A historical gem of medieval Europe
One of the most important cultural monuments of our nations and at the same time one of the significant European medieval documents, the Vinodol Code is a rich source for understanding the everyday life of our ancestors.
The authors of the Vinodol Code sought to secure and protect the commoners from the excessive influence of feudal authority, particularly in judicial matters. A unique feature of the Vinodol Code is that it was compiled by a “commission” consisting of representatives from nine Vinodol towns-municipalities: Grobnik, Trsat, Bakar, Hreljin, Drivenik, Grižane, Bribir, Ledenice, and Novigrad (today’s Novi Vinodolski). The representatives of these towns gathered on January 6, 1288, in the Frankopan castle in Novigrad “before the presence of Prince Leonard” and documented the old legal customs practiced in the Vinodol Duchy, thus giving the document its name, the Vinodol Code.
The manuscript of the Vinodol Code was preserved in the archive of the Modruš Chapter in Novi Vinodolski until the mid-19th century when it became the property of Edvard Mrzljak, a senior advisor of the Croatian-Slavonian financial directorate.
In 1851, he donated the manuscript to the National Museum in Zagreb, from where it was transferred to the National and University Library, where it is still kept today. The manuscript consists of 14 sheets, or 28 pages, and was written in the Croatian language using cursive Glagolitic script.
In 1996, the Croatian Institute for Human Rights was founded in Novi Vinodolski, in the very room where the Vinodol Code was signed. The institute draws its foundations from the principles of the Vinodol Code.
