The Glagolitic Script in Croatia

Outside of Slavic countries, it is not common knowledge that a special script was created for Slavic languages in the 9th century – the Glagolitic script. The author of the Glagolitic script was Constantine Cyril, a monk from Thessaloniki, who was asked to design an alphabet for the Slavic people, to aid in educating them and spreading literacy, as well as Christianity, among them. The name of the Glagolitic script, only coined in the 17th century, is derived from the verb glagoljati, an Old Church Slavonic word (which occurs in a number of modern Slavic languages as well) meaning “to speak”.

The Glagolic alphabet had 32 characters, which denoted not only phonetic sounds, but numbers as well – that is, they could be used as both letters and digits. Also, much like the Latin alphabet, it had a set letter order, known as azbuka, and the modern Cyrillic script uses a similar order. The word azbuka comes from the names of the first two letters, a and b, i.e., az and buky. Namely, to make remembering the order of the letters and the letters themselves easier, each letter had its “name”, and in sequential order they would comprise a sentence, i.e., a text. The first nine letters (a, b, v, g, d, e, ž, dz, z, i.e., az – buky – vjedi – glagolju – dobro – est – živeti – dzelo – zemlji) translate to “I, who know letters (that is, who can read), say that it’s very good to live on the Earth”.

The Glagolitic script was one of the two Slavic scripts used by numerous Slavic peoples, but the Croats are notable as a people with an especially rich history of glagolitsa use. Namely, the Glagolitic script was the first script used by the Croats to note their language (later, the Cyrillic and Latin script were used), and starting with the 12th century, they became the only people which continued using the script. Also, the Glagolitic script acquired a special form in this region, the round Glagolitic. The first printed book in Croatia, Misal po zakonu rimskoga dvora (1483), used the Glagolitic script, making it the first example of printed Glagolitic literature in the world.

The Glagolic script was actively used in the area within Croatia’s current-day borders during the Middle Ages, from the 9th to the 16th century. Afterwards, the Latin script became prevalent. The Glagolitic script was primarily used for writing religious texts, such as missals, songbooks and sermons, but was also used for secular texts, such as legal documents and charters.

The Glagolitic script was used throughout the coastal and littoral regions of modern-day Croatia, with Istria and Kvarner being two regions with an exceptionally rich Glagolitic tradition. Some of the first monuments of Croatian Glagolitic literacy were found in that very area: the Plomin tablet, the Valun tablet, the Grdosel fragment, or the royalty among Croatian Glagolitic monuments – the Baška tablet.

To honor the Glagolitic script and the Glagolitic priests of the region, as well as those in the rest of Croatia, the Chakavian Assembly erected the Glagolitic Alley in Istria in 1977. The idea for the Alley came from a well-known Croatian philologist, Josip Bratulić, and was sculpted by Želimir Janeš. It is a unique monument comprised of 11 large commemorative sculptures lining the road from Roč to Hum, each representing a person, event, concept or idea related to Croatian Glagolitic history.

Should you visit Istria, the Glagolitic Alley is a must-see for anyone eager to experience Croatian culture and tradition, and the best accommodation in the region can be found on Molo Longo agency’s website.