Medieval literary heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as part of a Bosnia and Herzegovina literature, is based on local language traditions and literacy and can be assessed starting with the High Middle Ages. The oldest preserved Bosnian inscriptions is considered to be the Humac tablet (), inscribed into stone tablet between the 10th and 12th century, which means that probably predates Charter of Ban Kulin written on 29 August 1189.
Going back to medieval period in history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, literature was predominantly ecclesiastical, with literacy revolving around the Bosnian Church production, and other religious, diplomatic and trade texts, based on an old form of Shtokavian dialect, Ijekavian dialect, Old Slavic, and usage of Bosnian Cyrillic and in lesser extent Glagolitic scripts. One specific peculiarity of this period in Bosnia and Herzegovina history are written monuments in form of stećaks.
Background
Such medieval writings, found in Bosnia and Herzegovina, produced during medieval period in Bosnian history, which included parts of Dalmatia and Old Herzegovina, revolve around liturgical literature production, such as Divoševo jevanđelje (), Grškovićev odlomak Apostola (), the Hrvoje's Missal, Hval's Codex (Hvalov zbornik, or Hvalov rukopis / Хвалов рукопис; ), Mletačka apokalipsa (), Čajniče Gospel (Čajničko jevanđelje), belong to the Bosnian literature, and are considered the written heritage, but not a literature in a strict modern sense of the word. The manuscripts belonging to the Bosnian Church, are important part of the literary production during this period. Some of these manuscripts have some iconographic elements which are not in concordance with the supposed theological doctrine of the Christians, like the Annunciation, the Crucifixion and the Ascension. All of the important Bosnian Church books, such as Nikoljsko jevanđelje (), Srećkovićevo jevanđelje (), Hvalov zbornik (), Radosavljeva bosanska knjiga (or Rukopis krstjanina Radosava, or Zbornik krstjanina Radosava; ), are based on Glagolitic Church books.
Body of work
Inscriptions The Humac tablet is an Old Slavic epigraph in the form of a stone tablet, written in Bosnian Cyrillic script, and carved into a stone slab, very similar to stele. It is thought to have originated between the 10th and 12th centuries, making it the oldest surviving Bosnian text, older even than Charter of Ban Kulin. It is the oldest Cyrillic epigraph found in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it was found in the village of Humac in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The tablet was never precisely dated, but some attempts included Yugoslav and Bosnian epigrapher and medievalist, Marko Vego, who dated it to the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century. The same dating suggested linguist Jovan Deretić, while historian Dimitrije Bogdanović dated it to the beginning of the 12th century. The text of the tablet tells the story about the act of building a church by Krsmir (also rendered Uskrsimir or Krešimir) and his wife Pavica, which was dedicated to the Archangel Michael. The tablet is quadrangle in shape, 68x60x15 centimeters, and the inscription is carved in form of a quadrangle in Bosnian Cyrillic script among which five Glagolitic letters can be identified, four E-like letters resembling letter Ⰵ and a Ⱅ letter alongside a conventional Cyrillic Т. It was first noted by a French diplomat at the Bosnia Vilayet. Today, tablet is kept at the local museum of the Humac Franciscan friary in the same village where it was found, namely Humac near Ljubuški.
Grd of Trebinje Tablet from Trebinje is another inscribed stone tablet. It was cut around 1180 as a gravestone tablet for a župan Grd, during the rule of Prince Mihailo III of Duklja. The tablet is kept in the church in Police near Trebinje.
Ploča Kulina bana (), from around 1185, is the inscription on the church built by Ban Kulin. It was found near Visoko, and it is kept today in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The inscription of Mastan Bubanjić is found in the rock in Donja Drežnica, in the locality called Toplo, is dated between 1356 and 1366. It was declared a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina by KONS. The national monument forms a cultural landscape with an inscription in the rock. The inscription is carved in Bosnian Cyrillic on an almost vertical surface of the rock, raised about 2 m from the ground, and it occupies an area of 110 x 75 cm.
Kočerinska ploča (or Natpis Vignja Miloševića; ), is a medieval stone tablet with an inscription cut in 1404 or 1405. The stone tablet was then placed on the stećak tombstone of Viganj Milošević.2004. Šefik Bešlagić, Leksikon stećaka. Inscription is in Bosnian Cyrillic, in an archaic West Stokavian dialect of Serbo-Croatian, using ikavian subdialect. It was discovered in 1983 in the Lipovac Necropolis, in village Kočerin, near Široki Brijeg, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it is now exhibited in the parochial premises. The tablet contains 25 rows of text, with 9-15 characters on each line. There are 300 characters in total and represents the largest known text in Bosnian Cyrillic, and displays a large number of ligatures. It is written in a Shtokavian Ikavian dialect, without nasal vowels, in a single-yer script, with some apparent Glagolitic influence.2011. Mateo Žagar, review of Jezik srednjovjekovnih kamenih natpisa iz Hercegovine. The form svetago shows influence from Church Slavonic, but the rest of the inscription is free of Church Slavonicisms in its morphology. The text says how Viganj Milošević served five Bosnian rulers, Ban Stjepan, Ban then King Tvrtko I, King Dabiša, Queen Gruba, and King Ostoja, and ends with a message:
.
Stećak inscriptions
Earliest stećak inscriptions could be traced back to 12th century medieval Bosnia.
Documents The Charter of Ban Kulin () is the earliest found diplomatic document written in the old Bosnian language and represents the oldest found work written in the Bosnian Cyrillic script (Bosančica). It is one of the oldest written state documents in the region. It was written on 29 August 1189 as a trade agreement between the Banate of Bosnia and the Republic of Ragusa. According to the charter, Bosnian Ban Kulin pledges to a knez named Krvaš and to all of the people of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) full freedom of movement and trading across his country. The charter is written in two languages: Latin and an old form of Shtokavian dialect, with the Shtokavian part being a loose translation of the Latin original.Amira Turbić-Hadžagić, Bosanski književni jezik (prvi razvojni period od 9. do 15. stoljeća), – u Bosanski jezik, časopis za kulturu bosankoga književnog jezika br. 4, Tuzla, 2005. The scribe was named as Radoje, and the script is Bosnian Cyrillic (Bosančica). As such, it is of particular interest to both linguists and historians. Apart from the trinitarian invocation (U ime oca i sina i svetago duha), which characterizes all charters of the period, the language of the charter is completely free of Church Slavonic influence. The language of the charter reflects several important phonological changes that have occurred in Bosnian until the 12th century:Dženeta Jukan (2009), Jezik Povelje Kulina bana, Diplomski rad, p. 13 The Saint Petersburg copy is in the literature usually called "the original" (or copy A), and copies stored in the Dubrovnik Archive as "younger copy" (or copy B) and "older copy" (or copy C). At first it was thought that the Saint Petersburg copy, which was the first one to be published and studied, was the original and others were much younger copies (for example, Milan Rešetar dated the copies B and C into the latter half of the 13th century) but that was called into question by later analyses. According to a study by Josip Vrana, evidence that copy A represents the original remains inconclusive at best, and according to a comparative analysis that copy represents only a conceptual draft of the charter according to which the real original was written. Copies B and C are independent copies of the real original, which was different from the copy A. Palaeographic analysis indicates that all three copies of the charter were written in approximately the same period at the turn of the 12th century, and that their scribes originate from the same milieu, representing the same scribal tradition. Their handwriting on the one hand relates to the contemporary Cyrillic monuments, and on the other hand it reflects an influence of the Western, Latin culture. Such cultural and literary opportunities have existed in the area which encompassed the Dubrovnik region at the period. Copy A probably, and copies B and C with certainty, originate from the scribe who lived and was educated in Dubrovnik and its surroundings. Linguistic analysis however does not point to any specific characteristics of the Dubrovnikan speech, but it does show that the language of the charter has common traits with Ragusan documents from the first half of the 13th century, or those in which Ragusan scribal offices participated. Given that Ragusan delegates participated in the drafting of their copy, everything points that a scribe from Dubrovnik area must have participated in the formulation of the text of the copy A. However, that the final text was written at the court of Ban Kulin is proved by how the date was written: using odь rožьstva xristova, and not the typical first-half-of-the-13th-century Dubrovnikan lěto uplьšteniě.
Batalovo jevanđelje () is dated to 1393. The gospel was written by the scribe (in medieval Bosnia called dijak) Stanko Kromirijanin. The tepčija Batalo Šantić was the scribe's patron. Four pages of the gospel are preserved, and are held in National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg. On the third preserved page the scribe Stanko states that he was writing an ornate gospel for Batalo, dating its completion to 1393, during the reign of Dabiša.“В' име оца и сина и светаго духа. Сеи книге направи тепачија Батало своим' дијаком' Стан'ком Кромиријанином' и оковав' е сребром' и златом' и одлив' кросницоми и приказа е стар'цу Радину. А написаше се сие книге у дни крала Дабише од' ројенија С(и)на Б(о)жија 1393 лито, по умр'ти крала Твр'тка друго лито“, Đorđe Sp. Radojičić, Odlomak bogomilskog jevanđelja bosanskog tepačije Batala iz 1393 godine. Izvestija na Instituta za balgarska istorija 14-15, Sofija, 1964, 495-507;Franjo Šanjek, Bosansko - humski krstjani u povijesnim vrelima (13. - 15. st.), Barbat, Zagreb, 2003, 356 On page two, there is a list of djed of the Bosnian Church. Researchers call this list „Red gospodina Rastudija“ (Order of Bishop Rastudije), and is understood as a list of names of all Bosnian Church bishops before and after him.Aleksandar Solovjev, Vjersko učenje bosanske crkve, Zagreb 1948, 33
Liturgical books