MEMOIR MARGINALIA– (SUB)CONSCIOUS ORIGINS OF BIOGRAPHY FACTS AND DILEMMAS ABOUT THE LIFE OF A GLAGOLITIC PRIEST ŠIMUN GREBLO (AROUND 1472 – AROUND 1551)

Abstract

Šimun Greblo, a Glagolitic priest from Roč, Istria, who lived and worked at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, left an indelible trace in the Croatian Glagolitic literature. Relatively scarce data found on the margins of several Glagolitic manuscripts provide only an outline of the personality of this scholar from Roč, but they are sufficient to understand his literary value and importance. Scarcity of the basic biographical data and a certain degree of vagueness in the extant data have caused problems for the contemporary researchers who study Greblo’s work. These problems include the determination of a time-line and the question of whether he was a parish priest. We have tried to solve some dilemmas in this discussion about these issues, which is also an attempt to find solution to these problems. However, this does not enable us to positively confirm the accuracy of the basic information. Therefore, they should not be taken at face value. This is why there will always exist at least two possible ways of interpreting the available data, and the only thing we can do is lean towards the interpretation that we believe is the most convincing.