Language Features of Croatian Marian Lyrics Written by Knji？evni Krug Split in the 16th century

Sa？etak Among various motifs that from the very beginning of the poetic creativity in Croatia attracted the attention of our poets, it is beyond doubt that a special place belonged to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Just as Mary has a special place in the Croatian Christian Church as the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the same way Marian lyrics occupy a special place among the overall poetic expression, amongst the verses dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Numerous Croatian poets dedicated at least a small part of their poetic work to the Mother of Jesus. In this paper, the aim is to analyse some Marian poems written by the poets-members of Splitski knji？evni krug: Marko Maruli？, Frane Bogav？i？, Nikola Matuli？, Jerolim Martin？i？ and Frano Bo？i？evi？ Natalis. More precisely, in the analysis we are focusing on the poems that were written according to the Chakavian stylization of the 16th century Croatian language