Croatian Cyrillic Script

The tradition of the Croatian Cyrillic Script goes back to the 12th century and lasted continuously until the 18th century, with sporadic uses even in the 20th century. Of course, there are incomparably more Croatian Glagolitic monuments than Cyrillic, not to speak about tremendous Croatian literature in the Latin Script since the 15th century. However, it is the fact that the Croatian Cyrillic represents an important cultural heritage. This Script was in use among the Croats in Dalmatia (especially in the Split and Makarska hinterland), in the Dubrovnik region and in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is interesting that some of the Croatian Catholics, who visited the Vatican in the 17th and 18th century, left their signatures written in the Croatian Cyrillic, which they call expressly the Croatian script.

Thus, the Croatian Cyrillic includes the following three major regions:

• Bosnia and Herzegovina, (especially widespread among Bosnian Franciscans),
• the Poljica Principality (near Split) and Makarska hinterland, as well as islands of the middle Dalmatia (e.g. Brac),
• the region of Dubrovnik, including Konavle.

The name of `Bosancica' (or `bosanica') is of a relatively recent provenance - it has been created by a Croat Ciro Truhelka in 1889, at that time a very young, 24 years old scientist. Its rather misleading name suggests that it has been related exclusively to the territory of Bosnia, which is not true, since it was used in Herzegovina, Dalmatia and on some Croatian islands as well. It is interesting that Croatian Cyrillic, i.e. `Bosancica', can be seen in Croatian texts written in Istria, see below. The name of `western Cyrillic', which also appears in the literature, is even more imprecise (`western' with respect to what?). It seems to be appropriate to call this version of the Cyrillic script by the national name of those who used it most and who left the greatest number of written documents, as in the case of other national versions (Bulgarian Cyrillic, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Serbian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Russian). There are also important palaeographic reasons, see [Benedikta Zelic-Bucan]. Thus the notions of Croatian Cyrillic and "Bosancica" are equivalent.

The name of the Croatian Cyrillic (or Bosancica) had the following genesis:

• Marko Marulich (1450-1525): harvatsko pismo (Croatian script),
• Paltasic of Split (16th century): harvatsko pismo,
• Richard Daniel (in his book "Daniels Copy-Book: or a Compendium of the most usual hands..., London 1664"): Alphabetum Illiricum Sclavorum (Illirucum = Croatian, for example Vat.Illir. documents of the Vatican library all refer exclusively to Croatian documents), thus Croatian alphabet, see p.50 of Daniels' book. On the same page you can see Alphabetum croaticum for the Glagolitic of the 17th century (see Branko Franolic: "Croatian Glagolitic printed texts recorded in the British Library General Catalogue," Croatian information centre, London, 1994 ISBN 953-6058-04-9)
• Still earlier, in 1545 in Rome, an Italian encyclopaedist Giovanni Batista Palatino presented the Glagolitic (see [the photo]) and Cyrillic Script (see on the right) in the second edition of his book Libro Nouvo (Libro nel qual s'insegna a scrivere ogni sorte lettera, antica et moderna...), among 29 scripts that he designed for printing. He claims the Glagolitic (which he calls Buchuizza - bukvica) to be created by St. Jerome, and to be "different from all other existing Scripts". The Cyrillic is ascribed to St. Cyril. Palatino also provided a page with tombstone inscription of the Bosnian Queen Katarina (15th century; buried in Aracoeli, Rome), written in Croatian Cyrillic, in Latin script (Croatian language) and in Latin Script (Latin language). The last sentence is SPOMINAK NJE PISMOM POSTAVLJEN (Monumentum ipsius scriptis positum - Monument written in her script):

  

• A short note about Croatian Glagolitic and Cyrillic can be found in Viaggio in Dalmazia by Alberto Fortis, Venice 1774. The book is also known to have brought the famous poem of Asanaginica to European public.
• Bosnian Franciscans (all of them are the Croats): Bosanska chirilica, bosanska azbukvica,
• Ivan Kukuljevich Sakcinski (outstanding Croatian intellectual, 19th century): Croato - Bosnian Cyrillic (hrvatsko - bosanska cirilica),
• Chiro Truhelka, a Croatian scientist: Bosancica, 1889,
• Vatroslav Jagic (19th century, Tomislav Raukar (mid 20th century, Zagreb): Western Cyrillic (western with respect to what??). Jagic also used the name of "Bosnian - Dalmatian Cyrillic."
• Josip Vrana (in the sixties of the 20th century): hrvatska chirilica (Croatian Cyrillic),
• Benedikta Zelic-Bucan (leading expert for the Croatian Cyrillic - Bosancica): since the seventies insisting on the name of the Croatian Cyrillic (she wrote an important booklet entitled "Bosancica in Middle Dalmatia" (in 1960, of course, in the Croatian language),
• An important and highly readable book treating the three-script history of Croatian Middle Ages (including Croatian Cyrillic) is [Hercigonja], written by outstanding specialist in 1994. It should be consulted by anybody wishing to study in more detail extremely complex history of writing among the Croats.

Here is the text of Asanaginica from the above mentioned Fortis' book (transliterated into Latin Script with ikavian reflex of yat):

Sto se bili u gori zelenoj?
Al su snizi al so labutove?
Da su snizi vec bi okopnuli;
Labutove vec bi poletili.

Here is the same text in Croatian Cyrillic:

Sto se bili u gori zelenoj?
Al su snizi al su labutove?
Da su snizi vec bi okopnul;i
Labutovi vec bi poletili.

and in Croatian Cyrillic quickscript (with slight differences) :

Sto se bili u gori zelenoi
Al su snizi al su labutovi
Da su snizi vec bi okopnuli
Labutovi vec bi poletili

Some of the oldest and most important Croatian Cyrillic monuments are as follows (here we follow [Benedikta Zelic-Bucan] and [Hercigonja]):

• the tablet of Humac (Herzegovina), comprising also several Glagolitic letters (early 11th century according to Hercigonja; 10/11th century according to Vinko Grubisic),

  

• the Croatian Cyrillic inscription of the Povlja lintel (1184) from the Benedictine monastery in the village of Povlja on the island of Brac near Split;
• the Povlja charter from Povlja on the island of Brac (1184, copy from 1250), extensive Croatian Cyrillic text having 53 lines, mentioning 250 old Croatian names (the information contained on the above to web pages is based on the work of Dr. Ivan Ostojic),
• the charter document of the Bosnian ban (governor) Kulin (1198),
• The inscription of pop Tjehodrag, 12th century, Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina, discovered in 2003, described in [Maric, Simic, Skegro]. Photo below courtesy by Slavko Kirin.

  

• The Evangel of Prince Miroslav of Zahumlje (dating from the end of the 12th century), created by Croatian Benedictins, most probably in the city of Ston on the Peljesac peninsula. It has been noticed already in the middle of the twentieth century that miniatures of this evangelistary do not belong to the Byzantine style, but to the Roman (western) style (Ivan Ostojic in his voluminous three-volume "History of Benedictins in Croatia").

  

  The language analysis performed by Benedikta Zelic-Bucan, based on the previous investigations of a Croatian palaeographer Josip Vrana, shows that it has been written in the Croatian recension of the Church Slavonic language. This important monument is held in Belgrade (Narodni muzej), except of one page which is in St. Petersburg.
• the Blagaj inscription from the Bosnian city of Blagaj (second half of the 12th century),
• the Trebinje inscription of the zupan Grdo from Trebinje in Herzegovina (second half of the 12th century). "Zupan" (country prefect). This very old title is in use in Croatia even today.
• the Croatian Chronicle (12th-14th centuries); the famous Croatian humanist Marko Marulic translated it from Croatian Cyrillic into Latin in 1510. The chronicle was written by Archbishop Grgur of Bar (pop Dukljanin).
• Kocerin tablet from 1404 (carved in stone in Kocerin near Siroki Brijeg), with about 300 Croatian cyrillic letters (this the largest known text in Croatian Cyrillic appearing on stecak's); the text is written in ikavian dialect, and starts with invocation of Holy Trinity:

  Va ime Oca i Sina i svetoga Duha, Amin, se lezi Viganj Milosevic..., and the concluding message is indicative: I molju vas ne nastupite na me, ja sam bil kako vi jeste, vi cete biti kakov sam ja ("And I ask you not to step on me, I was like you, and you will be like me")

  

• the cyrillic inscription on the stecak in Brotnice in Konavle south of Dubrovnik probably from 15th century (note also the glagolitic A appearing at the end of the first line), see [Kapetanic, Vekaric, Stanovnistvo Konavala 1, p. 24]:

  

There exists a significant number of Croatian Cyrillic codices, chronicles, healers' pharmacopoeias, registers of births, testaments, personal correspondence etc. Especially important is the Poljice Statute of the small Principality in the neighbourhood of Split (1440).

Here is a Croatian Cyrillic testament of R. Vladisic written in the famous fortress of Klis near Split in 1436 (transcription from 1448).

One of the most famous Franciscan monasteries is the one in Kraljeva Sutiska (or Kraljeva Sutjeska = Royal Gorge):

Kraljeva sutiska

An old and contemporary inscriptions in Croatian Cyrillic
in Kraljeva Sutiska
(on the left: + V ime Bozje, se lezi Radovan Pribilovic, na svojoj zemlji plemenitoj, na Ricici; bih s bratom se razmenio, i ubi me Milko Bozinic, sa svojom bratijom; a brata mi isikose i ucnise vrhu mene krv nezaimitnu vrhu; Nek (zna) tko je moj mili.

Numerous manuscripts show the parallel use of the Croatian Glagolitic and Cyrillic Scripts (and also the Latin Script), thus proving that they were not opposed to each other among the Croats. One of the oldest such examples originates from Istria (St. Peter in the Wood, 12th century), where in one single word - Amen - all three Scripts are used! The coexistence and parallel use of these three Scripts - Croatian Glagolitic, Cyrillic and Latin - is a unique phenomenon in the history of European culture.

According to Croatian researcher Josip Hamm, members of the Bosnian Church (Krstyans) particularly appreciated the Glagolitic Script. Namely, all the important Bosnian Church books,

• Nikoljsko evandjelje (Gospel), Croatian parchment Cyrillic book, copied in around 1400 from older Glagolitic original by Krstyanin Hval (the name was given according to a Serbian monastery Nikolj where the manuscript was found, the book is now held in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin),
• Sreckovicevo evandjelje (Gospel),
• the Manuscript of Krstyanin Hval, 1404 (copied from older Glagolitic original; held in University Library in Bologna since 18th century), the manuscript contains glagolitic letters on two places

  
  
  Hval's Manuscript, Croatian Post

• the Manuscript of Krstyanin Radosav, 15th century (which contains three Glagolitic notes), held in the Library of De Propaganda Fide in Rome, etc.

The first printed Croatian Cyrillic book was The Book of Hours (or the Dubrovnik breviary, or Oficje) published in Venice in 1512, prepared by Franjo Ratkovic from Dubrovnik. One copy is held in Paris in Bibliothèque Nationale. There is also another copy in the Codrington Library at All Souls College, Oxford (q.14.9); it was probably part of the founding bequest of Christopher Codrington in 1710. It is, admittedly, slightly less complete than the Paris copy, lacking 19 leaves. Many thanks to prof. Ralph Cleminson (University of Portsmouth, UK) for information about the Oxford copy.

Many of the Croatian Cyrillic inscriptions are carved on tombstone monuments, called stechak.

According to the Austrian palaeographer Thorvi Eckhardt, the graphics of the Bosancica (Croatian Cyrillic) shows the greatest independence and individuality among all the national Cyrillic Scripts - Bulgarian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Serbian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Russian (see her monograph Die slawischen Alphabete, Studium Generale VIII, 1967, p. 467).

She was also the first scholar to indicate the political loading in discussions about the Bosanica. In recent decades Serbian authors have openly monopolized Croatian Cyrillic as an exclusively Serbian Script. For more information see [Benedikta Zelic-Bucan].

A detailed palaeographic analysis of numerous epigraphic monuments found in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, related to inscriptions written in the Croatian Cyrillic, is contained in a monograph of Vinko Grubisic: "Grafija hrvatske lapidarne cirilice", KHR, München-Barcelona, 1978. Some of the characteristics of Croatian Cyrillic are:

• the existence of unusually many ligatures on epigraphic Croatian Cyrillic monuments, obviously under the influence of Glagolitic script;
  In the aforementioned Grubisic's book (p. 108) you will find a table of 50 interesting Cyrillic ligatures (click on left and rigth): ab (2), av (2), ai (2), al, amin', am, ao, ap, ar, al, vi, gi, gr, ez, iv, iy, in, ime, ish, jni, mc, ne, oe, oni (3) ni (3) pis, pl, pr, pa, rime, tv, tg, ti, til, ca ce, et, ma vi, am, ti mi. This is a unique characteristic of Croatian Cyrillic;
• absence of tildes, contrary to Cyrillic scripts of other nations (Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Russian);
• among all Cyrillic scripts only Croatian Cyrillic has the numerical value for CH (i.e. for chrv) equal to 1000, the same as in the Glagolitic script (see Grubisic's monograph, p. 116).

There exist many types of the Croatian Cyrillic - both carved in stone and handwritten:

• a small table of Croatian Cyrillic letters,
• the Croatian Cyrillic legal document written in the city of Makarska (on the Croatian littoral) in 18th century.

We know of 18 Croatian Cyrillic texts (documents, prayers, letters) that are a part of the famous Bercic collection, held in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. These texts contain among others also interesting correspondence between Muslim officials in Bosnia and Croats. One of the prayers written in Croatian cyrillic ends with "Amen" written twice: first in the Glagolitic and then in Croatian Cyrillic.

In the Royal Library of Stockholm (Kungliga biblioteket) there is a huge Czech book Gigas Librorum from the 13th century, which in the 14th century was in Prague. It was due to the Croatian glagolites in Prague that the Croatian glagolitic alphabet had been written on the inner part of the cover page. I express my gratitude to Mr. Zdenko Naglic, Göteborg, for this information. Here is the photo of the table of Croatian Glagolitic Script in Gigas Librorum: One can clearly see that the table is written on a separate vellum leaflet, subsequently glued to the page of Gigas Librorum. The photo of the page of on which one can see the table of the Glagolitic Script can be seen on the internet page of the Royal Library in Stockholm. My gratitude goes to Mr. Nenad Hancic-Matejic for information about the web adress. Undersigned on the glagolitic leaflet is Opat Divich, hardly readable. The same name can be seen on the neighbouring leaflet, glued on the same page to the right, containing the table of Croatian Cyrillic, signed lisibly with the name of the same Opat Divinic. Especially interesting is the last character in the first line: it is the Croatian Glagolitic djerv! The year near the name is indicated as 1360-1366, showing that the origin of both leaflets is related to Croatian glagolites in Prague since 1348.

See a stone fragment (1640) from Modrus in Lika, inscribed with letters in Cyrillic and Latin script.

Here is an interesting monument from central Bosnia with inscription for which it is difficult to decide is it Croatian glagolitic, cyrillic, or something else:

We illustrate some of numerous very interesting monuments of Croatian Cyrillic from the Makarska area, see [fra Karlo Jurisic].

It is interesting that in the franciscan convent in Makarska a baptismal parish register is preserved from 1664, written in Croatian Cyrillic, see [fra Karlo Jurisic, pp. 152-153]:

In the same monograph one can find an extremely interesting example of official correspondence with Turkish officials in Herzegovina written in Croatian Cyrillic in 1498, dealing with the destiny of franciscans in Zaostrog, see [fra Karlo Jurisic, pp. 200-201].

In the town of Zagvozd behind the beautiful mountain of Biokovo one can see a lovely Catholic church of all Saints with Croatian Cyrillic inscription from 1644:

You can listen to the text, narrated by Stjepan Bahert, drama artist: Glagoljski zapis don Bare Pifrovica iz okolice Zadra. In 1636. Croatian glagolitic priest Bare Piforovic wrote in the Registry of Dead from the parish of Petrcane near the city of Zadar the following lines in the Croatian Cyrillic: "Ja, dom Bare Pifrovic, to pisah krvaski, curilicu i latinski..." (Me, don Bare Pifrovic, wrote this lines in Croatian, in Cyrillic and Latin...). See [Hercigonja, Glagoljaštvo i glagoljica].

In the beautiful Franciscan monastery on the islet of Visovac on Krka river there is an inscription on the grave of fra Stipan Skopljanin (+ Visovac, 1609.) in the Croatian Cyrillic:

Photo from [Bogovic and Jurisic, p. 112]

The above Croatian Cyrillic inscription can be seen inside the parish church of the village of Ravno, Eastern Herzgovina, not far from Dubrovnik. The following text is taken from www.rb-donjahercegovina.ba (follow the link for the photo):

THE TABLET IN THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY OF OUR LADY IN RAVNO. This tablet is set up in the Church of the Nativity of our Lady in Ravno, written in Croatian Cyrillic script (bosancica), testifying that Bosko and two men named Nikola Anrijasevic restored this Medieval church in 1579. The tablet was written by Fra. Bazilio, who calls himself "Ravjanin" (a man of Ravno) and was probably in the monastery in Slano. The Bishop blessed the church on 6th June 1579.

Original text in Croatian (line by line):
Gradi Bosko
Nikola. I Nik
ola. Andrias. Na slavu. Boga. i Sv(e)te
Gospe. I Blago(so)vi
Biskup. Nakon 1.
5.7.9. godina. poroda
Isusova. Na. se(stoga) zuna.
Pisa fra Bazilio. Ravnanin.

Parish church in the village of Ravno in 2007 (damaged in 1991 when the Greater Serbain agression on BiH started).

We provide several documents published in Croatian Cyrillic in Eastern Herzegovina, not far from Dubrovnik, see [Dubljani]:

A Croatian Cyrillic text written by inhabitants from Ravno, Dracevo, Drijenjan, Grmljan, Velican, Dubljani and other parts of Popovo, written 1688, admitting Leopold I as their protector. See [Dubljani, p. 91].

Representatives of Orahov Do, Cesljar, golubinac, Kijev Do and Belinic
sending letter to emperor Leopold I asking him for protection in 1688. See [Dubljani, p. 92].

Representatives of Ravno, Cvaljin, Velican, and Dubljani sending a letter to Leopold I in 1690. See [Dubljani, p. 94].

Dr. Marinka Simic:

• Jezik boljunskih natpisa, in Stolacko kulturno proljece, Godisnjak, godiste V, 2007., str. 175 - 189 (condensed version [PDF])
• Srednjovjekovni natpisi stolackog kraja, in Stolacko kulturno proljece, Godisnjak za povijest i kulturu, godiste VII, 2009., str. 119-146

On the island of Brac there is a famous glagolitic convent of Blaca built in the 16th century:

Its interesting library keeps among others old Croatian Cyrillic manuscripts, like this one:

In fact, on the island of Brac near Split we know of six Glagolitic convents, founded by Glagolitic Catholic priests from Poljica, near the mountain of Mosor, who had to escape to the island during the Turkish onslaughts. These convents kept not only Croatian Cyrillic books, but also Croatian Glagolitic and Latin books.

An interesting remain from Draceva Luka Glagolitic eremitage, kept in the Dominican Convent in the town of Bol on the island of Brac, is a wardrobe bearing Glagolitic inscriptions describing the color of dresses of priests. Also a remain of the first Croatian printed book (incunabulum) from 1483, printed in the Glagolitic script, is kept there, originating from Draceva Luka on the island of Brac.

Croatian Glagolitic quicscript book found in a Glagolitic convent near Murvica, near famous Zlatni rat, on the island of Brac, see [Batelja, Apokalipsa u Zmajevoj ±pilji]

There are several additional convents of the Poljica Glagolitic Catholic origin founded in 15.-16. st.:

• one on the island of Ciovo: Prizidnice (on the south-east of the island),
• one on the island of Solta: Gospa u Borima (eastern part of the island, north of the G. Sela),
• six on the island of Brac: except the mentioned convents of Blaca, Draceva Luka and Zmajeva spilja (Dragon's Cave), also Dutic, Silvio i Stipancic (near the village of Murvice by Zlatni rat).

Edo Pivcevic: The Poljica Statute

Croatian nobles were familiar not only with the Croatian Glagolitic Script, but also with Croatian Cyrillic. We can illustrate this with the following text signed by Petar Zrinski (1621-1671) outstanding Croatian statesman and writer. It is contained in the "Libar od Spominka" (Book of Remebrances) written by Katarina Zrinska (1625-1673).

For more information see

• [Dubljani]
• [Hercigonja]
• [fra Karlo Jurisic]
• [Kosic]
• [Maric, Simic, Skegro]
• [Zelic-Bucan]

Croatia - an overview of its History, Culture and Science