Baška tablet
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Baška tablet (Bašćanska ploča) is one of the first monuments of Croatian language, dating from the year 1100.
The tablet was found in the paving of the Romanesque church of St. Lucy (Sveta Lucija) in Jurandvor near Baška on the island of Krk in 1851. Since 1934 the original has been kept in the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb.
The inscribed stone slab records King Zvonimir's donation of a piece of land to a Benedictine abbey in the time of abbot Drzhiha. The inscription is written in the Glagolitic alphabet in old Croatian, which is essentially the admixture of Chakavian dialect and Church Slavonic.
The tablet is considered to be the birth certificate of the Croats, as the name Croatia and adjective Croatian are mentioned here for the first time in the Croatian language. Despite the fact of not being the oldest Croatian Glagolitic monument (the Plomin tablet, Valun tablet, Krk inscription, are older and certainly all appeared in the 11th century) and in spite of the fact that it was not written in the pure Croatian vernacular - it is nevertheless called "the jewel of the Croatian language" and the "baptismal certificate" of Croatian literary culture. The text can be translated in English as follows:
- I, in the name of Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, I abbot Drzhiha, wrote this about the plot of land which was given by Zvonimir, the Croatian King, in his days to St. Lucy (Sv. Lucija) and witnesses [are]: Desimir, Prefect of Krbava, Martin (Mratin) in Lika, Pribinezha, clerk in Vinodol, Jacob (Jakov) on the island. If anyone denies it, let him be cursed by 12 Apostles and 4 evangelists and St. Lucy. Let anyone who lives here prays God for them. I abbot Dobrovit built this church with my nine brethren at the time of Prince Kosmat who ruled the whole Country. In those days Mikula was in Otochac with St. Lucy together.
