Against the plague: prayers in Croatian

[Croatian prayer book against plague]. Piesni odgovorne s molitvam zarkovniem rasliekiem svezima kod [?] svetoga chjajka Franceska od Asigia.

€ 3,500.00

A scarce and likely unique Croatian manuscript of collected prayers against the plague. Croatian manuscripts of any kind are incredibly rare on the market, and only eleven individual manuscripts can be traced on the Schoenberg database.

The provenance of this prayer book certainly lies with the famous Mala Braca Franciscan monastery in the heart of Dubrovnik. The name Mala Braca ("Male Brachje") is mentioned explicitly in the scribal preamble and the colophon (which is written before the final set of prayers); the founder of the order, St Francis of Assisi, is invoked in the title and preamble. The obvious association with plague, and the slim and portable - perhaps personal - size of the prayer book perhaps hints to an intended purpose to ward off plague for an individual; it may even have been written for one of the later plague outbreaks in Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik, previously the Republic of Ragusa, has a long history with epidemic disease. As a major Mediterranean port during the medieval and Early Modern periods, Ragusa often experienced the first and most devastating waves of newly introduced epidemics arriving in seaports, from the Black Death to cholera. As a result, Dubrovnik has one of the oldest recorded histories of a formal quarantine, stretching back to the 14th century. Some of the city's Lazarettos - built to house new arrivals in the city for the 30 to 40 days - still stand as evidence of a long and difficult plague history. The saints called upon in the prayer book include St Francis, patron of the monastery, but also St Anthony of Padua, St Sebastian, "Tender of the Sick", Margaret of Cortona, and of course St Rochus, patron saint of plague victims.