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“IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE KINGDOM”: NSK’s treasures featured as part of an exhibition marking 1,100 years of the Kingdom of Croatia

16 October 2025 – 15 February 2026, Klovićevi dvori Gallery

Scenes of the preparation of items in NSK’s collections for the “IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE KINGDOM” exhibition.

The treasures preserved in the collections of the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) will be featured as part of “IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE KINGDOM”, a joint exhibition organised under the auspices of the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media as the central event of Croatia’s celebration in 2025 of well over a millennium since the establishment of the Kingdom of Croatia.

Opening on 16 October 2025, at 19.00, at the Klovićevi dvori Gallery, the exhibition will present the essential elements of Croatian statehood from the time of its first native rulers up until 1918.

Particular emphasis will be given to the legal and symbolic continuity of the Kingdom, whose existence, in addition to other relevant sources, has been documented in a 925 letter from Pope John X to King Tomislav, Croatia’s first king. Validating and shaping the idea of statehood throughout centuries, this unbroken continuity spanned the period from the creation of the Croatian state in the early Middle Ages to Croatia’s subsequent existence within various foreign dynasties.

Greatest NSK treasures in the spotlight

Taking part in the exhibition as a proud guardian of Croatia’s written heritage, NSK will present some of the greatest treasures that it holds, such as the 1531 Croatian missal and other gems of the Croatian Glagolitic tradition, 16th-century transcript of the 1288 Croatian codex constituting the second oldest Slavic legal text, Croatia’s first epic poem, the ground-breaking 17th-century work containing the first technical description of the parachute in the history of technical literature, etc.

The 16th-century transcript of The Vinodol Code (1288). NSK Manuscripts and Rare Books Collection.

In addition to old maps, historical newspapers, prints, various ephemera and other fascinating items, the exhibited NSK’s resources will also include more recent holdings, such as the titles published in 1925, as part of the celebration of the Croatian Kingdom’s millennium, as well as the 1944 original comic strip panels by Andrija Maurović thematising the period of King Tomislav’s reign.

A page from Machiane novae (c. 1615), by a progressive Croatian humanist and inventor Faust Vrančić, and a comic strip panel by “the father of the Croatian comic strips” Andrija Maurović for Tomislav (1944).
The front page of a 1925 monograph commemorating the millennium of the Croatian cultural and political tradition. CROATICA, NSK.

Major Croatian institutions coming together in celebrating millennial heritage and legacy

Prepared on the initiative of the Croatian State Archives and through the Archive’s collaboration with the Library, Croatian History Museum, Museum of Croatian Archaeological Monuments in Split, Archaeological Museum in Split, Croatian Institute of History, Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, University of Zadar, University of Zagreb, Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography and other major Croatian cultural and academic institutions, the exhibition will remain on view by 15 February 2026.