ПРАВНИ ТЕРМИНИ У ЕПИСТОЛАРИМА АЛЕКСИЈА ВЕЗИЛИЋА И АТАНАСИЈА СТОЈКОВИЋА
LEGAL TERMS IN THE LETTER BOOKS BY ALEKSIJE VEZILIĆ AND ATANASIJE STOJKOVIĆ

Summary/Abstract: At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, there were published two letter books in Serbian language (Russian-Slavic and Slavic-Serbian), authors of which were two Serbian writers of the Age of Enlightenment. Made according to the German Briefstellers, published on a large scale in German lands ever since the 16th century, they contained instructions and patterns for the writing of letters and other kinds of documents as well. Economic and cultural development of the Serbian citizenry implied the existence of written communication as a means of social life and social connections and, especially, more efficient and more successful dealing with economic and legal business. Краткоје сочињеније о приватних и публичних дјелах50, printed in Vienna in 1785 and 1792, was written by Aleksije Vezilić. Atanasije Stojković was the author of the other one, printed in Buda in 1802, under the title Сербски секретар или руководство како сочињавати различњејша писма, Квите, Облигације, Контракте, Тестаменте, Реверсе, Конте и пр.51 Apart from instructions and norms for very different types of letters, letter books (pismenici in Serbian) contained instructions and examples for the writing of various documents referring to legal business using legal terms. These terms were usually translated from Latin and German language. Letter book by Vezilić contained compared texts in German and Russian-Slavic. Секретар52 by Stojković had general instructions and norms for the writing of written documents of different sorts. Legal terms appearing in these letter books are predominantly based on Latin terms from Roman law, and in smaller part on German ones. Legal terms by Vezilić and Stojković, i.e. the vast majority of their translations have subsisted in legal terminology, transforming linguistically in accordance with the changes of the language. These letter books mention for the first time some legal terms in Serbian literature, which did not feature as merely data found in an archival document. They had systematic, general approach to a legal institute with the aim of educating and enabling its easier and more efficient use in social and business life. Thus, these letter books as such without doubt had a role in later development of legal terminology and represented at least a part of the base from which laws and law books would be created. As such, they represent a valuable possibility to explore the origin and monitor development of legal terms with Serbs. The occasion that the authors of the letter books were memorable Serbian writers indicates how much the development of legal terminology was a constituting and an inseparable part of the Serbian literary language building process.

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