GLAGOLITIC SCRIPT

The name of the Glagolitic script come form the Old-Slavic verb glagolati—to speak—emphasizing the connection of the script and the vernacular language which it transcribed.

The origin of the script is unclear. The traditional theory is that it is developed from the Cyrillic script used in the countries that adhere to the Orthodox rite. In the year 862, Prince Rostislav of Great Moravia (846-870) requested that Constantinople send missionaries to help the Christianization of Slavs. To facilitate that mission, brothers Cyril (827-869) and Methodius (825-884) also known as “apostles of Slavs,” using the Greek script as a model, developed the Cyrillic script for Slavic languages. Marko Japundžić (1998) in his exposition on the Croatian Glagolitic heritage presents the various arguments that contradict this theory and asserts that Glagolitic script was of Croatian origin, older than the Cyrillic script and the missionary work of Cyril and Methodius. According to this theory, literacy came to the Croatian lands with the Benedictine Gallic monks, which started their missionary work with the 7th century and were coming from Aquilean patriarchate, under whose jurisdiction the peninsula of Istria and the Adriatic coast belonged at that time. They brought with them early Merovingian and Italo-Lombardian cursive script that in time transformed into Glagolitic script (Japundžić 1998, pp. 3-7).

Sometime in the 10th century, a theory developed that the Glagolitic script was created by divinely inspired St. Jerome (347- 420), the native of Istria and by territorial association Croatian. However, that is historically impossible, because during his lifetime Croatians, together with the rest of the Slavs, were still on the left bank of the Danube, and Dalmatia was the Roman province. This theory of the divine origin of the Glagolitic script was especially promoted by the Glagolitic Church, using it as the argument against the pressure of the Holy See to adopt the Latin standard. The argument was convincing enough that in the 1248, Croatian Church acquired the special dispensation for continuous use of Glagolitic in liturgy (Old-Slavic as the language and the Glagolitic script for the script of the liturgical books) (Stipčević 2004, pp. 218-221).

The earliest form of the Glagolitic letters are round, and only in 14th century script acquired distinct square appearance, very much with the same handwriting ductus as gothic script. Although it is possible to find inscriptions in Glagolitic script all the way in Bosnia and Macedonia, the script was mostly limited to the Croatian speaking population of the Adriatic coast and inland plains of Krbava and Lika.


 

Links

The history of use of the Glagolitic, Cyrillic, and Latin scripts in Croatia on the web site of the Association of Friends of Glagolica

Entry about the Glagolitic script on the New Advent web site

The alphabet and pronunciation of the Glagolitic script,
with some useful links, the Omniglot web site

 

Bibliography

Japundžić, M. (1998). The Croatian Glagolitic Heritage.
Retrieved November 25, 2005, from
http://www.croatianstudies.org/index.php?action=page&id=55

Stipčević, A. (2004). Socijalna Povijest Knjige u Hrvata (Knjiga I. Srednji Vijek: Od prvih početaka do glagoljskog prvotiska iz 1483 godine.). Zagreb: Školska knjiga.