Naslov
Authorisation of anonymously published religious texts in the 18th century Croatia

Autori
Velagić, Zoran ; Hasenay, Damir

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, ostalo

Skup
The 22nd annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing (SHARP)

Mjesto i datum
Antwerpen, Belgija, 17.09.2014. - 21.09.2014

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Nije recenziran

Ključne riječi
Authorisation; author; authority; 18th century; book history

Sažetak
The aim of this paper is to answer how was it possible that, contrary to the decrees of the Council of Trent, religious books in the 18th century Croatia were published without the author’s name and sometimes even with no place of publishing. At its 4th session, Council ordered that in future all books on sacred matters should be examined, approved, and finally, all should, without exception, display the names of the author, censor and printer. Curiously, Croatian religious writers of the 18th century, who praised early modern Croatia as “such a Catholic kingdom”, neglected decisions of the doctrinal authority. The paper, based on the examination of more than 400 printed religious books combines two approaches, one adopted by Roger Chartier who, referring to Michel Foucault and the “author function” insists that authorship and the writing practices should be considered only within the set social context, and another, which reckon on research into the paratextual elements and the ways they shaped readers appropriation of written discourse. The results of the research indicate three points which can explain why the Council’s decrees were not literally implemented. Firstly, one should be very careful before proclaiming a book anonymous, even if it does not display the writer’s name, for what is anonymous according to present-day criteria, was well known to the writer’s contemporaries, in a period when all members of a tiny literate community knew one another very well – only some 130 writers published in the Croatian vernacular in a given time span. Secondly, in many anonymously published books, instead of the writer’s name the title page exhibited his functions, stating that he is a missionary, parish priest, a monk etc. His name could be omitted, but the writer’s functions had to be on display. What mattered in the authorization of a text was the profession: in religious works the writer, as an individual, existed as a representative of the institution – the Catholic Church. Thirdly, the title page and the other paratextual elements were replenished with names of eminent patrons (regularly bishops), censors, saints, and references to the other values of the Catholic Church. These names are often more conspicuous than writer’s, leaving an impression that it was not the writer’s name that vouched for the truthfulness of a book, but the institution behind him.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Povijest

POVEZANOST RADA