The Carving of the Solar Eclipse on a Medieval Croatian Tombstone 

Tbe Carving of the Solar Eclipse
on a Medieval Croatian Tombstone
Kresimir Kuiic (Zagreb)
To medieval man, the sky and celestial bodies represented a pattem of invariability
and a reliable symbol of everyday continuity. 1 Anything that stood
out of the ideal picture was considered as a foreboding of bad things. 2 Three
such phenomena instilled particularly great fear: the eclipse of the sun, the
eclipse of the moon, and comets. Annalists recorded not only such astronornical
occurrences, but also the terror that they caused among people, as weil as the
quest for their consequent relation with wars, plagues or periods of hunger that
ensued. In Croatia, the best examples ofmassive psychoses were noted by Thomas
the Archdeacon (1200 – 1268), a chronicler from Split, and by his fellow
citizen a Cutheis (second halfof the 14’h century – first halfofthe l 51h century).
Thomas the Archdeacon had the chance to see two solar eclipses: a full one in
1239, and a partial one in 1241.3 The frrst eclipse was recorded in Italy, too, and
the second one was also mentioned in several German chronicles.4 These facts
point to the path o f the shadow of the Moon across the surface ofthe Earth. Michael,
son of Madius de Barbazanis (1284 – 1358), also from Split, left a brief
note on the partial eclipse of the sun that took place in 1 330. Unfortunately, he
took no notice ofimpressions of the people and implications ofthe phenomenon
within bis environment.5 The mysterious a Cutheis, whose name is unknown,
Jeft a catastrophic account of celestial phenomena which he considered to be
omens of Iethai plague that was to come in the year 1348, the Black Death that
swept across entire Europe.6 However, a Cutheis‘ vivid description of the
eclipse doesn’t match historical events, because no eclipse of the sun could be
seen from Split or its surroundings at that time, according to the relevant bibliography.
His account seerns to make a very proficient use of older templates.7
1 Otto Mazal, Sternenwelt des Mittelalters (Graz, 1993), 7-8.
2 Ibidem, 150.
1 Thomas Archidiaconus, “Historia Salonitana“, ed. Franjo Racki, in Monumenta spectantia
historiam Slavornm meridionalium, 26 (Zagreb, 1894), 121-122 and 139-140.
4 Croniche di Giovanni, Matteo e Filippo Vilal ni, 1 (Trieste, 1 857), 85; Menumenta Germaniae
historica, 9 (Hannover, 1851), 593, 597,639.
s Miha Madijev Barbazanis, „Historija,“ in Legendei kronike (Split, 1977), 183.
6 A Cutheis, „Tabula,“ in Legende i kronike (Split, 1 977), 191, 389.
7 Mirko D. Grmek, „Srednjovjekovne zabilje5ke o astronomskim pojavama u Hrvatskoj,“
26
After the death of Pavao Pavlovic of Zadar (after 1416), a big gap in Southern
Croatian chronicles ensued – up to the 161h century. Hence, we have no preserved
texts that describe emotions of the people in times of later eclipses or
passings of comets that could have been seen in Southem Croatia.8 This literary
gap is filled, at least in visual form, by a relief ornament from a !arge monument
found in Zagora (Dalmatian hinterland). The tombstone was placed in Brstanovo,
16 ki1ometres north ofSplit.
Somewhere in the centre of the small village, beneath the Mosec mountain,
there is a church consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. During the Middle
Ages, its titular was St. George. The geographic coordinates of the edifice
are: 016° 25′ 8″ E, 43° 39′ 50″ N; 300 m above sea Ievel. Around the church,
there is a local cemetery which has been used since the Middle Ages. Medieval
tombstones mostly west of the church, in vicinity of the cemetery gates, prove
its origin. When I visited the cemetery for the first time in 1995, several tombstones
were covered with a layer of soil. After some unearthing and cleaning, all
of them saw the daylight for the first time after many years, judging from the
bright white colour of the stone surface. Seven preserved tombstones have various
ornaments, three do not have any Ornaments – while three remains were altered
in later times. Two of the three re-carved pieces were built in into a small
mortuary. Southwest of the church, there is a Iimestone monument in a row of
several ones, positioned E-W. The monolith is 1 97 cm long, 23 to 40 cm thick
and 127 cm wide, and its estimated mass is 2 1 00 kg9 (Fig. 1). The tombstone
has the form of a thick slab – which is the usual form for open ground tombstones
in this part of the medieval Croatian kingdom.
Croatia entered the late Middle Ages intemally divided into twenty zupanijas
– administrative and rni1itary entities sirnilar to English counties.10 At
first, Brstanovo was part of Zagora County, in the thirteenth century it was annexed
to K.lis County. Until the first half of the fourteenth century, Brstanovo
was owned by the Subic magnates, then the Nelipic magnates took over for the
next hundred years – unti1 the year 1434. 1 1 However, the Biseric farnily is
quoted to have ruled the village directly. In 1336, Prince Miadin III Subic bestowed
the village to the noble Vidoje, the Biseric ancestor, „for faithful serv-
[Medieva1 notes on astronomic phenomena in Croatia], in Almanah Boskovic (Zagreb,
1954), 198-199.
8 J. Schroeter, Spezieller Kanon der zentralen Sonnen- und Mondfinstemisse, welche innerhalb
des Zeitraums von 600 bsi 1800 n. Chr. in Europa sichtbar waren (Kristiania, 1923),
137-139.
9 S1obodan Sestanovic, Osnove geologije i petrografije – primjena u gradevinarstvu [Basics
of geo1ogy and petrography – their app1ication in building) (Zagreb, 1 986), 160. I Iook into
account the specific mass of ümestone, which is 2.69 g /cm3•
10 G. 0. Say1es, The Medieval Foundations of England (London, 1974), 180.
11 Kre􀃎imir KllZic, Povijest dalmalinske Zagore [History of Dalmatian Zagoral (Split, 1997),
34, 39.
27
ice.“12 The people in the whole region lived on selling cereals and livestock to
the citizens ofthe nearby coastal town of Split. A change for the better began in
1358, when the Croatian-Hungarian King Louis I of Anjou defeated Venice and
opened the gates to seaborne trade.13 The next hundred years were a period of
incomparable prosperity, reflected by many new cathedrals and palaces in cities
and by hundreds of tombstones in the countryside. Some of them weighed more
than 5 tons, but their average mass was somewhere about 1 000 kg. They were
carved in limestone, which can be found in !arge quantities in nearby hills.
Back to our subject. On some distant day, an ox team hauled this thick
slab from nearby slopes to the grave of an unknown wealthy person.14 A close
Iook at the upper side of the monument reveals a number of ornaments. The
whole surface of an irregu1ar reetangular shape was bordered with a thin twisted
stripe. „Was,“ because part of the stripe is missing from the lower right part of
the tombstone, probably due to relentless passing of time. The time left its mark
in the shape of several other impairments, namely vertical and horizontal cracks.
The stripe surrounds several interesting ornaments. On the left side, but closer to
the lower comer, there is an 8-point star. In the centre, along the lower border,
there is a crescent with tips pointed towards the left upper comer, and near the
right tip there is a 7-point star. The span of the crescent is 2 1 cm, and its width
4,5 cm. On the opposite side, near the rniddle ofthe upper border, a simple Latin
cross, 15 43 cm long and 27 cm wide, was carved. Finally, near the right part of
the border, there is a quaint figure that promptly catches attention. lt is a circle,
bordered with an omament that Iooks like a string of flower petals at first
glance. The disc chiselled by the stonemason has an outer diameter of 38 cm
(„rays“ included). Cracks divide the ring of rays in two parts – a smaller and a
bigger one. To the right there are three rays, while to the left and to the south
there are 15 rays. There should have been about 32 rays in the original design,
but to this day the number is reduced due to knocking off, possibly even during
the carving. On the left side of the disc there is an easily visible crescent, with
lips gently pointed towards the right upper comer of the twisted stripe- The crescent
has the same dimensions as the one in the field.
12 lbidem, 53-54.
13 Tomis1av Raukar, Hrvatsko srednjovjekov/je [The Croatian Midd1e Ages] (Zagreb, 1997),
80, 1 5 1 -1 66.
14 Stjepan Gunjaca, „Prinos poznavanju porijek1a i naeina steeaka“ [Contribution to the understanding
of the origin and type oftombstones ), in lzbor iz djela (Sp1it, 1991 ), 81-82.
15 George Ferguson, Signs & Symbols in Christian Art (London, Oxford, and New York,
1976), 1 64.
28
29
This description raises a question – what does the entire composition
mean? It is obvious that it is neither vertically nor horizontally symrnetrical. To
a casual observer it rnight seem confusing and random. Even the stars have different
nurober of points. The cross does not occupy a conventional central position
on the bordered surface, too. It could be said that it is a nice work of a simple
village stonemason.
On the contrary, however, it appears to be a brilliant design of a celestial,
that is, astronornical reality that existed or occurred at the time when the deceased
passed away. The first group on the left, the crescent and two stars, Iead
us to believe that it depicts a fixed event – it could be the day of death of the deceased.
At the moment of death, one of his family or kinsfolk might have
memorised the positions of visible night celestial bodies. It was the moon, the
Venus and the Mars. Consequently, the moon is shaped classically – like a crescent,
while the Venus has the form of a 7-point star. Mars is symbolically depicted
as an 8-point star.16 Their common disposition on the slab corresponds to
their sky position and their relation to horizon, symbolised by the twisted stripe.
Because of the two crescents, we can conclude that the carving of the figural
composition on the opposite, right side of the slab, undoubtedly depicts the
Sun covered by the Moon – an eclipse, to be precise. In spite of its floral Iook,
one can soon realise that the figures represent celestial bodies. One has to adrnit
that the chiseHer solved the problern of two overlapping discs – the sun and the
moon – in an artful manner. He couldn’t have depicted the invisible disc of the
full moon, as the actual situation demanded, 17 because the cleamess of the design
would have been lost. Instead, he decided to use the regular symbol for the
Moon, a crescent, carving it atop the disc with a ring of rays symbolizing the
sun.
ludging from the orientation of the cross, whose Ionger arm currently
points westwards, instead of eastwards, I think that the monument must have
been turned round by 1 80 degrees at unknown time. Besides, both the figures of
the separated crescent and the „solar“ one are in their natural positions only if
we turn the tombstone into its original position. lt is weil known that the convex
part of the moon is oriented towards the sun during its first quarter, so the tips
point eastwards.18
Conceming the meaning of the eclipse, one possible explanation was that
it marked the year (or even the day) of birth of the deceased. However, I reject
this solution having in rnind the combined astronornical, political, econornic and
custom realities of the period. lt is a matter of fact that in this area there are no
omamented tombstones indisputably dated to the first half of the fourteenth
century. Only such tombstones could be associated with the eventual birth ofthe
16
lvo Banac, Grbov biljezi idenliteta [Coats of arms as signs of identity] (Zagreb, 1 99 1), 37,
94.
17 VIadis Vujnovic, Astronomija [Astronomy], I (Zagreb, 1 994), 1 5 1 .
18 Ibidem, 1 3 1 .
30
deceased in the years 1 239, 1241, or 1 270, when solar eclipses could have been
seen in parts of Croatia. 19 With a presumed life span of 50 to 70 years, we would
have years of death that do not correspond with the period that the tombstone
was rnade in, or, more precisely, with this kind of ornament.20 Let us examine
the next two perceptible eclipses which occurred in 1431 and 1433.21 This
would mean, according to the presumed life span, that the deceased passed away
between 1481 and 150 I . That period, however, is out of the question because
entire Southern Croatia was economically and demographically devastated by
decades ofTurkish ravaging.22 One certainly may ask for the fourteenth century
eclipses.23 The answer applying to these and all the eclipses generally, however,
has to be that there have not been any tombstones registered giving reference to
the birth year. Therefore, the only possible explanation is that the figure depicts
the year of death of the deceased.
Which eclipse does the ornament refer to? The problern lies in the close
succession of the two partial eclipses of the fifteenth century that occurred
within two years.24 But, it may help, if we use other data – with regard to the
slab and the celestial situation. In 143 1 , the eclipse occurred on February 12,
beginning 3:35 and ending at 3:51 pm.25 It was described as grandissima by an
ltalian chronicler, and that also tells us something about the path of the moon
shadow.26 The other eclipse, two years later, happened on June 1 7 and Iasted
from 4:38 till 4:52 pm.
The stonernason’s cleverness is obvious, but we haven’t come closer to the
solution – which eclipse did he refer to? There is only the possibi1ity to analyse
the position of the planets and moon carved on the left side. Using the days of
eclipses to be a time axis, we found that such a position of the ce1estial bodies
was on June 2 1 , 1433, at 9:00 pm. At this very day the deceased under the
monument might have died. On the celestial sphere the positions were:27
19 Th. Oppolzer, „Canon der Finsternisse,“ Denkschriften der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften,
mathematisch-natunvissenschaftliche Classe, 52 (1887): 1 17, 1 19; Schroeter,
Spezieller Kanon, 8, 44, 46. 20 Setik Be§lagic, Stecci na Blidinju [Tombstones in Blidinje] (Zagreb, 1951), 51-53, 70;
Marian Wenzel, Ornamental Motifs on Tombstonesfrom Medieval Bosnia and Surrounding
21 Regions (Sarajevo, 1965), 19-51. Oppolzer, „Canon,“ 252; Schroeter, Spezieller Kanon, 53.
22 Raukar, Hrvatsko, 405-439.
23 Schroeter, Spezieller Kanon, 129-134.
24 Ibidem, 137-138. 25 25 See the multimedia astronomy software CD: I Maris Multimedia, Redshift 3, Events,
Eclipses (Kingston: Maris Technologies Ltd, 2001). 26 Cronaca di ser Guerriero da Ciubbio dall’anno MCCCJ, all’anno MCCCCLXXI I, Rerum
2 Italicarum scriptores, 21/4 (Cittä di Castello, 1902), 48. 7 See the multimedia astronomy software CD: 2 Maris Multimedia, Redshift 3, Object info
(Kingston: Maris Technologies Ltd, 2001).
3 1
RA Dec Azm Alt
Mars 16h 42m 57s -26° 35′ 44″ 1 64° 56′ 18° 22′
Venus 09h46m 02s +14° 32′ 52″ 279° 33′ 1 1 ° 24′
Moon l Oh 19m 29s +04° 58′ 07″ 267° 29′ 1 1 ° 09′
Besides, lmowing that the eclipse was partial, there is the question
whether an eye-witness from Brstanovo lmew that. It should be fascinating that
in this case the crescent doesn’t symbolise the moon but the sun protruding bebind
the Moon. Namely, looking from this geographical position the covered
Sun has been assuming such crescenting appearance.
All the mentioned conclusions concede us to reconstruct the chronology
of the occurrences. The events may have happened in this order:
I . the eclipse occurred on June 17, 1433;
2. the deceased died on June 21, 1433 at 9:00 p.m. and person(s) present at this
moment memorised the positions of the celestial bodies;
3. the deceased was buried;
4. a stonemason cut the tombstone in a quarry roughly;
5. the tombstone was hauled down to the graveyard and placed upon the grave;
6. a stonemason carved the position of celestial bodies following the instructions
of the person(s) present at the moment of death of the deceased.
That is to say, the eclipse preceded quite well-timed – the unusual phenomenon
occurred before the deceased was dead, so the relatives of the deceased
used it as an opportune and remindful time stamp.
Where did the medieval Croatians find the inspiration to record the most
important events in their Iives, and the death of a related person certainly was,
by marking the positions of celestial objects? A part of the answer is given in a
note of the aforementioned Thomas the Archdeacon. He described how Croatians
would start clattering metallic vessels in order to scare the demons that
were eating the moon, when they would notice that the latter was darkening.28
We can also f ind the 8-point and 6-point star on moulds found near Knin.29 They
are particularly valuable because they were made in the seventh century – at the
time when Croatians hadn’t had accepted Christianity yet. Furthermore, we can
fmd the star and the crescent on many medieval coins, as well as on coats of
arms of Croatian noblemen,30 cities and regions. For example, the neighbouring
principality of Poljica had a coat of arms featuring a star and a crescent until the
28 Thomas Archidiaconus, „Historia,“ 25.
29 Josip Korosec, „Ostava broncanih matrica za otiskivanje u Biskupiji kod Knina“ (The remains
of bronce matrix moulds in Biskupija near Knin], in Starohrvatska prosvjeta, serija
III/6 (Zagreb, 1958): 3 1 , 33.
30 Adam S. Eterovich, Croatian and Dalmatian Coats of Arms (Palo Alto, 1978).
32
Turkish invasion in the l 51h century.31 The links between astronomical phenomena
and the old Croatian architecture has also been proved .. 32 Finally, thanks to
the diligence of etlmographers there are many works describing the folklore
customs, until recently alive, that include the „star“ Danica, i.e. Venus – these
are the remains of ancient celestial cults.
As a conclusion, we could say that the medieval Croatians attributed great
importance to carvings of ancient symbols of the light -the stars and the Moon on
their forefathers‘ graves, despite the influence of several centuries of Christianity.
Still, the cross was added as a public sign of religious belanging of the
deceased. Thanks to that medieval custom and the lucky concurrence of events
related to the tombstone of Brstanovo we succeeded to define its manufacture
time. In this way we could try to date other Croatian tombstones with carved
symbols of the celestial bodies. Last but not least, the tombstone from Brstanovo
near Split confirms Petrarca’s words about the differences between Italians and
Croatians:33
… Unum mare
est nobis, sed non unum litus,
non unus animus, non unum ingenium,
non unus denique seu vivendi sou
/oquendi mos.
… We have the same sea
but different shores,
different souls, difef rent learnings,
language and customs
utterly different.
(Translated by Vigor Mastruko)
31 Miroslav Pera, Po/jicki statut [The statute ofPoljica] (Split, 1988), 208.
32 Mladen Pejakovic and Nenad Gattin, Starohrvatska sakralna arhitektura [Oid Croatian sacral
architecture] (Zagreb, 1988).
33 Francesco Petrarca, Le familiari, 2, ed. V. Rossi (Firenze, 1934), 244-245.
33
MEDIUM AEVUM
QUOTIDIANUM
46
KREMS 2002
HERAUSGEGEBEN
VON GERHARD JARITZ
GEDRUCKT MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG DERKULTURABTEILUNG
DES AMTES DER NIEDERÖSTERREICHISCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
niederösterreich kultur
Titelgraphik Stephan J. Tramer
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der
materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters (http://www.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/magQ, Körnermarkt
13, A- 3500 Krems, Österreich. Für den Inhalt verantwortlich zeichnen
die Autoren, ohne deren ausdrückliche Zustimmung jeglicher Nachdruck,
auch in Auszügen, nicht gestattet ist. -Druck: Grafisches Zentrum an der Technischen
Universität Wien, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, 1040 Wien.
Inhalt
Vorwort . . . . . . . . . ………………………………………….. ………………………………………….. 5
Peter Szab6, Medieval Trees and Modem Ecology:
How to Handle Written Sources …………………. ………………………………. . . .. 7
Kresimir KuZi.c, The Carving ofthe Solar Eclipse
on a Medieval Croatian Tombstone . . ………… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 26
Alexandr B. Tschemiak, Der Fuchsschwanz.
Einige Bemerkungen zum Schulgedicht
Videant qui nutriunt natos delicate ………………………………………………… 34
Gerhard Jaritz, Fear and Fascination:
Late Medieval German Perceptions ofthe Turks Revisited ……. . . . . …….. 40
Rezensionen ………………………………………………………………… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 48
Anschriften der Autoren und Rezensenten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …………………………………… 62
Vorwort
Das vorliegende Heft von Medium Aevum Quotidianum widmet sich sehr unterschiedlichen
Zugängen zu einer Geschichte des Alltags und der materiellen
Kultur des Mittelalters, welche neuerlich den interdisziplinären Charakter des
Forschungsfeldes deutlich machen sollen. Peter Szab6 (Budapest) vertritt einen
umweltgeschichtlichen Ansatz zur Analyse von ungarischen perambulationes
und der in ihnen auftretenden Verwendung und Beschreibung von Landschaftselementen.
Kresimir Kuzic (Zagreb) beschäftigt sich mit astronomischen Erklärungsmodellen
von Gestirnkonstellationen auf einem kroatischen Grabstein.
Alexandr B. Tscherniak (Sankt Petersburg) bietet in einer Iiteratur- und sprachhistorischen
Analyse den Deutungsversuch des spätmittelalterlichen ,,Fuchsschwanzes“.
In einem Beitrag zum Türkenbild des Spätmittelalters in der
schriftlichen Überlieferung werden unterschiedliche Konnotationsmuster in den
Beurteilungen festgestellt. Alle vier Beiträge konzentrieren sich direkt oder indirekt
stark auf verschiedene Varianten von Kontextualisierung, deren Berücksichtigung
sich in der modernen alltagsgeschichtlichen Forschung des Mittelalters
und der frühen Neuzeit als unerlässlich erweist.
Die nächsten beiden Hefte unserer Reihe werden im Frühling bzw. Frühsommer
2003 als Sonderbände herausgegeben werden. Sonderband XIIIlXIV
wird eine neue Auswahlbibliographie zu Alltag und materieller Kultur des Mittelalters
bieten. Seit Erscheinen der letzten derartigen Publikation in Medium
Aevum Quotidianum-Newsletter 7/8 (1986) sind doch viele neue wissenschaftliche
Veröffentlichungen aus unserem Interessensbereich erschienen, und eine
Neuherausgabe ist damit notwendig geworden. Sonderband XV wird Untersuchungen
beinhalten, die unter der Leitung bzw. Herausgeberschaft von Aaron J.
Gurjewitsch von der russischen Forschung in Bezug auf die Analyse von Bildquellen
für die Kultur-, Alltags- und Mentalitätsgeschichte des Mittelalters vorgelegt
wurden. -Darüber hinaus befinden sich weitere Hefte in Planung, welche
wieder alltagshistorische Beiträge beinhalten sollen, die bei den Internationalen
Mittelalter-Kongressen in Kalamazoo und Leeds im Jahre 2003 vorgetragen
werden.
Für die Jahre 2004/2005 sind zwei weitere Themenhefte geplant, welche
sich interdisziplinär, überregional und komparativ mit den Problemkreisen von
,,Mittelalterlicher Alltag und das Phänomen der Verkehrten Welt“ bzw. mit
,,Mittelalterlichen Bewertungsstrategien von materieller Kultur“ auseinandersetzen
sollen. Alle Mitglieder und Freunde von Medium Aevum Quotidianum sind
5
sehr herzlich eingeladen, an diesen Bänden aktiv mitzuarbeiten und uns bei
diesbezüglichem Interesse so bald wie möglich darauf bezogene Themenvorschläge
zu übermitteln.
6
Gerhard Jaritz
Herausgeber
(gerhard.jaritz@oeaw.ac.at)