Pietro Stancovich
Prominent Istrians

 
ietro Mateo Stancovich (Petar Matija Stanković) was born on February 22 (or 14?), 1771 in Barban (Barbana), and baptized two days later. His mother was Notburga Martinich from Gračišće (Gallignana) and his father was Antonio Stancovich from a wealthy Istrian family of Slavic origins that had moved from Svetvinčenat (Sanvincenti) to Barban around 1720.

canon, archeologist, historian and writer

born in Barban
1771

He received his basic education in Rovinj (Rovigno), at that time the most populated city in Southern Istria. He then became a seminary student in Udine where, besides his studies in religion and Latin, he demonstrated an interest in history, philosophy, biology and mechanical engineering that would later be reflected in his writings.

After completing his seminary studies in 1792, he enrolled at the University of Padua (Padova) where he studied under father Antonino Valsecchi and the Parentian (from Poreč) Giorgio Giorgio Maria Albertini. Apart from theology,  his other academic interests were law, mathematics and natural sciences. During that time he also made his first literary attempts. Graduating in 1795, he returned to his native Barban, was ordained as a priest by Giovanni Domenico Juras (1778-1803), the last bishop of Pula before the diocese was combined with that of Poreč (Parenzo) in 1830. Historic records also show that Stancovich was the organist at the collegiate Church of St. Nicholas in Barban. Upon the death of the rector of the parish In 1797, Stancovich succeeded him, a position that he held for over a decade, after which time, at the wishes of his parishioners and church authorities, the notable young priest was promoted to canon at the same church.

Barbana_21

Birth home of Pietro Stancovich in Barban. Sources: left and right

He liked to travel and made many friends starting with his school days and in later years in the fields of religion and science. He participated in scientific assemblies, art academies, establishmenst and societies, and he kept in touch with many important people especially those from the intellectual circles, including Gian Rinaldo Carli and Girolamo Gravisi and others. This is reflected in many of the letters that are today preserved in several libraries and conservatories of both the letters that he wrote and received, all of which uncover snippets of Stancovich’s life and work and, at the same time, indicate the many important people in intellectual circles with whom he was exchanging thoughts and experiences.

Stancovich initiated his writings in 1818 with the historic novella Neofaste in Astiri, then he wrote on themes of archeology, agriculture, language, and religion, as well as poetry. His life's works consists of about 50 small and large literary works, almost exclusively in the Italian language out of which number half were published, some remained as manuscripts, and some were unfortunately lost. Some of his published works, however, can still be found in antiquarian shops.

Major Works

Except for his catachism (see below), Pietro Stancovich wrote exclusively in Italian.

Archeological Studies

1822 - Dello anfiteatro di Pola. Dei gradi marmorei. Nuovi scavi e scoperte. Saggio, Pisa, Presso Sebastiano Nistri, 1822; 20,3x12,6 cm., brossura muta decorata di epoca posteriore, pp.24, estratto editoriale tratto dal Nuovo Giornale de' Letterati n. 6 del 1822. Prima edizione in volume poi seguita dell'edizione veneziana, pubblicata nello stesso anno e contente 8 tavole f.t. (Fossati Bellani 1957: n. 2.626 e Lozzi 1963: II volume, pag. 70, n. 3739 menzionano la seconda edizione).

1824 - Della Patria di S. Girolamo dottore di Santa Chiesa e della lingua slava relativa allo stesso. Opuscolo del canonico Pietro Stancovich socio di varie accademie. Venezia: per Giuseppe Picoti, 1824. - 101, [5] p. inv 7418. In the scientific community he was renown as a debater. With this study he started a sharp debate for several years with Dalmatian priests about the position of Stridon, which he was looking for in Istrian town of Zrenje, stirring controversy about the birth place of St. Jerome.

He also wrote in Venice: "Delle tre Emone antiche città e colonie romane e della genuina epigrafe di Cajo Precellio ...", in Giuseppe Picotti's Tipografia, 1835. - 32 p. : ill.

During his extensive trips to Italy, and in his residence in Rome for religious instruction after becoming a canon, Stancovich became an associate in various academies and organizations - for example, he was a member of the scientific congresses of Turin, Florence and Padua - and was a member of the Atenei of Brescia and Treviso. He also collected manuscripts, books, certificates [diplomi], coins and medals [medaglie], consulted in as many works as were made available to him from which he was able to compose his Biografie degli uomini illustri dell'Istria 1828-29, Capodistria, Priora, 1888, EURO 630 in -4, pp. XXX, 460, (14), leg. m. tela edit. con angoli e con tit. oro al d.

This 3-volume work is his major achievement and gained him the nickname “the Istrian Plutarch”. It contains 489 biographies divided into 6 chapters. The volumes contain the history and culture of Istria from the Roman period through the 18th century. The biographies are subdivided into groups of saints, bishops, literaries, militaries, etc. Antonio Angelini, who wrote about Stancovich in his chronicles is himself included among Stancovich's 489 biographies in his Biografie degli uomini illustri dell'Istria 1828-29, Chapter 4, as follows:

251. ANGELINI Antonio da Rovigno, ameno cultore delle muse, e dotto giureconsulto, univa all'integrità della vita la pietà religiosa,  ed in patria godeva una riputazione onorevole e generale, avendo sostenuto peranco delle magistrature. Vi esiste di esso una doviziosa collezione ms. di cose patrie, che pregio dell'opera sarebbe ridurla a regolarità, e renderla di pubblico diritto. Varie composizioni poetiche esso pubblicò volanti, od inserite in raccolte del momento, e colle stampe del Manuzzi in Venezia nel 1780 una canzone spirituale intitolata Verbum caro, corredata di annotazioni, la quale si canta piamente da quel popolo anche al giorno d'oggi, e se ne rammenta la memoria dell'autore, che in patria termino i suoi giorni nel 1808. See also.

In the book Trieste non fu villaggio Carnico, ma luogo dell’Istria (1830), which started a correspondence with the Dalmatian priests who were representatives of the so called Illyrian theory about the origin of the South Slavs, he also worked on the relationship of Illyrians and their language and the newly immigrated Slavic population, denying them any nationality connection and linguistic relationship.

His writings on the church fathers was Della Patria di S. Girolamo dottore di Santa Chiesa e della lingua slava relativa allo stesso. Opuscolo del canonico Pietro Stancovich socio di varie accademie. Venezia: per Giuseppe Picoti, 1824. - 101, [5] p. inv 7418. In the scientific community he was renown as a debater. With this study he started a sharp debate for several years with Dalmatian priests about the position of Stridon, which he was looking for in Istrian town of Zrenje, stirring controversy about the birth place of St. Jerome.

Deposito di monete ungheresi, carraresi, veneziane, scoperto nell'Istria. 8°. Trieste, 1831. (listed in the Library of Congress Catalog of 1868)

He also published some of his works dealing with inventions in agriculture where he described two machines for handling olives – spolpoliva (1840) and toredioliva (1841) that gave him international fame. He was materialistic and a well-to-do land-owner.

Records on Istrian Viniculture from the 19th century

Since the 18th century, authors have appeared in different parts of Europe who in their writings, scientific as well as popular, have searched for the improvement of farming methods. Following this tradition, works on viniculture and on wine production appeared in Istria in the 19th century, the authors being Pietro Predonzani (1820) from Poreč, Pietro Stancovich (1825) from Barbana, Nicoló Del Bello (1876) from Koper and Carlo Hugues (different papers about 1890), the director of the "Experimental Wine and Fruit Growing Station" in Poreč.

In his writings, Predonzani appealed to wine growers to give up old methods of wine growing, which in his opinion are burdened with prejudice. His instructions, however, were very general and incomplete.

In contrast, Pietro Stancovich, always an attentive reader of the most up-to-date publications of his time, experimented with new methods of wine growing and researched the results of these scientifically. Del Bello was accurate and clear, but his contribution, the greatest part of it being about the hinterland of Piran, was mostly of a descriptive character. Hughes on the other hand, with the century coming slowly to its end, already advocated for the decisively modern vision: his attitude was pragmatic and strictly scientific. Anyway, all the authors looked critically on numerous traditional methods of wine growing and encouraged the native wine growers to pay more attention to the quality of their product.

His agrarian works include:

▪ L'aratro seminatore ossia metodo di piantare il grano arando: Memoria di P. S., Venezia, Pel Picotti Stampatore Editore, 1820. "In-8°; 25 pp., 1 c., 1 tavola ripiegata incisa in rame che illustra con diverse figure l'aratro seminatore; leg. moderna in cartoncino." Rare original edition of this small work redatta soprattutto in base ad osservazioni dirette sulla coltivazione in Istria e indirizzata, al Trautmann, professore di agricoltura a Vienna, dal celebre intellettuale e letterato nativo di Rovigno. Brossura editoriale.

Interessante proposta di miglioramento dell'aratro in uso nelle provincie dell'Istria. L'autore, canonico istriano, pubblicò nel 1824 una seconda monografia dal tema Il frumento seminato senza aratura, senza zappatura, senza letame.

stanvino.jpg (135301 byte)▪ Vino dell'Istria principale prodotto di questa provincia. Nuovo metodo economico-pratico per farlo e conservarlo, Milan, Giovanni Silvestri, shown to be published in 1853, but see note below. In 8° (21 x 13,5 cm). 139 (1) pp., illustrated cover page with dorsel tassel, frontespiece is a small vignette in wood, and there are two folded tables engraved in copper with 17 images.

This work is divided into six parts:

  1. Praeliminare (descrizione geografica e approfondita spiegazione dei vini della regione);

  2. Della pigiatura delle uve;

  3. Dell’economia delle botti;

  4. Della fermentazione vinosa;

  5. Del travaso dei vini;

  6. Di un Elattenometro, o conservatore del vino.

In the first chapter he discusses the history of Istrian wine in antiquity and the various types of wine produced in the region. In the second chapter Stancovich describes a wine press of his own invention as well as other methods of pressing wine. In the third chapter is described a barrel of his own design and methods of preserving wine. The final chapters cover fermentation, bottling, and how to stabilize wines and prevent oxidation. The engraved plates depict various wine-making apparatus of Stancovich's invention.

Note: Regarding the date of the edition, some bibliographers simply list this edition as 1853, as stated on the title page (see Paleari-Henssler & B.IN.G.). However, while others (see Westbury), conjecture that the date is more likely to be 1825 and that the title page date is misprinted. Suffice it to say that the edition has an advertisement page from 1825 for Silvestri for the book by G. Acerbi, Delle Viti italiane (cfr. contra Pazzini, p. 203 that puts that the first edidtion at 1825 and the second edition at 1853). dated 1825 would seem to support Westbury's claim. Also, the dedication page of brother Pietro Martino is signed "Istria, Barbana, 20 July 1825". In either case, this is a very good copy of an extremely rare book on wine-making.B.IN.G. 1861; Paleari-Henssler p. 700; RLIN: Davis only; Sormanni p. 121; Westbury p. 208. Not in OCLC. Price at USD 1,000.00!

▪ Nuovo metodo economico pratico di fare e conservare il vino; con una tavola in rame di XVII figure. - Milano: per Giovanni Silvestri, 1825. - 134 p.; 22 cm Coll.: 2-R-13-9276/op 1] 

▪ Spolpoliva e macinocciolo ossia molino oleario con cui contemporaneamente si separa  la carne del nocciolo e si riduce in farina il nocciolo stesso originale invenzione del Canonico P. S. del castello di Barbana, alle foci dell'Arsa..., Torino, Stamperia Reale, 1840. In-8° (21,5 x 13,5 cm). 24 pp. 1 tav. f.t. più volte ripiegata. Bross. ed. Fresco esemplare. Paleari - Henssler, I, p. 700.

L'autore, ecclesiastico istriano, è ricordato per due  monografie sul vino dell'Istria del 1825,  e inoltre per la realizzazione di un torchio oleario portatile del 1841. Dissertazione illustrante un molino oleario letta il 22 settembre 1840 alla Sezione di Agricoltura del Congresso degli Scienziati.

▪ Torchioliva (the portable olive press), Florence, Giovanni Mazzoni printworks, 1841, 24,0x15,3 cm., non original paperback binding, pp. 23-(1), with one full page illustration.

The book Torchioliva was intended as an appendix to another book called Spolpoliva that discussed another invention by Stancovich. This work was presented in 1841 at the Agriculture and Technology section of the Congress of Italian Scientists that was held in Florence.

 

 

 

 

Below: Tavola fuori testo, con disegno dettagliato del Torchioliva, formata da cinque figure ed in scala di Piedi veneti.
 

On the theology side, apart from his book on St. Jerome, Stancovich wrote his Kratak nauk kartianski (Short Christian Teachings) in Croatian language and intending to reach the local priests and church goers of the Barban parish. In the introduction of this little book he wrote that when he held mass he noticed that a large number of the people of his birthplace had a poor knowledge of matters of religion because of the unavailability of literature and an uneven religious education within the congregation. His attempt to correct this problem was by writing the “Nauka” (Teachings) for a basic Catholic education. He also wanted to be short and concise and clear so that the material would be easily transferred from the priests to the congregation, and be easily understandable and remembered by young and old alike. To achieve this he divided the selected religious materials into seven chapters to allow students to cover the instructions in stages. Here we show the division of this catechism in its original writing:

  1. Molitve (Prayers)

    1. Zlamenje karstiansko (Christian crossing),
    2. Molitva Gospodinova (Godly prayers), 
    3. Posdravglienje Angelsko (Angelic greeting),
    4. Vira to jest Simbol Apostolski (Faith is the symbol of apostles).
  2. Zapvidi (Commandments)
    1. Dvi Zapovidi od Naravi (Two commandments of nature),
    2. Dvi Zapovidi od Gliubavi (Two commandments of love),
    3. Desset Boxiih Zapovidi (God’s ten commandments),
    4. Pet Zapovidi Svete Matere Crikve (Five commandments of the mother church).
  3. Grihi (Sins)
    1. Dvi varsti od Griha (Two types of sins),
    2. Sedam Smartni Grihi (Seven deadly sins),
    3. Sest Grihi suprotiva Duhu Svetomu (Six sins towards the Holy Spirit), ?
    4. Cetiri Grihi Koi vapiu osvetu prid licem Boxiim (Four sins crying for vengeance in front of the face of God).
  4. Otaistva (Denials)
    1. Dva otaistva nasse svete Vire (Two denials of our holy Faith),
    2. Sest Rasmisglienjih Svarhu, Otaistvo od Svete Masse (Six invented reasons, abstaining from the Holy Mass).
  5. Sacramenti, i nacin za igh prieti  (Holy Sacraments, and how to approach them)
    1. Sedam Svetih Sacramenti (Seven Holy Sacraments),
    2. Pet Stuari potribne Za se dobro ispovidati (Five things that require good confession),
    3. Ispovid (Confession),
    4. Tri Stuari potribne Za dobro se pricestiti (Three things requiring taking good holy sacrament) ?
  6. Stuari potribne za se spassiti, i dilli dostoini (Things necessary to save yourself and to be worthy)
    1. Cetiri Stuari potribne svakomu karstianu za spassiti svoju Dussu (Four thing each Christian needs to save his soul),
    2. Dillo od Vire (Religious deed),
    3. Dilo od Uffanja (Work of hope),
    4. Dillo od Gliubavi (Work of love),
    5. Dillo od Pokajanja alli od Skrussenja (Work of repentance and of suffering),
    6. Cetiri Stuari nai poslidgnie Coviku (Four things last needed to a man),
    7. Slava Otczu, i Sinu i Duhu Svetomu (Glory to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit)
  7. Stuari koristne svakomu karstianu (Things useful to each Christian)
    1. Zdravo kraglize Maiko (Hail to the Holy Mother),
    2. Angele Boxii (Angel of God),
    3. Sedam Dillih od Miloserdnia Duhovnih (Seven deeds of merciful spirits),
    4. Sedan Dillih od Miloserdnia Tilesnih (Seven deeds of the merciful body),
    5. Sedan Dari od Duha Svetoga (Seven gifts of the holy spirit)
    6. Pet Ciuchienjih od tila nassega s' koimi moremo ciniti z.lo, i dobro (Five senses of our body that can be used for good and evil).

As a supplement to “Nauk”, Stancovich added instructions for learning the faith according to his catechism, including a preface to be used for registering the faithful of the Barban parish, and with this he completed the instructions for its use which he had mentioned in the introduction. Besides the publication of this booklet, there is an unpublished Croatian catechism for children and its Italian translation, which is in safekeeping among the manuscripts of Stancovich's works in the University library of Pula.

Can. Pietro Stancovich passed away in Barban on September 12, 1852 and was buried in the local cemetery of Holy Cross [Santa Croce; sv. Kriz]. In 2002 came the restoration of his tomb, an obelisk with epigraphs, done via the intervention of IRCI (Istituto Regionale per la Cultura Istriana) in Trieste that, in collaboration with the commune of Barban, was able to realize a monument adjacent to the same cemetery.

Stancovich willed his copious library and collectibles to the city of Rovinj, among which are approximately 500 pieces of immeasurable value. In 1853 these were transferred from Barban to Rovinj where they remained unseen for three years until the the public library was opened, according to Antonio Angelini's chronicles of that period.  The majority of his handwritten works can be found in the University library in Pula.

Stancoviciana Library

In April 2002, the museum of the city of Rovinj presented an exhibit of great historical value containing books printed in the 16th century in many European cities, in the publishing houses of Lyone, Venice, Basel, Hapsburg and Paris. Starting with the 2,869 books that were donated by Pietro Stancovich, the "Stancoviciana" library that bears the name of its initial donor, "Stancoviciana", has expanded over time and now contains at least 7,000 books.

The library contains books on various themes that run the spectrum from philosophy to legislation to architecture and many other themes. The oldest holding is De evangelica praeparatione that was published in 1501.

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Created: Monday, April 07, 2003; Last updated: Tuesday, October 14, 2008
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