ZAGREB, February 20, 2018 – The Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics is launching a campaign called “Croatian Glagolitic Script Day” with the aim of popularising this Croatian alphabet and script.
The campaign is being organised on the occasion of the 535th anniversary of the publishing of Missale Romanum Glagolitice (Croatian: Misal po zakonu rimskoga dvora), a Croatian missal, written in the Glagolitic script, and incunabulum printed in 1483. It is the first printed Croatian book and also the first missal in Europe not published in the Latin script.
The institute’s head, Željko Jozić, told Hina on Tuesday that the purpose of the campaign is to bring this script, which is one of the most recognisable traits of literacy among Croatians, closer to the public, particularly to younger generations and school-age children.
Likewise, the Croatian National and University Library is launching the web portal “glagoljica.hr” on 22 February.
Jozić admits that nowadays it is seldom that somebody who is not a linguistic expert can read texts written in the Glagolitic script, although this script was practically in use until the last century.
Missale Romanum Glagolitice was published only 28 years after the Gutenberg Bible’s 42-lines and this testifies about high cultural attainment and maturity of medieval Croatian society’s literature.
