Croatian Glagolitic Script Day marked again
- by croatiaweek
- in News
ZAGREB, 23 February 2024 – The official Croatian Glagolitic Script Day has been marked again on Thursday. In 2019, the Croatian Parliament voted to declare the 22nd of February as the official Croatian Glagolitic Script Day and yesterday the day was marked for the sixth time.
The Glagolitic alphabet was preserved only by Croats who used it from the 12th to the 20th century, mostly in liturgy.
With the aim of popularising this Croatian alphabet and script as the guardian of Croatian identity, the Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics launched the campaign called “Croatian Glagolitic Script Day” in 2018.
Baščanska ploča, the oldest evidence of the glagolitic script. Found on the island of Krk, Croatia (Photo: Neoneo 13/Public domain)
This is the sixth year that Croatian Glagolitic Script Day was observed in Croatia on 22nd of February and is in memory of the publishing of Missale Romanum Glagolitice, Croatian: Misal po zakonu rimskoga dvora), a Croatian missal, written in the Glagolitic script, and incunabulum printed on 22 February 1483.
Missale Romanum Glagolitice was printed in two colours – black and red, and just 28 years after the Gutenberg Bible was printed. This showed that Croats had been extremely developed in the social, economic and cultural sense already in the 15th century.
It is also the first printed Croatian book and also the first missal in Europe not published in the Latin script.
Glagolitsa in Zagreb Cathedral (Photo: Public domain)
