The Glagolitic Notebook of the Parish Priest of Šćitarjevo from 1524 to 1526. A Contribution to the Research of the Ecclesiastical and Rural Life in the Surroundings of Zagreb in the Early Modern Age

Rad je podijeljen u tri osnovna dijela. U prvom dijelu razmatraju se osnovne diplomatičke i paleografske značajke najstarije sjevernohrvatske glagoljske bilježnice koju je zapisao anonimni župnik Šćitarjeva početkom 16. stoljeća. U drugom dijelu autori upućuju na vrijednost ovog sveščića u proučavanju određenih historiografskih problema kao što su pitanje načina i vrsta podavanja na ime lukna, mogućnosti proučavanja društvene i crkvene problematike ruralnih sredina, nekih demografskih pitanja ove malene seoske i crkvene jedinice i slično. U trećem dijelu donosi se transliteracija ovog vrela te faksimil ovog glagoljskog sveščića.Based on the analysis of a notebook written in Glagolitic script by an unknown parish priest of Šćitarjevo near Zagreb at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the authors examine some aspects of the ecclesiastical and rural life of the inhabitants of that parish. In the first part of the article some diplomatic and palaeographic aspects of this source, such as ligatures, contractions and suspensions typical for the early modern cursive Glagolitic script, are examined. Also, the rules of transliteration of this source written in old Croatian are presented there, and also the problems concerning the foliation of this tax book. In the second part of the article the authors discuss the value of this source for the research of certain aspects of rural and ecclesiastical life in early modern continental Croatia. The notebook of the parish priest of Šćitarjevo gives valuable information concerning the ecclesiastical structure and size of that parish by listing the names of villages belonging to it in the Early Modern Period. It also provides various data regarding sorts and values of obligatory offerings provided by the parishioners and referred to in the text by the Croatian term lukno, a sort of additional tithe, which was collected and aimed at the support of the local parish priest. Thus, as is obvious from the contents of the notebook, the lukno could be given by parishioners in kind (usually in grain, wine or wood), through labouring on the parish landed estates, as well as in money. Since the lukno could have been given in different ways, this fact was designated by use of various terms appearing in the source, such as those for different kinds of agricultural workers (delavci: labourers, žetelci: harvesters) or grain measures (vedro, vagan, kvarta), and so on. After giving the definitions and values of these terms and measures, the authors also present the examples from the analysed source. On the basis of the examination of places mentioned in the notebook, they also reconstruct a several-day-long itinerary of the parish priest during his visit to fourteen villages belonging to the parish of Šćitarjevo. The analysis made it clear that the priest visited villages according to the carefully planned stages of his trip. Namely, as is evident from the contents of the source, the main principle of his itinerary was to make a circular trip by starting and finishing it in the centre of the parish in Šćitarjevo. Since the notebook contains the names of all the parishioners paying the lukno in all fourteen villages, this source makes possible, at least to a certain degree, the analysis of some aspects of the demographic picture of the parish of Šćitarjevo at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Thus, contrary to widespread opinion, the most heavily populated village in the parish was not Šćitarjevo, the seat of the parish, but the village of Črnkovci, which had a population more than twice the size of the ecclesiastical centre of the parish. Finally, in the third part of the article, the authors give the transliteration as well as the facsimile of this relatively small Glagolitic source