Biography

Luka Špoljarić (PhD ’13, Central European University, Budapest) was for the past two years a postdoctoral fellow on the Croatica et Tyrolensia project at the University of Zagreb, having previously held fellowships at Harvard University and the Warburg Institute. His research explores the sociopolitical aspects of the humanist movement, and its diffusion across the Adriatic. He is currently focusing on the career and works of Nicholas of Modruš, an ambitious humanist bishop and diplomat, and one of the leading figures of the Illyrian/schiavone/Croatian national community in Rome during the 1460s and 1470s.

Project description

The project investigates the career of Nicholas of Modruš at the curia of Pope Sixtus IV, tracing his activities as a provincial governor and papal propagandist, and thus shedding light on the role that curial prelates played in the restoration of the papacy’s prestige and its rule over the Papal States.