Neke dojmljive kolokacije u nadgrobnom govoru Nikole Modruškoga za Pietra Riarija (1474.)

On January 5, 1474, Cardinal Pietro Riario, the powerful nephew of pope Sixtus IV, died; Riario was buried on January 18. Nicholas, bishop of Modruš, a member of the cardinal's entourage, published immediately a short funeral oration which became quite popular during the papacy of Sixtus IV. Nicholas's oration modestly hides its humanist learning, explicitly citing only the Bible, although the sources of ideas and expressions in the oration include also Cicero, Horace, Lorenzo Valla, Plato, Firmicus Maternus, Aristotle, Augustine, Seneca, Petrus Damiani, Sidonius Apollinaris, Terence. A further group of linguistic parallels in the oration consists of memorable, notable phrases whose sources cannot be unambiguously identified. We list eleven examples of such phrases and their occurrences in other Latin texts (dicturus igitur; extremum amici munus; vel praestare possim vel polliceri; praecipuus fautor, cultor bonorum, curiae splendor, ornamentum civitatis; puerili aetate, virili tamen sensu; ipsa veritate verius; honesta hospitia; officiorum vicissitudine; lacrimis suffusum oculos; Simoniacae perfidiae praemia; caduca mundi felicitas; further 13 memorable collocations for which parallels were also found are recorded without documentation). Research of digitally accessible texts shows that the phrases were used and modified throughout antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, by the famous writers as well as in obscure documents. Such memorable collocations signalize general linguistic competence of Nicholas, bishop of Modruš; they were a feature of general use of Latin during the premodern period in Europe.