Elucidarius, Mediaeval literature, Honorius Augustodunensis, Croatian translated literature, trascriptions
Abstract
The Elucidarius (Lucidarius), a collection of Mediaeval knowledge and beliefs, was very popular in Mediaeval Europe. All translations of this Mediaeval work of prose into other European national languages are known to originate from two main versions – Honorius Augustodunensis’ Latin “theological” version, and a German compilation of Honorius’ works and other non-theological works of various content. This paper focuses on the language of indirect (via Italian and German) 15th- to 19th century Croatian translations of this Mediaeval text. All of the Croatian translations are in local speeches of the Čakavian dialect. The versions of the Lucidarius from the Siena miscellany and the Tihić transcript were created according to Italian translations of Honorius’ work, and do not belong to this same manuscript series. Translations from the Old Czech differ from their later transcriptions, however this group of texts give indications of the existence of two initial versions created on the basis of an unknown original translation: the first of these two is the Lucidarius from the Žgombić miscellany (closest to the original translation), and the other is the Lucidarius from the Petris miscellany. All more recent transcriptions created between the 15th and 19th century in the region ranging from Kvarner Bay to the island of Pašman are more similar to the version from the Petris miscellany, although they also share some characteristics with the version from the Žgombić miscellany.
