Review article
Woman – victim, culprit and witness in three medieval legal texts
Michel Cicvara
Tanja Kuštović
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
Abstract
The paper analyzes three medieval Slavic legal documents, two of which were written in Cyrillic
and one in Glagolitic. The oldest Slavic medieval legal text was written in Cyrillic. It is known
as the Russian Justice, its oldest parts date back to the 11th century, but the text underwent
numerous revisions up until the 17th century. The Poljica Statute is also in Cyrillic, and despite
being dated to the year 1440, the document contains considerably older records. The third
document is the Vinodol Code, the only explicitly dated text of the three to January 6, 1288, but
whose transcript dates from the 16th century. This is the oldest Croatian legal text, while the said
Russian Justice is the oldest Slavic legal text. The analysis focuses on the position of women
within these three legal documents. Additionally, the first Croatian translation of the Russian
Justice is contained in this article.
Keywords
legal documents; the Russian Justice; the Poljica Statute; the Vinodol Code; woman
Hrčak ID:
289407
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2022.
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