OLD CROATIAN LETTERS

Probably the most famous letter in Croatian history,
by Petar Zrinski to his wife Katarina, written in Croatian in 1671

The aim of this web page is to collect old Croatian letters from all over the world, in order to reveal the life and spirituality of Croats. These letters are of interest for various scientific disciplines related to Croatian Studies - linguistics, sociology, ethnology, history, psychology, economy, etc. We expect that this web will result in a written monograph in the near future. All submitted letters will be kept in our archives, but we retain the right to select those to be published on the web.

From a letter by Antonio N. Bachich from the USA to Croatia, 1901

I express my deep gratitude to prof.dr. Zvonko Bencic from the University of Zagreb, Croatia, for his suggestion to create this web page (2006), and to collect the letters. The first letter on the list below is from 1908, sent from the USA to his relatives in Istria.

Persons working actively on this project are: Zvonko Bencic (Zagreb), Darko Zubrinic (Zagreb), and Nenad Bach (New York).

For those wishing to submit their letters, the following is necessary:

a) to send the letter typed as HTML (preferable), DOC, or TXT document, with related comments

b) to send the facsimile (and eventually the related photos)

to darko.zubrinicATgmail.com (change "AT" to "@"), or to zvonko.bencicATfer.hr, or to lettersATcroatianworld.net (Nenad Bach, NY, USA)

 

LIST OF SUBMITTED LETTERS:

  1. Nikola Subic Zrinski, Ozalj na Kupi, in Croatian (Glagolitic script), 1554
  2. Moje drago serce, Austria - Croatia, in Croatian, 1671
    • English translation (My dear soul), London, 1672,
    • German translation (Mein liebes Herz), Vienna, 1671,
    • French translation (Ma chere Femme), Paris, 1691,
    • Italian translations:
    • Latin translation (Delicium meum), Vienna, 1671,
    • Spanish translation (Querida Esposa mia), Madrid, 1687,
    • Dutch translation (Myn Liefste Hert), Amsterdam, 1671,
    • Hungarian translation (Anna Catharina), Budapest, 1671.
  3. Letter to J.J. Strossmayer, USA - Croatia, in Croatian, 1894
  4. Amica Cara by Antonio N Bachich, USA - Croatia, in Italian,1901
  5. Petar Bencic, USA - Istria, in Croatian, 1908
  6. Krsto Bačić - Chris Joseph Bachich
    • Petition for naturalization, USA, [JPG]
    • Certificate of arrival to the USA, 1944 [JPG]
  7. Eva Zdenkovic, Croatia, in Croatian, 1957
  8. Draga moja majcice by Ivo Masina, Croatia, in Croatian (My dear mother, translation into English), 1961
  9. Katica Papić from Ushuaia, Argentina, writes to his brother in Croatia, 1969 and 1970
  10. Kristian Krekovic, Spain - USA, in Croatian, 1972

 

Croatia - its History, Culture and Science