The Freising manuscriptsAlso ''Freising folia'', ''Freising fragments'', or ''Freising monuments''; german: Freisinger Denkmäler, la, Monumenta Frisingensia, sl, Brižinski spomeniki or are the first

Latin-script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greece, Greek city of Cumae, in southe ...

continuous text in a

Slavic language The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto ...

and the oldest document in Slovene.

Description and origin

The manuscripts were found bound into a Latin

codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

(manuscript book). Four

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of ...

leaves and a further quarter of a page have been preserved. They consist of three texts in the oldest Slovene dialect. Linguistic, stylistic and contextual analyses reveal that these are church texts of careful composition and literary form. The precise date of the origin of the Freising Manuscripts cannot be exactly determined; the original text was probably written in the 9th century. In this liturgic and

homiletic In religious studies, homiletics ( grc, ὁμιλητικός ''homilētikós'', from ''homilos'', "assembled crowd, throng") is the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific art of public preaching. One who practices or ...

manuscript, three Slovene records were found and this miscellany was probably an episcopal manual (pontificals). The Freising Manuscripts in it were created between 972 and 1039, most likely before 1000. The main support for this dating is the writing, which was used in the centuries after

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

and is named

Carolingian minuscule Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one reg ...

. During the time of the writing of the two manuscripts (sermons on sin and repentance, a confessional form),

Bishop Abraham Bishop Abraham () (formerly Fr. Ishak Azmy Boules) serves as the Auxiliary Bishop of Diakonia (i.e., Social Services) in the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles, Southern California, and Hawaii. He is also the Vice Head of the Ecumenical Relatio ...

was active (from 957 to 994) in Freising. It is believed that the manuscripts were written in the Möll River Valley in

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...

. For this reason some linguists (e.g.

Jernej Kopitar Jernej Kopitar, also known as Bartholomeus Kopitar (21 August 1780 – 11 August 1844), was a Slovene linguist and philologist working in Vienna. He also worked as the Imperial censor for Slovene literature in Vienna. He is perhaps best known f ...

and

Rajko Nahtigal Rajko ( sr-Cyrl, Рајко, ) is a masculine given name and may refer to: *Rajko Aleksić (born 1947), former Serbian football defender * Rajko Brežančić (born 1989), Serbian footballer * Rajko Ray Bogdanović (born 1979), Serbian engineer for ...

) linked Abraham closely to the origin of the Freising Manuscripts and even attributed to him the authorship of one of the texts and suspected that he was of Slovene origin, although this was later disproven.

Modern history

The manuscripts were discovered in

Freising Freising () is a university town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Freising ''Landkreis'' (district), with a population of about 50,000. Location Freising is the oldest town between Regensburg and Bolzano, and is located on the Is ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. The Slovene name ''Brižinski spomeniki'' (literally 'Brižinj Monuments') was coined by the

Carinthian Slovene Carinthian Slovenes or Carinthian Slovenians ( sl, Koroški Slovenci; german: Kärntner Slowenen) are the indigenous minority of Slovene ethnicity, living within borders of the Austrian state of Carinthia, neighboring Slovenia. Their status of ...

philologist

Anton Janežič Anton Janežič, also known in German as Anton Janeschitz (19 December 1828 – 18 September 1869) was a Carinthian Slovene linguist, philologist, author, editor, literary historian and critic. Life Janežič was born in a peasant family in t ...

, who Slovenized the German name Freising to ''Brižinj'' in 1854. In 1803, the manuscript came to the

Bavarian State Library The Bavarian State Library (german: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, abbreviated BSB, called ''Bibliotheca Regia Monacensis'' before 1919) in Munich is the central " Landesbibliothek", i. e. the state library of the Free State of Bavaria, the bigg ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and the Freising Manuscripts were discovered there in 1807. The texts were translated into modern Slovene in 1854 by the philologist Anton Janežič. Before World War II, a

facsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, Old master print, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from ...

of the Freising Manuscripts was published by Silvester Škerl at '' Akademska založba'' (Academic Publisher) in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

Exhibitions

The manuscripts are still kept at the Bavarian State Library in Munich and have left it only twice. In the 1970s, they were exhibited in the

Vatican Museums The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...

. In May and June 2004, they were exhibited at the

National and University Library The National and University Library (french: Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire; abbreviated BNU) is a public library in Strasbourg, France. It is located on Place de la République, the former ''Kaiserplatz'', and faces the ''Palais du ...

Notes

References

Literature

* *

External links

Freising Manuscripts (Brižinski spomeniki)
Scholarly Digital Editions of Slovenian Literature. Scientific Research Centre, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Contains a historical overview of the manuscripts, a series of studies and commentaries, a glossary, transcriptions and translations.

Bavarian State Library. Presents the manuscripts and contains links to the digitised versions kept by the library. {{Authority control Earliest known manuscripts by language Slovenian literature Cultural history of Slovenia Christian manuscripts 10th-century manuscripts 11th-century manuscripts South Slavic manuscripts