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Publications in the Glagolitic Alphabet from the 15th - 19th Centuries

The Library holds a small, but precious collection of books in the Glagolitic alphabet which was used historically in some Slavonic areas. The oldest is a service book dated 1483.

The Roman Missal (the Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church).
The Roman Missal (the Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church).

 [Venice: Anonymous Printing House], 22.II.1483. Fol. N1 v. – N2.

The core collection was assembled by the Croatian scholar I.Berchich, and was purchased by the Library in 1874. Only a few other items have been added to this collection in later years, because the number of books, printed in the Glagolitic script, is extremely small; and publications in the Glagolitic alphabet are very rarely encountered.

The collection comprises principally Croatian Catholic imprints, starting with the Missal of 1483 which was presumably produced in Venice. It also includes Protestant imprints printed in Tubingen, as well as books published by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Congregatio de Propaganda Fide) in Rome. Publications, issued in Tubingen, are in contemporary leather bindings, which featured embossed portraits of their publishers.

View the online exhibition Publications in the Glagolitic Alphabet from the National Library's Collections (in Russian).