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Dutch audience meets Croatia’s historiography champion Ivan Lučić

Assistant Professor Luka Špoljarić with the visitors of the programme at the Dutch national library presenting Croatia’s historiography champion Ivan Lučić.

On 2 October 2024, the National Library of the Netherlands hosted a programme organised by the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in the Kingdom of the Netherlands spotlighting Ivan Lučić (1604-1679), Croatia’s historiography champion.

The programme, which was attended by the National Library Affairs Assistant to the Director General of the National and University Library in Zagreb Dr Sofija Klarin Zadravec, included presentations on Lučić’s work and significance by Croatian and Dutch professionals and researchers.

Assistant Professor Luka Špoljarić at the Dutch national library at the library’s programme presenting Croatia’s historiography champion Ivan Lučić.
Curator of early printed books at the Dutch national library Esther van Gelder at library’s programme presenting Croatia’s historiography champion Ivan Lučić.

Assistant Professor at the Department of History of the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Luka Špoljarić shed light in his lecture on the close links between Lučić and 17th-century Dutch publishers and intellectuals, while cultural historian and curator of early printed books at the Dutch national library Esther van Gelder presented Lučić’s part in the making of Illyricum Hodiernum, a map which the great Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu (1596-1673) modelled after a map by Lučić and published as part of his Atlas Maior, a masterpiece of Dutch Golden Age cartography. Richly decorated by details in gold, the map features the coats of arms of Bosnia, Dalmatia, Slavonia and Croatia and includes a dedication to Petar IV Zrinski, the 1665-1670 viceroy of Croatia (ban).

Joan Blaeu, Atlas Maior, Illyricum Hodiernum, National Library of the Netherlands.
Illyricum Hodiernum. Atlas Maior (17th c., Amsterdam). National Library of the Netherlands.

Lučić’s works linking the collections of Croatian and Dutch national libraries

A copy of Illyricum Hodiernum is also held by the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK), as part of the its Map Collection (The Novak Collection archive), while the treasures of the Dutch national library’s Special Collections include Lučić’s major work De regno Dalmatiae et Croatiae (1666, Amsterdam), which was displayed as part of the programme.

Ioannis Lucii Dalmatini De regno Dalmatiae et Croatiae libri sex (1666, Amsterdam). NSK Manuscripts and Old Books Collection.
Ioannis Lucii Dalmatini De regno Dalmatiae et Croatiae libri sex (1666, Amsterdam). NSK Manuscripts and Old Books Collection.

During the programme, Dr Sofija Klarin Zadravec met with her Dutch colleagues as well as with Croatian researchers, translators and writers based in the Netherlands.

Also, the programme participants had the opportunity to learn more about Lučić’s letter collection which in 2023 became part of the NSK Manuscripts and Old Books Collection, which also holds Lučić’s De regno Dalmatiae et Croatiae.