Latin transliteration presented of another 16th-century gem of Croatian Glagolitic heritage
On 6 June 2024, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) hosted a presentation of the Latin transliteration of another 16th-century masterpiece of Croatian Glagolitic heritage, which the Library published with the support of the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Youth and Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Foundation.
Bringing closer to researchers as well as the general public one of the works originally printed by the historic printing house in Senj, the cradle of the Croatian Glagolitic printing tradition, the transliteration was published by the Library as a result of its cooperation with the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Close institutional cooperation
After an introductory address by the Zagreb University Library Affairs Assistant to the NSK Director General Dr Dijana Machala, the transliteration was presented by the Head of the Section for Old Church Slavonic and Croatian Glagolitic Heritage at the Faculty’s Department of Croatian Language and Literature and Deputy Head of the Department Associate Professor Tanja Kuštović, consulting editors Assistant Professor at the Department of Croatian Language and Literature of the University of Osijek’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Vera Blažević Krezić and Senior Scientific Associate at the Zagreb Faculty Dr Sandra Požar and the transliteration’s editors the Zagreb Faculty’s Assistant Professor Ivana Eterović and Juraj Matej Kovač.
Digitisation facilitating research and the preservation of heritage
“Owing to its Latin transliteration being made available, this valuable work of Croatia’s Glagolitic heritage will from now on more easily lend itself to in-depth analyses and comprehensive evaluations. We are glad that the students at the Faculty’s Department of Croatian Language and Literature, who under the supervision of the Assistant Professor Eterović did a great job in preparing the transliteration’s first draft, largely relied on the original’s digital copy available on the Library’s Croatian Glagolitic Heritage website. Developed by the Croatian Institute for Librarianship’s Croatian Digital Library Development Division, the website thus once again fulfilled its purpose,” said Dr Machala.
A treasure from the cradle of the Croatian Glagolitic printing
Printed at the very beginning of the 16th century (1507/08), the work (Meštrija dobra umrtija) was the Croatian translation in the Croatian Glagolitic script of Ars bene moriendi, or “The Art of Dying”, a popular book genre of the medieval period thematising the Church rituals performed in relation to administering the last rites to a dying Christian.
One of its only two surviving copies in the world is preserved as part of the NSK Manuscripts and Old Books Collection.
The 1507/08 Croatian translation (Meštrija dobra umrtija) in the Croatian Glagolitic script of Ars bene moriendi (15th c.). NSK Manuscripts and Old Books Collection.
Organised as part of the 2022/23 programme of one of the courses at the Zagreb Faculty’s Department of Croatian Language and Literature, the transliteration’s first stage was conducted by students Barbara Ergović, Paola Grgić, Petra Ivanišević, Margareta Klimpak, Ivana Krapić, Marta Kujavić, Nina Slavena Mijatović, Anamarija Mrkonjić and Mihaela Pavić, whose transliteration draft was then copyedited and proofread by Assistant Professor Eterović and Juraj Matej Kovač.
The publication may be ordered online.