Baška Tablet

Baška tablet
Baška tablet
Created	c. 1100
Location	Baška, on the island of Krk
Purpose	King Zvonimir's donation

Baška tablet (Croatian: Bašćanska ploča, pronounced [bâʃt͡ɕanskaː plɔ̂t͡ʃa]) is one of the first monuments containing an inscription in the Croatian recension of the Church Slavonic language, dating from c. 1100.

The tablet was discovered by scholars in 1851 in the paving of the Church of St. Lucy, Jurandvor near Baška on the island of Krk.

Since 1934 the original has been kept in the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb.

Baška tablet is made of white limestone. It is 199 cm wide, 99.5 cm high, and 7.5–9 cm thick. It weighs approximately 800 kilograms.

The inscribed stone slab records King Zvonimir's donation of a piece of land to a Benedictine abbey in the time of abbot Držiha. The second half of the inscription tells how Abbot Dobrovit built the church along with nine monks. The inscription is written in the Glagolitic script, exhibiting features of Church Slavonic of Croatian recension, such as writing (j)u for (j)ǫ, e for ę, i for y, and using one jer only (ъ). It provides the only example of transition from Glagolitic of the rounded Bulgarian type to the angular Croatian alphabet.

The scholars who took part in deciphering of the Glagolitic text had to deal with palaeographic challenges, as well as the problem of the damaged, worn-out surface of the slab. Through successive efforts, the contents was largely established before World War I, but remained a topic of study throughout the 20th century.

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