UNIVERSITY OF ZADAR THE MONASTERY OF ST. MARY IN ZADAR PUBLISHERS University of Zadar The Monastery of St. Mary in Zadar FOR THE PUBLISHERS Dijana Vican M. Anastazija Čizmin CHAIR OF COMMITTEE FOR PUBLISHING ACTIVITIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ZADAR Josip Faričić EDITORS Pavuša Vežić Ivan Josipović REVIEWERS Ivan Basić Emil Hilje LANGUAGE CONSULTANTS Janet Berković Sandra Mlađenović PROOFREADING Sandra Mlađenović PHOTO Published images from the authors' own photo archives, image library of the Conservation Department in Zadar, the State Archives in Zadar and the archives of the Monastery of St. Mary in Zadar LAYOUT Mladen Košta, Hoba, Zadar PRINTING Kerschoffset d.o.o., Zagreb COPIES 350 Cataloguing-in-Publication data available in the Online Catalogue of the Research Library in Zadar under CIP record 160708022. Financed by the Monastery of St. Mary in Zadar and University of Zadar, with the financial support of the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia. ABBATISSA INGENUITATE PRECIPUA The Proceedings of the Scientific Colloquium "The 950th anniversary of the Benedictine Monastery of St. Mary in Zadar (1066-2016)" Editors: Pavuša Vežić Ivan Josipović Zadar, 2020. ...abbatissa ingenuitate pręcipua... (...an abbess most generous...) Cartulary of the Monastery of St. Mary in Zadar, fol. 15v, 31r, Archives of the Benedictine Monastery of St. Mary in Zadar Contents 7 Pavuša Vežić – Ivan Josipović Editors' Introduction 9 M. Anastazija Čizmin Foreword 13 Mladen Ančić Abbess Cicha and King Petar Krešimir IV: The Encounter Between Byzantium and the Croatian Kingdom 53 Tomislav Galović Croatia Benedictina: The Croatian Kingdom, Petar Krešimir IV and Ordo sancti Benedicti 75 Mirjana Matijević Sokol The Deed of Foundation of the Monastery of St. Mary in Zadar 85 Milenko Lončar Cicha in the Medieval Written Legacy: The Dispute Between Cicha and Neža over Forty Gold Coins 95 Trpimir Vedriš The Origin and Spread of the Passio Anastasiae: How Did St. Anastasia End Up in Cicha's Book of Hours? 113 Pavuša Vežić Ecclesiola sancta Marie Minoris and the early Romanesque Basilica of St. Mary Minor in Zadar 133 Nikola Jakšić The Eleventh-Century Façade Decoration of St. Mary’s Abbey Church in Zadar ZNANSTVENI KOLOKVIJ 950. OBLJETNICA SAMOSTANA BENEDIKTINKI SV. MARIJE U ZADRU (1066. - 2016.) I. dio Prof. dr. sc. Mladen Ančić Sveučilište u Zadru, Odjel za povijest Provincia Iadertina i Hrvatsko Kraljevstvo u drugoj polovici 11. stoljeća Doc. dr. sc. Tomislav Galović Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Filozofski fakultet, Odsjek za povijest i Zavod za hrvatsku povijest Croatia Benedictina: Hrvatsko Kraljevstvo, Petar Krešimir IV. i Ordo Sancti Benedicti Doc. dr. sc. Trpimir Vedriš Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Filozofski fakultet, Odsjek za povijest Sanktoral Čikina časoslova i kult svetaca u Zadru u 11. stoljeću Izv. prof. dr. sc. Milenko Lončar Sveučilište u Zadru, Odjel za klasičnu filologiju Čika u srednjovjekovnoj pisanoj ostavštini II. dio Prof. dr. sc. Mirjana Matijević Sokol Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Filozofski fakultet, Odsjek za povijest Fundacijska listina samostana zadarskih benediktinki Dr. sc. Vesna Jakić Cestarić znanstvena savjetnica, Zadar Kompleks samostana sv. Marije u vrijeme opatice Cike Prof. dr. sc. Pavuša Vežić Sveučilište u Zadru, Odjel za povijest umjetnosti Ecclesiola sancte Marie Minoris i ranoromanička bazilika Sv. Marije Male u Zadru Prof. dr. sc. Nikola jakšić Sveučilište u Zadru, Odjel za povijest umjetnosti Dekoracija zapadnog pročelja bazilike sv. Marije u 11. stoljeću Editors' Introduction Three years ago we commemorated the 950 anniversary from the year one thousand sixty and six, as it was written in the famous Šibenik charter by which Krešimir, the King of Croatia and Dalmatia, granted royal freedoms to the Abbey of St. Mary of Zadar. Prior to that, the city leaders gave the small church of St. Mary Minor to Abbess Cicha to found an abbey next to it. With this in mind, the University of Zadar, together with the nuns and the Zadar Archdiocese, organ- ized a scientific colloquium that was held in the church of St. Mary Minor, on 27th October 2016. This book of proceedings includes papers based on the topics of presentations held on this occasion, and bears the title Abbatissa ingenuitate precipua (“An abbess most generous”), as our abbess was referred to in two places in the abbey’s cartulary. The authors write her name as Cika, Čika or Cicha. All three versions of the abbess’s name have previously been used in numerous pa- pers about this distinguished Zadar woman. This is why the editors of this book of proceedings support the right of respective authors to choose how they will spell her name. Covering a wide scope of sources and literature, Mladen Ančić clarifies the times and circumstances in which the abbess strived to ensure the foundation of a new abbey. He stresses the help she received from the nearest of her kin, especially Bishop Stephen and Prior Drago, who secured her an audience with the king. He had supreme authority over the city where he found support in the social network of local oligarchy, from which Cicha herself came. This is why the king granted her abbey royal freedoms. Tomislav Galović interprets a close relationship between the Benedictine mon- asteries in Dalmatia and the Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia in the second half of the 11th century. He stresses a great contribution of monasticism in general to the cultural development in these parts. He points to the diplomatic corps around King Petar Krešimir IV and to Registrum privilegiorum sanctae Mariae, i. e. the cartulary that contains the king’s charter granting royal freedoms to the abbey. The Cartulary of St. Mary is the focus of research undertaken by Mirjana Matijević Sokol. She puts forward the view that its oldest part was transcribed in the Beneventan script in the late 1160s. Special emphasis is put on the abbey’s deed of foundation. Like other records in similar cartularies, this one is also written in a narrative style of composition. It offers glimpse into how the city fathers gifted Cicha a small church in which to found a abbey. Milenko Lončar analyses a transcribed document preserved in the cartulary, which concerns a dispute that was eventually resolved by the ruling of the Split archbishop Lovro. The parties involved in this trial from 1089/1090 were the abbey’s abbess and her aunt Neža. The actual content of the transcript has never been fully clarified. Although certain statements it contains cannot be inter- preted beyond any doubt, as a whole it is still a good testimony of the abbess’s efforts to complete the holdings of the newly founded abbey both inside and outside the city. Trpimir Vedriš presents an in-depth analysis of the cult of St. Anastasia in two legends about this saint: the Roman one that refers to the Syrmian martyr and virgin, and the Greek one that tells the story of a young Roman widow. The au- thor is searching for an answer to the question: How did St. Anastasia end up in Cicha’s breviary? As he points out, the very act of the abbey’s foundation mirrors the saint’s cult from the prayer book. Still, there are no detectable traces of Greek hagiography in Zadar. That is why St. Anastasia is here considered in the context of the Roman tradition. 7 Pavuša Vežić makes a hypothesis that ecclesiola sancte Marie Minors was raised on the footprint of an Early Christian basilica. This is supported by ty- pological characteristics of the church and archaeological finds from the times preceding Abbess Cicha. As a newly constructed body, the Early Romanesque basilica is both unified and dated by column capitals from its interior. They are similar to those in 11th-century Benedictine abbeys on both sides of the Adriatic. However, the author points to the Aegean and “monastic ecumene” as possible templates on which they were modelled. Nikola Jakšić starts off by summing up the insights about the Corinthian capi- tals from the church of St. Mary Minor in co-relation with similar examples in the Adriatic area. He then proceeds to describe decorative ribbons from the ba- silica’s façade, which are known only for the fragments of two bas-reliefs in ter- racotta. He links them with similar examples from three other Dalmatian towns (Nin, Biograd, Split), but also with those carved in stone that were found in the fourth city - Osor. These tiles were part of decorative friezes typical of many churches in the Venice-Ravenna area. On the whole, half a century after the proceedings from 1967 were published by the then Institute of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zadar, called Cultural Heritage of the Monastery of St. Mary in Zadar, the insights pre- sented in these proceedings are a step forward in relation to previous informa- tion about the abbey’s first abbess and her church. A social analysis leads us back to a time when the position of authority was held by the successors of Prior Andrija, a circle which supported King Petar Krešimir IV in Zadar. This inter- pretation casts new light on the role of this ruler in the abbey’s foundation (M. Ančić). The ties between the Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia and the Order of Saint Benedict were very strong, as evidenced by a number of abbeys for nuns and monks that were founded at the time, including the one in Zadar, accord- ing to its cartulary (Tomislav Galović). The first part of this historical source is the deed of foundation. It outlines general circumstances under which the abbey developed, its immediate social and urban framework, a pre-urban picture of the city formed around the ancient forum, where the abbey of St. Mary still stands (Mirjana Matijević Sokol).