Original scientific paper
CONTINUITY OF WRITTEN TRADITION FROM SALONA TO SPLIT
Radoslav Katičić
; Beč, Instituz fur Slawistik der Universitat Wien
Abstract
After the fall of the Roman Empire the continuity of Salonitan tradition was not broken in the City of Split. There are richer sources in Split than in other parts of Dalmatia.They offer an opportunity for a thorough study of the continuity of written tradition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages.Compilers of the Split archiepiscopal catalogues (lists) had filled the period apostles until the beginning of the 4th century with the names taken from the Salonitan diptychs. This was the time when martyr Dujam actually was Salonitan Bishop. Their wish wasto illustrate the continuity of the Church of Salona from apostolic centuries thus confirming the authority of the Church of Split as its immediate successor. That is why the compilers took the names of other bishops from Dalmatia mentioned in diptychs as if they were Salonitan bishops. Mediaeval copy of the diptych from the Salonitan Church, which was the base for all later lists, is an evidence of the continuity of written tradition from the Late Antique Salona to Early Mediaeval Split. A large number of authentic documents of the metropolitan church from Salona reached Split from the late 5th until the early 7th centuries and became part of the written tradition of the new religious centre. Worth mentioning are the acts of the two provincial synods held in Salona in the 6th century and the lettersof the Pope Gregory the Great (590-604 ).An important personality was the Salonitan Bishop Hesichius (405-426) who was in correspondence with the church dignitaries, such as Augustinus, Popes Zosirnus and John the Chrysostom. His remarkable works contain the legend of St. Clement from Rome, and that of St. Domnio and Anastasius. Undoubtedly the nucleus of the most comprehensive legend of St. Domnio and his martyrdom in Historia Salonitana Maior is of late Romanorigin. The same goes for the former legend, whose source were Tabulae Salonitanae, and Farlati attributed it to the Bishop Hesichius. The Legend of the martyrdom of St. Anastasius was preserved in the Slav translation written in Glagolitic script. It must have been based on Latin or even Greek source from Early Christian Salona. The continuity of written tradition from Salona to Split is evidenced by the legend according to which the Split evangelistary(Evangeliarium Spalatense) was written by Domnio's own hand. lt has been recently suggested that this manuscript was really of the Late Roman origin and came from a Salonitan monastery scriptorium. There are many elements suggesting that some texts belonging to the Salonitan church were brought to the new church centre in Split and thus became the basis for thedevelopment of Croatian culture and literature in the Middle Ages.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
117962
URI
Publication date:
10.2.1992.
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