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Baška tablet (, ) is one of the first monuments containing an inscription in the Croatian recension of the Church Slavonic language, dating from . On it Croatian ethnonym and king Demetrius Zvonimir are mentioned for the first time in native
Croatian language Croatian (; ) is the standard language, standardised Variety (linguistics)#Standard varieties, variety of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language mainly used by Croats. It is the national official language and literary standard of Croatia, o ...
. The inscription is written in the
Glagolitic script The Glagolitic script ( , , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed that it was created in the 9th century for the purpose of translating liturgical texts into Old Church Slavonic by Saint Cyril, a monk fro ...
. It was discovered in 1851 at Church of St. Lucy in Jurandvor near the village of Baška on the
Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
n island of
Krk Krk (; ; ; ; archaic German: ''Vegl'', ; ) is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of Primorje-Gorski Kotar county. Krk is tied with Cres as the largest Adriatic island, depending o ...
.


History

The tablet was discovered on 15 September 1851 by Petar Dorčić during paving of the Church of St. Lucy in Jurandvor near the village of Baška on the island of
Krk Krk (; ; ; ; archaic German: ''Vegl'', ; ) is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of Primorje-Gorski Kotar county. Krk is tied with Cres as the largest Adriatic island, depending o ...
. Already then a small part of it was broken. Since 1934, the original tablet has been kept at the
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (; , HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia. HAZU was founded under the patronage of the Croatian bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer under the name Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (, JAZU) since its ...
,
Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
. Croatian archaeologist Branko Fučić contributed to the interpretation of Baška tablet as a left altar partition. His reconstruction of the text of the Baška tablet is the most widely accepted version today.


Description

The Baška tablet is made of white limestone. It is 199 cm wide, 99.5 cm high, and 7.5–9 cm thick. It weighs approximately 800 kilograms. The tablet was installed as a partition between the altar and the rest of the church, specifically, it was left pluteus of the cancellus/septum (the right pluteus tablet is so-called "Jurandvorski ulomci/Jurandvor fragments" with four preserved pieces which were also found on the pavement, mentions name of Zvonimir, Croatia, Lucia, word "opat", "prosih" and "križ", has almost the same but smaller letters and it is also dated to the 11th and 12th century). According to historical sources the cancellus was preserved until 1751. It is believed it was destroyed sometimes between then and 1851. When destroyed, the tablet was placed on the pavement of the church. A replica is in place in the church. The
inscribed An inscribed triangle of a circle In geometry, an inscribed planar shape or solid is one that is enclosed by and "fits snugly" inside another geometric shape or solid. To say that "figure F is inscribed in figure G" means precisely the same th ...
stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
slab records King Zvonimir's donation of a piece of land to a
Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
abbey in the time of abbot Držiha. The second half of the inscription tells how abbot Dobrovit built the church along with nine monks. The inscription is written in the
Glagolitic script The Glagolitic script ( , , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed that it was created in the 9th century for the purpose of translating liturgical texts into Old Church Slavonic by Saint Cyril, a monk fro ...
, exhibiting features of
Church Slavonic Church Slavonic is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The ...
of Croatian recension influenced by
Chakavian Chakavian or Čakavian (, , , proper name: or own name: ''čokovski, čakavski, čekavski'') is a South Slavic supradialect or language spoken by Croats along the Adriatic coast, in the historical regions of Dalmatia, Istria, Croatian L ...
dialect of
Croatian language Croatian (; ) is the standard language, standardised Variety (linguistics)#Standard varieties, variety of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language mainly used by Croats. It is the national official language and literary standard of Croatia, o ...
, such as writing ''(j)u'' for ''(j)ǫ'', ''e'' for ''ę'', ''i'' for ''y'', and using one ''jer'' only (ъ). It also has several Latin and Cyrillic letters (i, m, n, o, t, v) which combination was still common for that period. It provides the only example of transition from Glagolitic of the rounded Bulgarian (old Slovak) type to the angular Croatian alphabet type.


Contents

The scholars who took part in deciphering of the Glagolitic text dealt with palaeographic challenges, as well as the problem of the damaged, worn-out surface of the slab. Through successive efforts, the contents were mostly interpreted before World War I, but remained a topic of study throughout the 20th century. One of the most disputed parts of it is the mention of "Mikula/Nicholas in Otočac", considered as a reference either to the church (and later monastery) of St. Mikula/Nicholas in Otočac in Northwestern part of
Lika Lika () is a traditional region of Croatia proper, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by t ...
(but earliest historical mention dating to the 15th century), or to the toponym of St. Lucia's estate of Mikulja in Punat on Krk which is an island (in Croatian island is "otok" with "Otočac" being a derivation), or somewhere else on Krk and its surroundings (like monastery of St. Nicholas near Omišalj, old churches of St. Nicholas in Bosar, Ogrul, Negrit or island of Susak). Lately, church historian Mile Bogović supported the thesis about St. Nicholas in Otočac because the
Gregorian Reform The Gregorian Reforms were a series of reforms initiated by Pope Gregory VII and the circle he formed in the papal curia, c. 1050–1080, which dealt with the moral integrity and independence of the clergy. The reforms are considered to be na ...
during Zvonimir's reign went from Croatian inland toward recently conquered Byzantine lands (Krk was one of the Dalmatian city-states part of the theme of Dalmatia), and linguist Valentin Putanec based on the definition of
krajina Krajina () is a Slavic languages, Slavic toponym, meaning 'country' or 'march (territory), march'. The term is related to ''kraj'' or ''krai'', originally meanings ''land'', ''country'' or ''edge''Rick Derksen (2008), ''Etymological Dictionary of t ...
in the dictionary by Bartol Kašić and Giacomo Micaglia (meaning coastline and inland of Liburnia) argued it shows connection between Benedictines in Krk and Otočac in Lika. The original text, with unreadable segments marked gray: The transliteration, transliterated text according to Branko Fučić (1960s, last update 1982–1985), with restored segments in square brackets, is as follows:


Dating

Several evidences show that the tablet is dated to the late 11th or early 12th century (c. 1100 CE). The tablet's content suggests it was inscribed after the death of King Zvonimir (who died in 1089), since abbot Držiha describes Zvonimir's donation as an event that happened further in the past ("in his days"). The Church of St. Lucy, described as having been built during the reign of count Kosmat (possibly identified with župan of Luka in 1070 or comes Kuzma who was in the entourage of
Coloman, King of Hungary Coloman the Learned, also the Book-Lover or the Bookish (; ; ; 10703February 1116), was King of Hungary from 1095 and King of Croatia from 1097 until his death. Because Coloman and his younger brother Álmos, Duke of Croatia, Álmos were undera ...
to Zadar in 1102) who ruled over whole ''
Krajina Krajina () is a Slavic languages, Slavic toponym, meaning 'country' or 'march (territory), march'. The term is related to ''kraj'' or ''krai'', originally meanings ''land'', ''country'' or ''edge''Rick Derksen (2008), ''Etymological Dictionary of t ...
'' (probably a reference to a local place on island of Krk or March of Dalmatia from the 1060s which was composed of part of Kvarner and the eastern coast of Istria), suggests the period of Croatian succession crisis of the 1090s and before the Venetian domination since 1116 and first mention of counts of Krk in 1118–1130 (later known as
Frankopan family The House of Frankopan (, , , ) was a Croatian noble family, whose members were among the great landowner magnates and high officers of the Kingdom of Croatia in union with Hungary. The Frankopans, along with the Zrinskis, are among the most ...
). Lujo Margetić considered it was erected by the same counts of Krk between 1105 and 1118. Desimir is identified with Desimir župan of Krbava mentioned in the 1078 charter of king Zvonimir, while Pribineg some scholars identified with Pirvaneg župan of Luka in 1059. Ornamental decoration of the tablet, and early Romanesque (11–12th century) features of the church of St. Lucy similar to three other churches founded by 1100 on Krk also show it is dated at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries. Lately art historian Pavuša Vežić argued that the church is dated to the late Romanesque period (in the beginning of the 14th century) and Baška tablet text to 1300 with only ornamental decoration from 1100. Although new dating of the church was accepted by scholars like Margetić, they still considered it does not change the early 12th century dating of the whole tablet which features are "hardly possible" for the middle of the 12th century and "unimaginable" for the beginning of the 14th century. Scholars argue that the textual background for the inscription was made in the period between abbot Držiha and Dobrovit, probably based on the church's
cartulary A cartulary or chartulary (; Latin: ''cartularium'' or ''chartularium''), also called ''pancarta'' or ''codex diplomaticus'', is a medieval manuscript volume or roll ('' rotulus'') containing transcriptions of original documents relating to the fo ...
. It is considered that the fact it was inscribed at once as one unit ('' scriptura continua'') rejects the thesis different rows were inscribed in two, three or four different periods as argued by Franjo Rački (two, 1078 and 1092–1102), Rudolf Strohal (four, between 1076 and 1120), Ferdo Šišić (two, until 1100), Vjekoslav Štefanić (three, between 1089 and 1116), Josip Hamm (three, 1077/1079, end of the 11th century and around 1100), Leo Košuta (three, similar to Hamm). The meaning of the opening lines is contested. While some scholars interpret the introductory characters simply as ''Azъ'' ("I"), others believe that letters were also used to encode the year. There is no agreement, however, on the interpretation: 1100, 1077, 1079, 1105 and 1120 have been proposed.


Significance

The name of
Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
and King Zvonimir are mentioned on the tablet for the first time in Croatian. Despite the fact of not being the oldest Croatian Glagolitic monument (the Plomin tablet, Valun tablet, Krk inscription, are older and appeared in the 11th century) and in spite of the fact that it was not written in the pure Croatian
vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
– it has nevertheless been referred to by
Stjepan Ivšić Stjepan Ivšić (; 13 August 1884 – 14 January 1962) was a Croatian linguist, Slavicist, and accentologist. Biography Ivšić was born on 13 August 1884 in Orahovica. After finishing primary school in Orahovica, he attended secondary schoo ...
as "the jewel" of Croatian, while Stjepan Damjanović called it "the baptismal certificate of Croatian culture". It features a vaguely damaged ornamental string pattern, the Croatian interlace (). The tablet was depicted on the
obverse The obverse and reverse are the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ''obverse'' ...
of the Croatian 100 kuna banknote, issued in 1993 and 2002,Features of Kuna Banknotes


(1993 issue)

(2002 issue). – Retrieved on 30 March 2009.
and on a postage stamp issued by Croatian Post in 2000.


References


Bibliography

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Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baska Tablet Glagolitic inscriptions Culture of Croatia Old Croatian inscriptions 1100 in Europe 11th century in Croatia Krk Croatian Glagolitic texts 11th-century inscriptions Church Slavonic literature