The Croatian Glagolitic tradition is certainly the most distinctive segment of Croatian cultural history. While all the other Slavic peoples completely abandoned the Glagolitic script by the 12th century at latest, the Croats carried this tradition all the way through to the 19th, and even 20th century respectively, but of course, not on the same level during each and every period. Moreover, the cultural and scientific community of Europe had as early as the 14th century and up to the establishment of Slavic studies at the end of the 18th century been familiarized with the Glagolitic script most frequently through the mediation of the Croatian tradition (compare Juraj [George] of Slavonia, the Czech Glagolitic episode, G. Postello?), wherein the references most frequently made during consideration of its origin were Saint Jerome, the Gothic script (Scandinavian rune), or also - the Georgian or Armenian alphabets. The linking with the mission of Cyril and Methodius to Moravska in 863 (regardless of the continuity of references to Cyril and Methodius in Croatian glagolitic breviaries) took place only after the discoveries of Bulgar-Macedonian and Czech-Moravian monuments of the 11th century, in other words with the establishment of Slavic studies, at the close of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century.
    Here it is necessary to call attention to all that the "glagolitic tradition" actually refers to. Needless to say, it is not only the script (most probably the original invention of Constantine the Philosopher, which was contrived in Constantinopole prior to his mission to Moravia in 863, and based on a systemic development of letter shapes, but also on his knowledge of numerous other scripts of that time), but also of the Old Slavic (Slavonic) language (the oldest Slavic standard language that was initially formed in the mid-9th century by Constantine the Philosopher on basis of the Macedonian dialect from the region around Salonika, and was used in a considerably Croatianized variant), the Old Slavic liturgy (which the Croats, as early as the 12th century, had inclined completely to befit Western rites, nevertheless preserving the traces of its former Byzantine origin), and - Medieval - liturgical and non-liturgical literature, written mainly in Glagolitic, an amalgam of the Croatian and Old Slavic languages that united motives and forms, the eastern (Byzantine) and western origins, with a gradually growing prevalence of the latter. This entire complex of intertwinement of the eastern origins and western superstructure, is usually known as - Glagolitism.
    If one looks at a map that shows the siting of the oldest epigraphic/stone monuments in Glagolitic, those of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, one shall have no difficulty in establishing that their greatest concentration is exactly in Croatia (in the area of Istria, Kvarner and northern Dalmatia). Nowhere else in the other "Glagolitic lands", not in the Czech Republic nor in Bulgaria or Macedonia, are there as many Glagolitic stone monuments as on this proportionately tiny bit of the Mediterranean!
    The question whether this area represents the nucleus of Croatian Glagolitic has not been solved. Historical, indirect records and certain fragments preserved on parchment frequently refer to regions lying further south. The oldest historical record that points to the wide extent of the Glagolitic tradition among Croats are the letters of Pope John X to the archbishop of Split, as well as to Tomislav, King of the Croats and to Prince Mihajlo Višević of the Zahum region (the part of Herzegowina) of 925 A.D., with reference to the spreading of "the doctrine of Methodius" on their territory, in other words, just 40 years after the death of Methodius (885 A.D.); and then also, there is one of the conclusions of the national and regional synod of 928 A.D. in Split regarding the liturgical language and this conclusion cites the bishoprics of Ston, Dubrovnik and Kotor as problematic. Although the script is not explicitly mentioned, today the widely accepted opinion is that the spreading of the Glagolitic started precisely from the heart of the linguistically tolerant Byzantine Dalmatia (as a means of Byzantine politics, under a principle similar to the one applied in Moravia) that was also well populated with Slavs, but the emphasis is that this, without doubt, initially commenced in the southern territories, and not in the region of Kvarner, which was peripheral in those times. From the oldest Glagolitsa-documented centuries, i.e. the 11th and 12th century, only a few monuments on this eastern pole of Croatian Glagolitic are at our disposal (The Budapest fragments, The Gršković Fragment of the Apostles, The Mihanović Fragment of the Apostles, perhaps also the First page of the Kiev sheets?), and as of recently with a Glagolitic inscription, in all probability from the 11th century: the Konavle Glagolitic inscription, the only Glagolitic stone monument south of Krka River.
    By the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century, Glagolitism on this eastern pole of Croatian Glagolitic disappears, at just about the same time as it ceased to exist in Macedonia. After that period, the Glagolitic script on the entire area of that Slavic corpus east of, roughly speaking, rivers Krka and Vrbas was replaced by the Cyrillic script (present at least since the 11th century), with very rare Glagolitic "excursions" further to the east. On the western pole, the regions of Istria, Kvarner, Lika, northern Dalmatia, Glagolitism was also present from the earliest times (11th, 12th century: The Plomin Tablet, the Valun Tablet, the Krk island inscrption, the Baška tablet?), but for all that it is precisely in the beginning of the 13th century that Glagolitism experienced vigorous momentum. The favorable circumstances prevailing in church policy (the conflict between advocates of the reformist and anti-reformist papacies, the decree of the Roman Synod regarding linguistic tolerance) brought about the flourishing of Glagolitic writing, and such a vigorous production conditioned the development of a particular form of Glagolitic: angular (Croatian) Glagolitic (distinguishing marks are the closeness of the character lines between rows, the rectangular relationship between lines, the surpassing of frail character parts outside of the basic lined rows?). From then on the development of Croatian Glagolitic only continued within the area of this western pole. In segments, this type of Glagolitic script will continue to develop until the 16th century, but as early as in the mid-13th century the eye of the average reader will no longer be able to distinguish the differences in the script between certain fragments.
    The 14th century is deemed the "golden age" of the Croatian Glagolitic, and particularly the 15th century. Although writing in The Croatian language in the Latin alphabet began as early as in the mid-14th century (the well-known Šibenik Prayer), the persuasively main script in use up to the beginning of the 16th century (approximately up to the time when Marulić wrote Judita in 1501) was the Glagolitic. For instance, no less than 15 completely preserved Glagolitic missals (to stick to liturgical production alone), of which the best known and perhaps most beautiful one is The Missal of Bosnian Duke Hrvoje that is today kept in Istanbul. The crown of this treasure is certainly the printing of the first Croatian book in the Slavic script - The Missal according to the law of the Roman court of 22nd February 1483, and it was no coincidence that this was on the Day of the Holy See (for the purpose of expressing their own loyalty), most probably in Venice.
    After several more books printed in Venice, the first Glagolitic printshop on Croatian territory that was active between 1494 and 1509 was founded in Senj (the only bishopric within the structure of the Western Church in which the liturgy was in Old Slavonic), during which time 7 very precious editions were printed, mainly of a liturgical and generally sacral (medieval) content: missal, a directory for confessors, a collection of sermons for Lent, the miracles of the blessed Virgin Mary?
    In 1530 and 1531, when a great transition of epochs had already taken place in Croatian culture and when the Latin script, along with the new humanist renaissance practices of creative writing began to play a dominant role in Croatian literacy, a Glagolitic printshop officiated in the city of Rijeka. It was organized by Šimun Kožičić Benja, the fugitive bishop of Modruš and Krbava, a well-known Glagolitic humanist and author of Latin and Old Slavonic texts. His printshop published 6 titles, and not all of them were liturgical: one of the works, namely, is a historical review of Roman popes and kings, translated from the Latin (Book on The Lives of Roman Popes and Emperors. Prior to the conclusion of the Croatian Glagolitic printing tradition in 1561 with the so-called Brozovich's Breviary, printed in Venice again, most likely due to the bankruptcy of domestic printshops, we must call attention to the Protestant printshop in Urach near Tűbingen, where a great number of books were printed in both Slavonic scripts - Cyrillic and Glagolitic, as well as in the Latin alphabet, during 1561-1564. The Protestant movement found the Slavic Glagolitic tradition suitable within the Latin universalism of the Catholic Church, hence many Glagolites (priests who used Glagolitic), especially in Istria, accepted the cultural affirmation that this movement offered through printing of numerous books.
    On a liturgical plane in the beginning of the 17th century (because the use of Glagolitic script was subsiding again), major changes occurred in the organization of the Roman Congregation for Propaganda of Faith (Congregatio de propaganda fide): due to clerical-political reasons, for the purpose of opening towards the Eastern Church, the further use of Glagolitic script was allowed, but not - in the Croatian Old Slavonic. It had to be substituted with the use of the eastern (Russian, Ruthenian - in other words Greek Catholic) revision of the Old Slavonic language. Such bypasses, as we know, have never succeeded, and through the lapse of several centuries huge damage was done to the Croatian autochthonous Glagolitic tradition. It was renovated in 1893 thanks to Dragutin Antun Parčić, namely his reprinting of the Croatain Glagolitic Missal in Rome. From that time on and until the decree of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the liturgies in the Croatian churches, in the traditional Glagolitic areas of course (firstly the metropolitan area of Rijeka) were held in the same language (naturally - Church Slavonic) that was used since the 9th century and until the beginning of the 17th century. From that time on, during the last decades, such liturgies (not on the spoken language of the people, but still a language understandable to the people, though cultivated through tradition) have been reserved only for special - ceremonious occasions. On the island of Krk, for example, such a tradition has preserved its continuity in everyday vespers and church songs. Paleo-Slavic experts from all over the world are always happy for the chance to attend such a liturgy that has been preserved to this very day in spite of all the eradications that it was exposed to. Moreover, in recent years new liturgical texts are even being translated into Croatian Old Slavonic so that the tradition, due to changes in liturgical customs, might not die.

Mateo Žagar, Ph.D.
(Translated by S. Drenovac )

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