Priest Martinac ( hr, pop Martinac) was a 15th-century

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

n Glagolite scribe,

calligrapher Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as " ...

and

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. He originated from the Lapčan family. In 1484–1494 in he copied the ''Drugi novljanski brevijar'' ("The Second Novi Vinodolski Breviary") for the Pauline monastery in Novi Vinodolski, a Glagolitic codex in 500 folios. Column gaps were filled with his writings. The most famous is the one from 1493 – ''Zapis popa Martinca'' ("The Record of Father Martinac") in which he describes the difficult situation in Croatia after the defeat of the Croatian nobility at the Battle of Krbava Field. That record is attested in folios 267 a–d and is written in a mixture of a Croatian vernacular and Church Slavonic. It is inspired by the biblical

Book of Judith The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book, included in the Septuagint and the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian Old Testament of the Bible, but excluded from the Hebrew canon and assigned by Protestants to the apocrypha. It tells ...

and describes the atrocities of

Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

as they as "flocked unto the people of Croatia" (''nalegoše na ezikь hrvatski''). Martinac's account of the battle is generally recognized as the beginnings of Croatian patriotic poetry.

Gallery

File:SecondNovljBrev.jpg, ''Drugi Novljanski Brevijar'', 1484–1494 File:Zapis popa Martinca.jpg, ''Zapis popa Martinca'', 1493

References

Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 15th-century Croatian Roman Catholic priests Medieval European scribes Manuscript illuminators {{Croatia-reli-bio-stub