„Nezahvalni sin“ ili čovjek s krastačom na licu
„The Ungrateful Son“ or the Man with a Toad on His Face

Summary/Abstract: This study deals with Croatian Glagolitic animalistic exempla, focusing on the image of Nezahvalni sin [Ungrateful Son], which belongs to the group of so-called pseudo-animalistic exempla, where an animal is a secondary subject. The motif of the detached image belongs to the body of oral legends which made its way from the East into Europe and grew considerably in the 13th century. The image of the Ungrateful Son is found in the Croatian-Glagolitic version of the Kvaresimal, the last Glagolitic book to be printed by the Glagolitic printing house in Senj. It was based on one of the most popular books of sermons at the turn of the 15th century, Quaresimale in volgare by the Franciscan Conventual, Roberto Caracciolo. In this study, we focus on the manifestation of the frog/ the toad, a rare animal in animalistic images, which is used in the book as a symbol of heresy and the repulsiveness of Sin, and in this exemplum as the embodiment of greed, avarice and inappropriate behavior towards one’s parents. By examining this ancient motif through the prism of the exemplum, what is being studied is the relation between Humankind and Nature, more particularly the role that animals played in the examined historical, philological and anthropological context.

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