Istrian Demarcation

In addition to the borders that were being agreed upon only in disputed parts of Istria, the Istrian Demarcation also established the payment of fees for the use of forests, vineyards and pastures.

[1] Milko Kos[2] and Metod Dolenc [sl] rejected its genuineness, arguing that it was fabricated in Habsburg Istria in the mid-15th century on the basis of several authentic records of perambulations found in the archives.

The Istrian Demarcation vaguely shows us the social organization, economic conditions and life of the rural communities in medieval Istria.

However, even the younger copies retain some older features of Croatian (e.g. the dual form of some nouns) and minor traceas of Church Slavonic (e.g. the use of absolute construction of the dative case).

The Demarcation is also famous for referring to Croatian as hrvacki: I ondi gospodin Menart sluga naprid sta i pokaza listi prave v keh se udržahu zapisani razvodi i kunfini meju Sovińakom z Vrhom i Plzetom, ki bihu pisani na let Božjih 1195, ke listi ondi pred nas trih nodari postaviše, keh ta gospoda izibra: jednoga latinskoga, a drugoga nimškoga, a tretoga hrvackoga, da imamo vsaki na svoj orijinal pisat, poimeno od mesta do mesta, kako se niže udrži, po vsoj deželi.

I tako mi niže imenovani nodari preda vsu tu gospodu pročtesmo kako se v ńih udrži.

I tako onde obe strane se sjediniše i kuntentaše i kordaše i razvodi svojimi zlameniji postaviše, i jednoj i drugoj strani pisaše listi jazikom latinskim i hrvackim, a gospoda sebe shraniše jazikom nemškim.Historian Dražen Vlahov says ‘The Croatian Glagolitic document of the demarcation of the holdings of certain Istrian municipalities, i.e. of their feudal lords (Duke Albrecht of Pazin and Gorica, Patriarch Raimund of Aquileia and Venetian authorities in Istria), also known as the Istrian Demarcation, originally dated 5 May 1325, and written, as stated in the text, in three languages (Latin, German and Croatian) in three originals, written by three selected scribes: a priest called Mikula for Duke Albrecht who wrote in Croatian in the Glagolitic script, Mr Pernar from Gorica who wrote in German and Mr Ivan from Krmina who wrote it in Latin.