engleski

Beram (Istria) in the Middle Ages and Croatian Glagolithism. A Historiographical Perspective

Beram (Vermo in Italian) holds an important place in the study of medieval Istria and Croatian Glagolitism. This paper will put special emphasis on the historical perspective of the study of Beram and its sacral and manuscript heritage from the Middle Ages and will suggest an interdisciplinary approach to future research and appreciation of this historical region. Beram is today a village located a couple of miles west of the town of Pazin. It is an agricultural and cattle-growing region. As a settlement it goes back to a prehistoric Illyrian gradina, expanding later below its perimeter too. In the Middle Ages the settlement was fortified with walls. Starting with the 10th century, Beram was a fief of the Bishopric of Trieste, after that it developed into a castle on the territory of the County of Pazin (It. Contea di Pisino, Lat. Comitatus Histriensis, Ger. Grafschaft Mitterburg). Politically, it was a part of an administrative complex of possessions ruled by the House of Austria, better known as the Habsburgs, and their captains (counts) from the Pazin castle. The major part of the peninsula, however, was in the hands of the Venetians (La Provincia dell' Istria) throughout the Middle Ages and Early Modern era. Beram had suffered severely in several military conflicts, for example in the war between the League of Cambrai (Emperor Maximilian) and Venice (1508-1510), then during a Turkish raid in 1511. It was also damaged during the War of the Uskok (1616-1617). Toward the end of the 16th century the castle was rebuilt due to the repopulation with Croatian settlers fleeing from the Turks from the regions of Croatia and Bosnia. Though we are dealing here with a rural area with some urban elements (it was one of the castles of the Pazin County, and had, for example, during the short-lived Venetian occupation in 1508 only 62 fireplaces (=households), some 70 years later, in 1578, 148 households), it did, nevertheless, enjoy the status of a minor town, Stätl in Middle High German, and managed to produce historical-artistic monuments and a Glagolitic heritage of exceptional importance. Primarily, these consist of Croatian Glagolitic manuscripts from the 15th century, the present-day parish church of St. Martin, originally from 1431 with a Glagolitic inscription in its baptistery and frescoes painted in the 15th century by an anonymous master from Furlania, and the Gothic church of St. Mary na Škrilinama with frescoes painted in 1474 by the master Vincent of Kastav (Vincentius de Castua in Latin) and his associates. These frescoes rank as one of the most valuable works of local Istrian medieval art. Through 46 painted fields scenes from the lives of Mary and Jesus are depicted. The largest composition is situated on the northern wall and it is as long as 8 meters – Homage of the Kings. However, the most impressive section is the scene of the Dance of the Dead where skeletons dance and move along with persons of all social strata. It is actually a medieval Istrian Biblia pauperum. Vincent of Kastav utilized here apparently graphic templates of the so-called Master of the Banderoles (Meister mit den Bandrollen) and the Bible of the Poor (Biblia pauperum). Vincent was able to sign his work too. A preserved inscription over the side door of the church goes, namely, in Latin like this: hoc pinxit magister Vicencius d(e) Kastua. (master Vincent of Kastav painted these /In honor of Our Lord Jesus Christ, amen, and glorious Virgin Mother Mary and all the Saints the community of Beram had this work painted at the expense of the Fraternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Master Vincent of Kastav painted these and finished it in the month of November, on the 8th day after St. Martin's Day, in the year of Our Lord 1474/). However, Beram is almost just as famous for its Glagolitic inscriptions and manuscripts too. As many as 127 writings in form of inscriptions and graffiti have been detected on the painted walls of the church of St. Mary na Škrilinama – a record in the Croatian art history. Let's give just one example of it: He who fears God, God shall forgive him his sins (31). Among the Glagolitic manuscripts we have first of all the parchment codices: First Missal of Beram, also called the First Ljubljana Missal, since it is kept in the National and University Library of Slovenia in Ljubljana. It is a 15th-century work, it was copied by the well-known Glagolitic copyist and illuminator Bartol Krbavac and was used right there in Beram. The missal's calendar is especially interesting because single months are represented through icons-small pictures with depictions of agricultural work specific for the given month. The National and University Library in Ljubljana has today the Second Beram or Ljubljana Missal too, and the First and Second Beram (or Ljubljana) Breviary, all three of them from the 15th century. The template the scriptor used while copying the Second Beram Breviary is believed to have come from the island of Krk. In all of the above mentioned codices the most valuable data for local and national history are found as marginalia – notes written on the blank margins of the main text. From all the things said and presented here it is easy to agree on the fact that historical study of Beram cannot be done without an interdisciplinary approach both in the field of history and art history and in the area of philology, archaeology, historical geography and cartography, ethnology etc.

Beram (Istria, Croatia), Middle Ages, Croatian Glagolithism, Historiographical Perspective

Na konferenciji sudjelovao kao član i suradnik Znanstvenog centra izvrsnosti za hrvatsko glagoljaštvo pri Staroslavenskom institutu u Zagrebu (voditelj: prof. dr. sc. Milan Mihaljević) te kao suradnik projekta Hrvatske zaklade za znanost Izvori, pomagala i studije za hrvatsku povijest od srednjeg vijeka do kraja dugog 19. stoljeća (voditelj: dr. sc. Damir Karbić).