Fancev Frano: Vatikanski hrvatski molitvenik i Dubrovački psaltir

Frano Fancev: The Vatican Croatian Prayer Book and the Dubrovnik Psalter

The Vatican Croatian Prayer Book is the oldest known Croatian prayer book in the vernacular. It is kept in the Vatican Library and is known in science as the Vatican Croatian prayer book. It was created around 1400 in Dubrovnik or its surroundings, and was intended for a nunnery. It is a transcription of an older Latin template (without a single redaction), but with clear traces of Church Slavonic origins in the translation and language. Due to the scribal errors, which include the substitution of similar Glagolitic letters (i — o, t — d — 1) and some traces of the Cyrillic alphabet (eg f, c translated from Latin s), the existence of a Glagolitic and Cyrillic pretext is beyond doubt. Its mother tongue is Chakavian-Ikavian, so along with the Dubrovnik linguistic traits, Chakavian Ikavians also coexist: for example, next to Ijekavism Ikavism (even within one word, e.g. Ijekavska base/Ikavian suffix or vice versa), with the noun genitive plural suffix - and the Chakavian short genitive plurals or those with the suffixes -ov, -i, etc. The monument has been known since 1859, when Franjo Rački presented in the "Zagrebački katolicok list", and published in 1934 in transliteration by Franjo Fancev. It is written in Romanesque Gothic on parchment and decorated with initials with miniatures, and on the first leaf there is also an unidentified noble coat of arms. Its content includes: The Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary according to the law of the Holy Roman Church for all ages, the Seven Psalms of the Submissive, the Office of the Dead, the Office of the Holy Cross, the Office of the Holy Spirit, prayers for various occasions and the unfinished Psalms Graduale. Here is an example from that prayer book: "My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior. Because he looks upon the humility of his servants. This, I am blessed by all the nations say, because he has made me great who is powerful and his holy name. And his mercy from generation to generation fearing him (these are the words of the famous "Magnificat - Magnificent" of the Mother of God herself when she met her cousin Elizabeth) ... Give us, by your help, we beseech you, Lord God, to rejoice with an eternal mind and a healthier body, and in the name of the Blessed Mary, ever-virgin, by praying to be delivered from the present, to enjoy eternal joy" ... In that prayer book, the first known recording of the singing of the Latin church hymn Ave maris stella - Hail, starfish.