engleski

Glagolitic Graffiti in Istria as a Performance of Literate Individuals: From the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period

Croatian Glagolitic inscriptions and graffiti from the era of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period are especially important historical sources. In contrast to inscriptions which are primarily memorial texts, graffiti are secondary writings, for the most part inscribed on stone or other hard surfaces. They were written by individuals who wished to leave behind some written record, to show their own mastery of writing, or to mock another person or matter. It is in its way a unique example of a performance. Inscriptions are extremely important for researches in history, art history and related fields, thus they are rightly referred to as “archives in stone”. In terms of their creation and purpose inscriptions are related to the object on which they are found, such as those referring to a particular form of construction or tombstones. Graffiti were later engraved on an object and reflect the everyday life of individuals or communities. Each epigraphy, depending on the language and the script in which the records were made, enters the domain of philological and linguistic research. Most of Croatian Glagolitic epigraphic monuments have been preserved in Istria and Kvarner, followed by the Zadar area, and elsewhere where the Slavic liturgy was present. This paper will discuss and focus on those graffiti which are recorded and preserved in Istria, and which reflect the special Glagolitic culture of the Istrian Peninsula. These inscriptions are an expression of literateness and also reflect the education of the individual writers who had obtained their knowledge in the rural setting of Glagolitic clerics and are thus a unique example in the literary heritage of Western Europe. (This paper was supported by the Scientific Centre of Excellence for Croatian Glagolitism at the Old Church Slavonic Institute in Zagreb).

Glagolitic Graffiti, Istria, Croatia, Performance, Literate Individuals, Middle Ages, Early Modern Period,

Na konferenciji sudjelovao kao član i suradnik Znanstvenog centra izvrsnosti za hrvatsko glagoljaštvo pri Staroslavenskom institutu u Zagrebu (voditelj: prof. dr. sc. Milan Mihaljević).