Split’s Milesi Palace hosting the exhibition on Croatia’s 17th-century genius by 27 Dec 2024

By 27 December 2024, the Milesi Palace, in Split, will be hosting Marco Antonio de Dominis: A Visionary’s Perspective, the exhibition which the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) put on as part of the 2024 European Heritage Days programme.

Jointly organised by the Library, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (CASA) and Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome in Rome as part of the Academy’s project aimed at the popularisation of Croatian cultural heritage (Upoznajmo hrvatsku znanstvenu baštinu), the exhibition is spotlighting Croatia’s versatile 17^th-century scholar and a distinguished figure among Croatian and European humanists.

Honouring the giant of Croatian and European heritage

Prepared as a way of commemorating the 400^th anniversary of Dominis’s death, the exhibition also marks the 130^th anniversary of the founding of the NSK Manuscripts and Old Books Collection, which holds a considerable number of Dominis’s works. Presenting Dominis’s accomplishments in a wide variety of fields, the exhibition is an homage to his contribution to both Croatian and European cultural and scientific heritage and an attempt to revive the memory of the extraordinary life of one of the greatest intellectual figures in Europe at the turn of the 17^th century.

Among distinguished Croatian humanists Dominis stands out not only in terms of the versatility of his oeuvre, but also in terms of the fascinating story of his life, during which he not only held the position of a high-ranking prelate, but was also part of the highest diplomatic and political circles and as such had considerable influence on the important events of his time.

A four-century-old story told in a modern way

Authored by the Senior Research Associate at the Division for the History of Natural and Mathematical Sciences at the CASA Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science Dr Marijana Borić, the exhibition is divided into three parts. While the first part gives a comprehensive overview of Dominis’s life and work, the second features the reprints of his major published titles and the third the selected academic and popular resources on Dominis.

Wishing to bring closer Dominis’s outstanding accomplishments to a wider audience and put his legacy into the present-day context, the exhibition programme features varied multimedia and interactive content, artwork inspired by Dominis and educational games thematising his life. Also, the exhibition visitors in Split have a unique opportunity to see valuable content from a number of major Croatian cultural and heritage institutions – such as the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb and Zadar, Archaeological Museum in Split and Croatian Institute of Philosophy – and private collections that has been put on public display for the first time.

Photos by: Filipa Sršen (Archaeological Museum in Split).