Law code of Vinodol or Vinodol
statute
A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...
() is one of the oldest law texts written in the
Chakavian dialect of
Croatian and is among the oldest Slavic
code
In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communicati ...
s.
[ Russkaya Pravda is the only older code in Slavdom.] It was written in the
Glagolitic alphabet
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 Saints Cyril and Methodi ...
. It was originally compiled in 1288 by a commission of 42 members in
Novi Vinodolski, a town on the Adriatic Sea coast in
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 ...
, located south of Crikvenica, Selce and Bribir and north of Senj. However, the code itself is preserved in a 16th-century copy.
The statute
A paragraph was set to define the relation between the
duke
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...
s and the
peasantry
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...
of the region.
It is the oldest among all Croatian city statutes, which represented an agreement between the people of Vinodol and their new liege lords Frangipani, the
counts of Krk. It contains important information about the feudal law in this area which had replaced the tribal customs of an earlier period. The Vinodol Statute provides a rare contemporary picture of the life and political conditions in
medieval Europe
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
. The oldest regulations concerning public health in western Croatia are preserved within the Vinodol Statute. Today, it is stored in the
National and University Library Zagreb.
The Vinodol Statute confirms status of the Vinodol as an administrative and political center from the 13th century. The text of the statute is preserved as a copy from the 16th century.
Editions
The first printed edition was prepared in 1843 by
Antun Mažuranić in the third yearly volume of the journal ''
Kolo''.
translated it in 1846 to
Russian and
Anna Mikhailovna Evreinova edited the 1878 edition in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
, with facsimile of the original as well as Latin and Cyrillic transliteration.
Vatroslav Jagić published it in 1880, both the original and a Russian translation with philological and legal commentary.
Wacław Maciejowski translated it in 1856 to
Polish,
Jules Preux translated it in 1896 to
French,
Mark Kostrenčić translated it in 1931 to
German and
Lujo Margetić translated it in 1981/1982 to
Italian, and in 1983 to
English.
Josip Bratulić edited the 1988 facsimile edition with commentary and a dictionary.
See also
*
Kastav Statute
*
Vrbnik Statute
*
List of Glagolitic manuscripts (1500–1599)
*
Lists of Glagolitic manuscripts
Notes
References
External links
1843 edition by Antun MažuranićFacsimile reproduction of the Codex at the Croatian National Library (Flash)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Law code Of Vinodol
Medieval legal codes
Legal history of Croatia
Croatian language
History of Dalmatia
13th-century books
13th century in Croatia
Culture of Croatia
Medieval documents of Croatia
Croatian Glagolitic texts
1280s in law
1288 in Europe
History of agriculture in Croatia