Exhibitions on Croatia’s greats in Australia and New Zealand
This November and December, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) and Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU), supported by the Croatian Studies Foundation, are bringing to the Australian and New Zealand audiences exhibitions highlighting the legacy of three great scholars in Croatian history.
Authored by the Senior Research Associate at the Division for the History of Natural and Mathematical Sciences at the Academy’s Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science Dr Marijana Borić, the exhibitions spotlight three world-famous Croatian intellectual figures at the turn of the 17th century – diplomate and prelate Marco Antonio de Dominis (Marco Antonio de Dominis: A Visionary’s Perspective), inventor and lexicographer Faust Vrančić (Faust Vrančić – the Croatian Leonardo da Vinci) and mathematician Marin Getaldić (Marin Getaldić: The Beginnings of Modern Mathematics).
The exhibitions will be put on in Sydney, at The Concord Croatian community club and The King Tomislav Croatian Club, after which the New Zealand audiences in Wellington, Hamilton, Auckland and Kaitaia will also have the opportunity to see the exhibition on Dominis, which NSK premiered as part of the 2024 European Heritage Days.
The rich exhibition programme
The exhibition programme will include lectures and workshops through which the exhibitions’ author Dr Borić, together with the Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Macquarie University’s School of International Studies and Croatian Studies Centre Luka Budak, Senior Lecturer at University North Tomislava Majić and former lecturer at the Macquarie University’s Croatian Studies Centre and long-time Croatian language teacher at the Croatian Schools in Sydney Ana Bruning will bring closer to the exhibition visitors the achievements and life stories of the three greats.
This exhibition programme is organised with the support of Croatia’s Central State Office for Croats Abroad and is taking place as part of two projects focusing on the international promotion of Croatia’s heritage – the one thematising the world-famous contribution of Croatian scholars and philosophers to science as the foundations of the Croatian national identity is run by Dr Ivana Skuhala Karasman from the Institute of Philosophy in Zagreb (Svjetski dometi hrvatske znanosti i filozofije – temelji hrvatskog identiteta) and the other, which in addition to science and culture, also focuses on the field of economy, is led by Luka Budak (Znanost, kultura i gospodarstvo – poveznice).