Two fragments of inscription from Breza: New evidence for Medieval Latin epigraphy in Bosnia / Dva fragmenta natpisa iz Breze: Novi dokazi za srednjovjekovnu latinsku epigrafiju u Bosni

This paper discusses two forgotten Latin epigraphic fragments discovered in Breza near Sarajevo, currently held in the collections of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Epigraphic and palaeographic analysis shows that these fragments are either part of the same inscription, or were made by the same hand. Comparative analysis with the corpus of Late Antique and Early Medieval inscriptions from the eastern Adriatic coast indicates that these fragments should be dated to the Medieval, rather than Late Antique, period. The dating and reconstruction of text fragments form the basis for a hypothesis that the Medieval phase of the so-called Breza 1 building may correspond to the Church of the Blessed Virgin in the župa of Vydogossa, as referenced in a charter of Hungarian King Bela IV in 1244.

Two interesting stone fragments containing traces of Latin inscriptions are held in the collections of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. One was discovered by Vladimir Ćorović in 1913 during excavations of the Breza 1 site, while the other seems to have been found at the same location. Both fragments post-date the period of Roman ‘epigraphic habit’ and the beginning of Late Antiquity, and should therefore be dated after 400, but before the abandonment of Breza 1, which occurred at a later time, most likely in the High Middle Ages. This paper provides an epigraphic and palaeographic analysis of the fragments, in order to give a more accurate date range, as well as to place the fragments in a wider historical context.