Kam, Jožek, putuješ (Where are you going, Jožek) Modest Contribution to the Study of Old Kajkavian Secular Lyric

Abstract

The paper brings forth several observations about two secular Kajkavian songbooks written by the same hand. They are Pjesmarica Nikole Šafrana (Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Archives, sg. I a 98) and Canticum cytharaedorum cytarizantium cum cytaris suis (National and University Library in Zagreb, sg. R 3631). Even though the songbooks are quite extensive, so far they have not been thoroughly analysed nor written about as a whole; rather, scholarly attention was directed to individual songs, mostly those that were repeated in several manuscripts. Some songs were written about in the attempt to ascertain or confirm their author, some because they revolve around a historical event (e.g. the Zrinski-Frankopan Conspiracy), while some served as a template for stylistic analysis. Unlike such approach, in which the songbooks are always understood as a mere, almost accidental collection of randomly gathered compositions, this paper emphasizes that songbooks should be studied as unique, ordered wholes. Their compiler was obviously guided by the desire to offer a rounded collection. The hypothesis that the compiler was a person who continuously and seriously engaged in Kajkavian lyric before the National Revival can be further testified to by several manuscripts from the State Archives written by the same hand.