Biograd Glagolitic documents in the records of Zadar notary Tomasso de Franceschi

Abstract

The tradition of public notaries in Dalmatia dates back to the 11th century, which is why notarial records are an indispensable source for studying the public life of communes on the eastern Adriatic coast in the Middle and Early Modern Ages. Tommaso de Franceschi performed the notarial service from 1722, when he was appointed notary public, until 1762. He wrote documents in the Italian language, but his writings also included a number of documents written in the Croatian (Illyrian) language. The notarial legacy of Tomasso de Franceschi consists of nine bundles. In the last (ninth volume) there is an unusually large number of published Glagolitic documents. Additional analysis revealed that more than a half of all Glagolitic documents in the ninth volume refer to the settlement of Biograd. In total, 58 Glagolitic documents were observed in the ninth volume, and Biograd is mentioned in 37 of them. The rest refers to the settlements of the wider Biograd area. Glagolitic documents in the writings of notary Tomasso de Franceschi were not written by de Franceschi himself, but by Glagolitic priests, which was requested by the parties. Namely, notarial practice in the early modern century allowed for the possibility of documents to be written by literate people in rural or urban areas to gain public force by being included in the official records of public notaries. There was a certain rule that the documents were first written in Croatian and Glagolitic, and then translated into Italian and Latin. Of the 37 documents related to Biograd and its inhabitants, 30 are related to property affairs of the Tolić family, Don Petar Tolić and his brothers Božo and Bartol. The Glagolitic documents in the collection of the notary Tomasso de Franceschi are an exceptional source for elucidating economic relations and other determinants of public life in the Biograd area in the 18th century after the withdrawal of the Ottomans and the stabilization of political, military, economy and economic conditions.