Description of Momjan and its Territory

Abstract

The text examines the document “Description of Momjan and its Territory”, discovered some time ago by Jakov Jelinčić and Ljiljana Radaljac, and later published by Jelinčić. On this occasion, a detailed comment on the subject under the historical, ethnographic, social and environmental aspects is provided. An important source for the description and historical knowledge of a territory is provided by the travel writings and descriptions left by the ecclesiastics and other travellers. In the modern period, this was done by Ermanno Olmo, Niccolo Manzuoli, Giacomo Filippo Tommasini, Prospero Petronio. The topic of the text that follows is the examination of a manuscript dedicated to Momjan and its territory, described in the past also by other scholars. The text was probably written in the 1640s, perhaps between 1641 and 1647, and according to Jelinčić, it is to be attributed to Bishop Giacomo Filippo Tommasini, given the extreme resemblance between it and what is written in the Commentari storici-geografici della Provincia dell’Istria (Historical and Geographical Commentaries of the Province of Istria).