Croatian culture - scripts

In the history of Croatian people three scripts were in use:

1. Croatian Glagolitic Script,
2. Croatian Cyrillic Script (bosancica),
3. Latin Script.

Today the Croats are using exclusively the Latin Script.

The Arabica was also in use among the Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It was in fact the Arabic script used for the Croatian language and it constitutes the so-called Adjami or Aljamiado literature, similarly as in Spain. Its first sources in Croatia go back to the 15th century. One of the oldest texts is a love song called Chirvat-türkisi (Croatian song) from 1588, written by a certain Mehmed. This manuscript is held in the National Library in Vienna. Except for literature Arabica was also used in religious schools and administration. Of course, it was in much lesser use than other scripts. The last book in Arabica was printed in 1941.

The Croatian Glagolitic alphabet has a long and interesting history of more than a thousand years. The Croats using the Glagolitic alphabet were the only nation in Europe who was given a special permission by Pope Innocent IV (in 1248) to use their own language and this script in liturgy. More precisely, this permission had formally been given to the bishop Philip of Senj. However, special care accorded by the Vatican to the Glagolitic liturgy in subsequent centuries (even by publishing several Glagolitic missals in Rome), shows that this privilege applied to all Croatian lands using the Glagolitic liturgy, mostly along the coast. As is well known, the Latin had been the privileged language in religious ceremonies in the Catholic Church until the 2nd Vatican Synod held in 1962-1965, when it was decided to allow vernacular national languages to be used in the Catholic liturgy instead of Latin. It is interesting that even today the Glagolitic liturgy is used in some Croatian churches.

Main historical documents:

Bascanska ploca (Baska Stone Tablet), dating from the end of 11th century, found in the church of St. Lucy near the town of Baska on the island of Krk. It contains about 400 Glagolitic characters (dimensions of the tablet: 2x1 sq.m, 800 kg).

 There are clear indications that the origin of the famous historical source Sclavorum Regnum, known as Ljetopis popa Dukljanina and Croatian Chronicle, was written in the Glagolitic script. This very old text represents the earliest known historiographic work about Croats and the earliest known literal text in Croatian language.

The Vinodol Code, very different from the Roman law, written in the Glagolitic alphabet in 1288. It also introduced the institution of witnesses. It was unique in Europe by determining moral protection and integrity of women. The Vinodol Code does not allow torture during legal proceedings, and is considered to be one of the most important documents of medieval Europe.

Istarski razvod (Istrian Book of Boundaries) from the Istrian peninsula, 1275, written originally in three languages: Croatian in the Glagolitic alphabet, Latin and German. It defined the border between different rulers in Istria. Only the Croatian Glagolitic version has been preserved. Istarski razvod has 53 pp, and mentions the Croatian name expressly 23 times. There are Italian and Latin translations from Croatian dating from the 16th century, which kept the original Croatian names for many places, proof that the population in the Istrian hinterland was dominantly Croatian.

The Statute of the Poljica Principality (1444, near Split), written in the Croatian Cyrillic Script. The Poljica Principality (Poljicka knezija) was a unique phenomenon in Europe. It existed continuously for almost seven centuries, with its own very original legal system.

 The oldest known Croatian Glagolitic Bible is mentioned already in 1380 in a document from the Zadar archives which mentions "...una Biblia in sclavica lingua", see [Runje, O knjigama..., and his article in [Iskoni bje slovo, p 58, and Grbin"s paper, p 116]. Unfortunately, we do not know if the Bible is preserved. From the same archives there is another testimony written in 1389, mentioning "unus libear Alexandri paruus in letter sclaua... Item unus Rimancius scriptus parrtim in latino, partin in sclauo".

A Croatian Glagolitic Missal written in the Latin Script is known to have existed in the Middle Ages, see [Runje, Staroslavenski misal pisan latinicom]. Namely, a document from the Zadar archives written in 1473 mentions a Zadar priest Ivan Krizmanov who left his missal written in the Latin script and in Crotian language to his pupil Simun Nesgorovich.

The first Croatian printed book in Glagolitic letters appeared as early as 1483, only 28 years after Gutenberg"s Bible, 6 years after the first printed book in Paris and Venice, one year before Stockholm, 58 years before Berlin and 70 years before Moscow. It was a Missal (440 pp, 19x26 cm), unfortunately it is not known where it was printed. The Croatian Glagolitic Script was the fifth to appear in the history of European printing, very soon after the Latin, Gothic, Greek and Hebrew scripts. Eleven preserved copies of the first Croatian incunabulum are kept in The Library of Congress in Washington, in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg, in the National Library in Vienna, in Apostolic Library in the Vatican (two copies), and in Croatia (six copies).

The Glagolitic Script began to acquire a new, angular form in the 12th century, usually referred to as the Croatian Script. The round form was also present on earliest Croatian Glagolitic monuments. Let us list more than 30 of the most important Croatian Glagolitic documents written in the round Glagolitic or round/angular Glagolitic in the earliest period (11th and 12th centuries). First those written on parchment:

1. the first of the Kiev Folia - which has been written in the Dubrovnik region (11th century), as proved by dr. Agnezija Pantelic;
2. Sinai folia from 11th century, used in the Dubrovnik region, see dr. Agnezija Pantelic in [Badurina, pp. 101-111] and [O Kijevskim i Sinajskim...],
3. the Vienna Folia (11th century), (see the photo on the right),
4. the Glagolita Clozianus (11th century),
5. the Budapest fragments (11/12th centuries),
6. the Grskovic fragment of Apostle (12th century),
7. the Mihanovic fragment of Apostle (12th century),
8. the Baska ribbons (12th century),
9. the Ljubljana homiliary, fragment of a breviary, (12th century),
10. the Split fragment (12/13th centuries),
11. the muniment of the `famous Dragoslav", (parchment or paper, preserved in later transcript) January 1, 1100, the earliest mention of Vrbnik and Dobrinj on the island of Krk,
12. Vrbnik fragments (1 and 2) of a church book, 12th century, (see Ivan Bercic"s "Citanka staroslavenskog jezika", 1864, Prague, or Vjekoslav Spincic"s "Crtice iz hrvatske knjizevne kulture Istre", 1926, reprinted by KS, Zagreb 1984),
13. the Vrbnik fragment of a breviary, 12th century (ibid.)
14. the Krakov fragment, 12th century (see Eduard Hercigonja, his article in [Croatia and Europe], volume I, p 390])
15. the Selce fragment, 12th century?,
    see Josef Vajs,
• Hlaholské knihy obradni a zlomky Selcské, Vestnik K. C. Spolecnosti Nauk 1909. (IX), Praha, and
• Najstarsi breviar chrvatsko-hlaholsky (prvi breviar vrbnicky), 1910., Praha, page VII and VIII).
16. the Valun tablet (11th century; according to dr. Marica Cuncic from 10th century, personal info.),
17. the Plomin tablet (11th century; according to dr. Marica Cuncic from 10th century),

    

18. the Krk tablet (11th century; according to dr. Marica Cuncic from 10th century),
19. the Konavle fragment, (1060), discovered in the region of Konavle south of Dubrovnik in 1997,

     

20. the Baska tablet (end of 11th century),
21. the Baska fragments (end of 11th century), remains of the second Baska tablet,

    

22. the Senj tablet (end of 11th century),

    

23. the Kijevci fragment (11/12th centuries), north - western Bosnia,
24. the Kukuljevich tablet (1095), lost, but its content is known (western Slavonia, between Lipovljani and Novska);
25. the Brodski Drenovac stone inscriptions, western Slavonia, according to my estimate the oldest parts belong to 12th century; proof: trapesoidal yat appearing on several places, vaulted Glagolitic D with two eyes, the famous triangular A as on the Baska tablet (on a stone tablet in the church of Sv. Dimitrije, obivously transferred from an older church);
26. the Grdoselo fragment (11/12th centuries),
27. the Supetar fragment (St. Peter in the Wood, Istria, 12th century),
28. the Knin fragment (11/12th centuries),

    

29. the Plastovo fragment (11/12th centuries),
30. the Hum graffitto (12th century),
31. the Roc abecedarium (approx. 1200),
32. the Humac tablet (12th century), Herzegovina.