Antun had seven brothers and two sisters from his mother Margareta and stepmother Angelica/Anđelika Ferro, by letters was most closely connected to Michaele/Mihovil (1507/13-1570/71), Piero/Petar (1540-1570) and Giovanni/Ivan (1535-1558), but also nephews Faust (1551-1617), Kazimir Vrančić (1557-1637), Jeronim Domicije-Berislavić (b. c. 1533) among others.

Vrančić's uncle by mother side Ivan Statilić and his other relative, Croatian viceroy Petar Berislavić, took care of his education. His maternal uncle, János Statileo, Bishop of Transylvania also supported him in Trogir, Šibenik, from 1514 in Hungary and in Padua, where he earned the degree of magister in 1526. After later studies at Vienna and Kraków, Vrančić entered diplomatic service, aged only 26. of King Zápolya and after his death he remained with his widow, Isabella Jagiellon. In 1541 he moved with her to Transylvania, but he mostly traveled fulfilling diplomatic services because of his disagreement with cardinal Juraj Utješinović's policy of claiming the Hungarian throne for Isabella's and Zápolya's infant son (instead of conceding it to Ferdinand I as per the Treaty of Nagyvárad). Utješinović, appointed by Zápolya as the guardian to his son, John Sigismund Zápolya, fought against Ferdinand and allied himself with the Ottoman Empire.

Habsburg service In 1549 Vrančić entered Ferdinand's service. In parallel to his diplomatic duties, he held important positions in the Catholic Church (chief dean of Szabolcs County and abbot of Pornó Abbey). In 1553 he was appointed bishop of Pécs and sent to Constantinople to conduct negotiations with sultan Suleiman I on Ferdinand's behalf. That mission was previously declined by many other diplomats as an earlier negotiator was imprisoned by the Ottomans. Vrančić spent four years in Asia Minor and finally concluded a peace treaty. After his return he was appointed bishop of Eger (17 July 1560 – 25 September 1570). After the Battle of Szigetvár in 1566, as one of Maximilian's ambassadors, Vrančić was sent to Turkey to negotiate peace again; he arrived in Constantinople on 26 August 1567. After five months of negotiations with Sokollu Mehmed Pasha and Selim II, agreement was reached by 17 February, and the Treaty of Adrianople was signed on 21 February 1568, ending the war between the Holy Roman Empire and Ottoman Empire. This attitude was in stark contrast with cardinal Juraj Drašković, ban of Croatia.

On 25 September 1573, he crowned Rudolf II king of Hungary and Croatia in Pressburg.

Death

He died in Eperjes, Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Prešov, Slovakia), just days after having learned that the Pope appointed him cardinal.

Croatian poet Brne Karnarutić dedicated his version of Pyramus and Thisbe to Vrančić in 1586. Antun Vrančić High School in Vrančić's native Šibenik has been named after him since 1991, while a street in the old town centre also bears his name. Many other towns in Croatia have a street named after Vrančić. Croatian Post issued a stamp depicting Vrančić in 2004 honoring the 500th anniversary of his birth.