Professor Henrik Heger founder of Croatian studies at Sorbonne in Paris in 1981

LES CROATES ET LA CIVILISATION DU LIVRE, Henrik Heger and Janine Matillon eds. (Paris, Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1986, pp. 117)

The first international symposium of studies on Croatian culture was held at the Sorbonne in December 1983. Its theme was "Croatians and the Civilization of the Book". The second on the Croatian writer A.G. Matoš, the third on Middle Ages, and the fourth on Renaissance were also held at the Sorbonne in December 1984, 1985, and 1986.

The proceedings of the first symposium comprise nine papers. In the first one Josip Bratulić, professor at the University of Zagreb, commemorates the first Croatian book published in 1483. In portraying the precarious situation of the Croatian lands at the time of the appearance of the first Croatian printed book, which was a Glagolitic missal, the author recalls both Pop Martinac 's description of the terrible Turkish invasion at the end of the 15th century and the Germanic invasion of the Balkan Peninsula reported by Saint Jerome at the end of the 4th century. The similarity is striking. By stressing Saint Jerome's influence and stature among Croatian intellectuals through the centuries, Bartulić helps to explain the atmosphere in which the first printed book was born.

Aleksandar Stipčević, professor at the University of Zagreb, discusses the production of manuscript books during the 15th century and shows Croatia's peculiar situation as a crossroads of the Latin and Byzantine worlds and as a meeting place of the West European spirit with the Slavic nation. Following Gutenberg's invention German printers appeared in many European countries as the first printers, but in Croatian regions Croatians were the first to practice the new art, because foreigners did not know how to handle the unusual Glagolitic characters.

Franjo Šanjek, professor at the Catholic Theological School in Zagreb, examines the circulation of books in 15th and 16th century Croatia. He notes two outstanding libraries: the Dominican Library in Dubrovnik and the Archdiocesan Library in Zagreb (also known as the Metropolitan Library). The first occupies a prominent place in Croatia by its manuscripts and incunabula; the second one enjoys the privilege of being the oldest. Beside the institutional libraries there were many individuals - writers, notaries, merchants and artisans - who compiled personal libraries, especially in Dalmatian coastal cities. Among many volumes in Croatian collections, we shall mention only the treatise De sphaera mundi, written by the English mathematician and astronomer John Halifax (or Holywood translated as Sacrobosco). The author concludes that the Croatians were exceptionally familiar with West European publications.

Franjo Zenko, professor of philosophy at Zagreb University, established a connection between the printed books and the history of philosophy in Croatia. He noticed that Franjo Marković, one of his predecessors in his Department of philosophy and founder of the historiography of philosophy in Croatia, stated in 1881 that the Croatian philosophers from the 15th to the 18th century were completely disregarded. While the works of the contemporary writers became an integral part of Croatian literature, the philosophical works were not a part of the Croatian cultural patrimony. Mr. Zenko cites several historical and ideological reasons why those philosophical works had to wait for a national awakening in the 19th century, but notes that even then they were not made part of the national heritage because they were written in Latin. Perhaps these Croatian philosophers have still to wait for future better days, because philosophy is more universal than national.

Leo Košuta, librarian at the Bibliothéque Nationale of Paris, portrays the tumultuous destiny of a Latin book written by Marko Marulić, De institutione bene vivendi per exempla sanctorum (1507). During more than one hundred years the book had 45 editions and was translated into six languages. In it Marulić teaches moral principles illustrated by examples taken from the Bible and the lives of saints. For many years the book was used by the Jesuits as spiritual reading. It was very much appreciated by Saint Francis Xavier. On the other hand, some passages were censured by the Inquisition. Mr. Košuta aptly describes its ups and downs, supporting his presentation with many and extensive footnotes, which leave the impression that more can be discovered about Marulić's book. Marulić was known in Europe also for his other Latin books, which during two centuries saw more than fifty editions.

In a short report Professor Stanislav Tuksar, associated with the South Slavic Academy of Arts and Sciences in Zagreb, examines for the first time the musical scores printed in Europe between the end of the 15th century and the year 1815 and found in the Croatian archives. This study was based on the examination of 34 musical archives.

Mirko Tomasović, professor of the University of Zagreb, analyzes number of Moliére's plays translated into Croatian in Dubrovnik during the 18th century. Most of those translations were adaptations. In order to show the extent of the changes made by the translator, Tomasović compares the French original comedy Georges Dandin ou le Mari confondu with the Croatian version Ilija aliti Muž zabezožen. Not only names but local, social, and historical allusions were changed in accordance with the tradition of older comic writers in Renaissance Dubrovnik. At the same time the translator strictly adheres to the French original when it is a matter of universal human thoughts and feelings. This paper brings to life the atmosphere of an old Slavic Dubrovnik enjoying the French classical spirit more than fifty years after Moličre's death.

Professor Mirko Dražen Grmek, professor at the Parisian École des Hautes Etudes writes on the beginnings of scientific publications among the Croatians. The first such book was printed in Venice in 1507 by a physician from Zadar, Federik Grisogono-Bartulačić, and dealt with astronomy. It was written in Latin as were all other such books until the beginning of the 19th century. Such books were sporadically written in Italian or German, but not in Croatian. Latin was the language used in all Croatian schools and used for almost all scholarly activities. The only exceptions were popular medical works that were aimed at a general public. Professor Grmek presents several publications of this kind published in Northern Croatia in Kajkavian dialect and in Southern Croatia in Shtokavian-Ikavian, mostly compiled by secular or religious priests. All those books were published during the epoch of the Enlightenment, when dedicated clergy tried to educate their people. Most of them were Franciscans inspired by Andrija Kačić Miošić, who at that time published his Pleasant Instruction of the Croatian People (1756). Some of them even chose to present rules of health in verses, just as Kačić did for history.

The facsimile in color of a page taken from the Glagolitic missal of 1483 appears on the front cover of the book, while the back cover carries the facsimile also in color of a Latin manuscript in which Georges d'Esclavonie tells his French colleagues in the 15th century that his alphabet is Croatian (Istud alphabetum est chrawaticum). Thus a few centuries before the internationalism 'cravat', a word for necktie in several European languages was born (1651), one can see its origin in the ethnic Croata.

Georges d'Esclavonie, Table of the Croatian Glagolitic Script written at Sorbonne around 1400.

Istud alphabetum est crhawaticum (lat.) - This is Croatian Script

The participants of the symposium dealt with a short but distant period of time, the second part of the 15th century, under different but similar aspects. Therefore some repetitions occur here and there. All the contributions are very valuable, first of all for the high scholarly spirit in which they were composed, and then for the fact that for the first time Croatians, a dismembered nation, engulfed in bigger political entities like Austrian and Turkish Empires, Venetian Commonwealth or Yugoslav Federation, was presented in its national cultural unity. A great deal of credit is thus due to Dr. Henrik Heger who has centered these symposia around the Croatian cultural area, faire culturelle croate, and helped to show that even a small nation, in spite of tumultuous political vicissitudes, can survive through its culture for more than a millenium.