Croatia

Contact

Contact personDr. Gudrun Wirtz
Phone+49 89 28638-2992
E-mailgudrun.wirtz@bsb-muenchen.de

The Croatian collection

The collection on Croatia includes approximately 45,000 volumes and grows by around 600 monographs annually. In addition, there are several hundred periodicals. The major part of the collection still consists of printed materials. The proportion of electronic journals related to Croatia has increased strongly during the past two decades. Most of the outstanding historical Croatian holdings are available digitally in the open-access format using the library catalogue.

Incunabula

The Croatian collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek starts with one of the very first Croatian books to be printed, the "Breviarum Romanum" of 1493. This complete Roman breviary is testament to the highly developed Croatian-Church Slavonic medieval culture of writing, the so-called "Croatian Glagolitic script". It is the third-oldest Croatian incunabula and the first one whose place of printing is known with certainty. It comes from the widely known Venetian printing shop of Andreas Torresanus.

A number of further incunabula of the collection are from the officinae of Croatian printers active in Italy. Andrije Paltašić (1477 – 1493) from Kotor printed around 40 incunabula in Venice, of which the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek holds 17. Of Dobrič Dobričević (Boninus de Boninis) from Lastov/ Ragusa, who first cooperated with Paltašić and worked in Padova and Verona later on, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek holds 16 incunabula, and one of Grgur Dalmatina (Gregorius Dalmatinus).

With respect to content, these are editions of classic authors, however.

Baromič, Blaž [ed.]: Breviarium Romanum. Venedig: Andreas Torresanus, 1493.03.13.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: Inc.c.a. 161

16th century

One of the earliest Croatian-language printed works in Latin letters and the first literary work in the Croatian popular language (Chakavian-Ikavian) is likewise from Venice: Marko Marulić, the "father of Croatian literature" retells in his work "Judita" the Biblical story of Judith and Holofernes against the background of the struggle of the Christian world against the Ottoman empire. The epic poem (frequently also referred to as "novel") was completed in 1501 and was published for the first time in Venice in 1521. The edition held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is younger by one year (Venice, 1522) and, belonging to the collection of the Orientalist Widmanstetter, formed part of the library's collection at the time of foundation.

In the course of the 16th century a rich trilingual (Latin-Croatian-Italian) book culture developed in the cities of Venetian Dalmatia, with centers in Split, Dubrovnik, Senj and Rijeka. Moreover, many works, in particular Latin ones, of the "Croatian Latinism" thriving between the 16th and the 18th century were printed all over Europe and were partly also translated into the respective popular languages. Thus, there are editions of the "Evangelistarium" and "De institutione bene vivendi" by Marko Marulić, for example, which were printed also in Basel, Cologne, Antwerp, Paris, Prague, Lisbon, Reims, Solingen, Nuremberg and Dillingen.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek owns the first edition of the "Evangelistarium" published in Venice, the first edition in the German-language area, which was published already in 1519 with a preface written by the famous humanist Sebastian Münster, and six further editions. The many editions mirror the influence and importance of the "Evangelistarium", which represents a kind of compendium of Marulić’s ethical and moral thinking, for the intellectual life in Europe of the time.

Marulić’s second great theological work, "De institutione bene vivendi" was published in two German translations as well: In Cologne in 1568 with the title "Der Catholischer Christen Spiegel", a total of six editions printed in Dillingen between 1582 and 1614, and in Augsburg in 1697.

Marulić, Marko: Libar Marca Marula Splichianina V chomse usdarsi istoria sfete udovice Iudit u uersih haruacchi slosena: chacho ona ubi uoiuodu Olopherna posridu uoische gnegoue ; i oslodobi puch israelschi od ueliche pogibili. Venegia, 1522.
[Marko Marulić, Judita, Venedig 1522]
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: Res/4 Polygl. 27 a#Beibd.7

Marulić, Marko: Marci Maruli Evangelistarium. Venetia: Leucus, 1516.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: Res/4 Asc. 641 m

Marulić, Marko: Evangelistarivm Marci Marvli Spalatensis Viri disertissimi: opus uere euangelicum, cultissimoq[ue] adornatum sermone, sub fidei, spei & charitatis titulis, in septem partitu[m] libros. [Nürnberg]: Koberger, 1519.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: Res/4 Asc. 642

Marulić, Marko: De institutione bene vivendi per exempla sanctorum. Venetia, 1506.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: Asc. 3100  (First edition and 10 further editions published before 1609)

Marulić, Marko: Der catholischer Christen-Spiegel. Cöllen, 1568.
Digital version
Printed versions in the BSB catalogue, call numbers: Asc. 3107 | Polem. 2615#Beibd.1

Marulić, Marko: M. Marvli Spalatensis Sechs Bücher, Von gedächtnuß würdigen Reden vnd Thatten, Oder: Von Lehr vnd vnderweisung, das Leben wol vnd selig anzustellen: nach form der Hailigen lebens Altes vnd Newen Testaments ... Dillingen, 1583.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: 4 Asc. 644

Marulić, Marko: M. Maruli Spalatensis Sechs Bücher Von gedächtnuß würdigen Reden und Thatten: oder: Von Lehr und underweisung, das Leben wol und selig anzustellen, nach form der Hailigen lebens, Altes und Newen Testaments ; hochuonnöthen den gemainen Landpriestern, dem, Völcklin darauß allerhand Materi Exempel fürzutragen: Auch den Klosterpersonen, vnd sonst allen gemainen Manns vnd Weibspersonen, so die wolgebanete Straß zum Himmel wandlen, vnd selig werden wöllen. Dilingen, 1594.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: 4 Asc. 646

Marulić, Marko: M. Maruli Spalatensi Sechs Bücher Von gedächtnuß würdigen Reden und Thaten, Das ist: Von Lehr und underweisung, das Leben wol und selig anzustellen, nach form der Hailigen Lebens, Alten und Newes Testaments: Hochvonnöthen den gemeinen Landpriestern, dem Völcklin darauß allerhand Materi Exempel fürzutragen: Auch allen Geistlichen und Weltlichen Personen, so die wolgebanete Straß zum Himmel wandlen und selig werden wöllen. Dilingen, 1614.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: 4 Asc. 645

Like the reception of Marulić’s theological work, a very rare Croatian print (of which only one further specimen is known) from Padova of 1560 is related to the Counter-Reformation. Titled "Raj Duše" Nikola Dešić, who lived at the court of the prince Nikola Šubić Zrinski, published a Croatian version of the late medieval prayer book "Hortulus animae". The work, of which numerous copies circulated at the time, is very important in view of linguistic history in particular: In the tradition of the Glagolitic scholars, Dešić uses a mixture of Chakavian, Kajkavian and Shtokavian.

Dešić, Nikola: Hortulus animae [Stoyw rechi Ray Dusse.]: v komse vzdarxuyu vre Suete gospogie po obicayuu Suete Rymske Crykque, s mnogimi deuotnimi mollituami. Patauio: Excudebat Gratiosus Perchacinus, 1560.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: Rar. 1889

From 1530 to 1531, six Glagolitic printed works emerged from Rijeka’s oldest print shop founded by Bishop Šimun Kožičić (1460 – 1536). The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek owns one of the few preserved specimens of the historical treatise about the Roman popes and emperors printed in 1531.

Kožićić, Šimun: Šimuna Kožičića Zadranina biskupa Modruškoga Knižice rimskih arhierjeovʹ i cesarovʹ. Rijeka, 1531.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: Res/4 H.un. 92 h

The Croatian and Slovenian "Reformation prints" from Tübingen and Urach are a particular phenomenon: The "Uracher Bibelanstalt" (Urach Bible Institute) was founded in 1561 in Urach near Tübingen. From the outset, the concept of the printing shop was not only a religious, but also a political one: Not only Slovenian books, but also predominantly – in the area under the influence of the Ottoman empire – Croatian and (in today's terminology) Serbian works should be printed for distribution in the South-Slavic region. The director and founder of the "Uracher Bibelanstalt" was the Slovenian reformer Primož Trubar (1508 – 1586); the funding was provided predominantly by Hans III Ungnad von Weißenwolff, Baron of Sonnegg (1493 – 1564). To support Trubar, Ungnad had the Glagolitic scholar Stephan Consul (1521 – 1568, Croatian "Stipan Konzul" or "Stipan Istranin"), with whom Trubar had already cooperated translating the New Testament into Croatian during his stays in Rothenburg and Kempten, and Anton Dalmata (? – 1579, Croatian "Antun Dalmatin"), who came from the coastal area of Croatia, come to Urach. At times, also further language scholars from Bosnia and Serbia worked at the institute. The Nuremberg punch cutters and type founders Hans Hartwache and Simon Auer were commissioned with the production of the required Cyrillic and Glagolitic letters.

The Urach Bible Institute was active for a few years only, from 1561 to 1564. During this time, four Slovenian books and 26 books in the Serbo-Croatian language were printed – 13 of them in the Glagolitic script, 7 in the Cyrillic script and 6 in the Latin script: the very first translations of the New Testament into Croatian and Slovenian, catechisms, the Augsburg Confession, several works by Melanchthon, i.a. Today, these works, which had been printed in runs of between 400 and 2,000, are extremely rare, not least since they were finally not very widely distributed, and most of them were destroyed in the course of the Counter-Reformation. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek today holds ten of these works in 12 specimens (four further specimens were destroyed by fire in 1941). The Croatian volumes among them are the following:

Trubar, Primož [Hrsg.]: Der Catechismus mit kurtzen außlegungen, Symbolum Athanasii, unnd ein Predigt von der Krafft und würckung des rechten Christlichen Glaubens, in der Croatischen Sprach. Tübingen, 1561.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: ESlg/Catech. 148

Confessio, oder Bekanntnuß des Glaubens, die dem Großmechtigisten Römischen Keystr[!] Carolo dem fünfften, [et]c. von etlichen von Gott hocherleüchten Churfürsten, Fürsten, un[d] Stetten, auff dem Reichßtag Anno 30 in Augspurg gehalten, überantwort: auß dem Latein und Teütsch in die Crobatische Sprach verdolmetscht, und mit Cirulischen Buchstaben getruckt. [Tübingen]: [Morhart], [1562].
Digital version
Printed versions in the BSB catalogue, call numbers: Res/4 H.ref. 210 a | ESlg/4 Hom. 149 | ESlg/4 H.ref. 63

The works of the humanist and Lutheran theologian Matthias Flaccius Illyricus (1520 – 1575) are likewise "Reformation prints". Flaccius belongs to the Croatian scholars who were active and published works predominantly in the German language area. Accordingly, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek owns a large number of printed works of the 16th and 17th centuries that go back to him.

Croatian works can also be found among the Counter-Reformation writings, such as the two works of Thomas Illyricus (Tommaso da Osimo, 1484 – 1528) printed in Turin.

Novi testament / 1: Der erst halb Theil des newen Testaments, darinn sein die vier Evangelisten, und der Apostel Geschicht. v Tubingi: Morhart, 1562.
Digital version
Printed versions in the BSB catalogue, call numbers: ESlg/4 B.rel. 15 c-1 | ESlg/4 B.rel. 15-1/2 | Microfilm: Hbh/MF 14056

Novi testament / 2: Der ander halb Theil des newen Testaments. v Tubingi: Morhart, 1563.
Digital version
Printed versions in the BSB catalogue, call numbers: ESlg/4 B.rel. 15 c-2 | ESlg/4 B.rel. 15-1/2 | Microfilm: Hbh/MF 14056

Catechismus mit Auslegung in der Syruischen Sprache. [Urach], 1561.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: ESlg/Catech. 146

Thomas ‹Illyricus›: Adversus Lutherianus haereses clipeus cathol. Ecclesiae. Taurinum, 1524.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: 4 J.can.p. 888#Beibd.1

Thomas ‹Illyricus›: Libellus de potestate summi pontificis. Taurinum, 1523.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: 4 J.can.p. 888

The Croatica also include a number of rare prints of the 16th and 17th centuries associated with scholars of Croatian origin who were active in Italy: A very early Latin print is a kind of medical and life compendium penned by the physician Frederik Grisogono from Zadar. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek holds three copies of this work, which are also accessible in digital form.

From the writings of the universal scholar and philosopher Francesco Patrizi da Cherso (Croatian Frane Petrić; * 25 April 1529 in Cres, then Republic of Venice; † 6 February 1597 in Rome), the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek holds 28 volumes published in the 16th century alone.

Chrisogonus, Federicus: De modo collegiandi, pronosticandi, et curandi febres, nec non de humana felicitate ac denique de fluxu maris lucubrationes. Venetia, 1528.
Digital version
Printed versions in the BSB catalogue, call numbers: 2 Path. 26 | 2 Path. 90 c | Res/2 A.or. 58

Patrizi, Francesco: Della historia diece dialoghi di M. Francesco Patritio ne'quali si ragiona di tutte le cose appartenenti all'historia, & allo scriuerla, & all'osseruarla. Venetia, 1560.
Digital version
Printed versions in the BSB catalogue, call numbers: 4 H.un. 120 | 4 H.un. 119

Patrizi, Francesco: Francisci Patricii Nova De Vniversis Philosophia: In Qva Aristotelica Methodo, non per motum, sed per lucem, & lumina, ad primam causam ascenditur. Deinde Propria Patricii Methodo; Tota in contemplationem venit Diuinitas; Postremo methodo Platonica, rerum vniuersitas, a conditore Deo deducitur ... Ferrariae: Mamarellus, 1591.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: 2 Ph.u. 58

17th century – Counter-Reformation

The Croatian book production of the 17th century was dominated by the Counter-Reformation and the activities of the "Congregatio de Propaganda Fide". The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek owns two works by the Franciscan Rafael Levaković (1597 – 1649), who proselytised the orthodox Serbs in Croatia in particular. Among the Croatian books of the 17th century, there are also a number of prints in the Italian language from the Dalmatian coastal cities.

Levaković, Rafail: Azbukividnjak slovinskij, iže opštennim naštinom psalterima nazivaetse. Rom, 1629.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: Res/L.rel. 538

Levaković, Rafail: Nauk karstjanski kratak: Da se može lasno na pamet naučiti. In Roma: [Dr.:] Nella Stampa della Sac. Congr. de Propag. Fide, 1628.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: Rar. 4526

Capocoda, Giulio: L' Amore di Carlo Gonzaga duca di Mantua. Ragusa, 1666.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: Ital. 78

Leti, Gregorio: Vita di Donna Olimpia Maldachini, chi governo la chiesa, Durante il Ponteficato d'Innocentio X. Doppo l'anno 1644 sino all'anno 1655. Ragusa: Giuli, 1667.
Digital version
Printed versions in the BSB catalogue, call numbers: Biogr. 704 z | Rem.IV 535

18th century – present


[More to follow shortly ...]

Dictionaries

The "Wörterbuch der fünf vornehmsten europäischen Sprachen: Latein, Italienisch, Deutsch, Kroatisch und Ungarisch" ("Dictionary of the five most noble European languages: Latin, Italian, German, Croatian and Hungarian)" printed in Venice in 1595 is the first independent dictionary of the Croatian language, including around 5,800 words. Its author was the clergyman Faust Vrančić (1551 – 1617) from Šibenik.

Faust Vrančić's dictionary forms part of an extended series of "middle European" dictionaries that were acquired systematically by the court library at the time. The seven-language dictionary of the Czech Benedictine Peter Loderecker published ten years later was based on Faust Vrančić's above-mentioned dictionary (extended by Czech and Polish).

The dictionaries of the 18th century were already more specialised, thus, for example, the Italian-Croatian dictionary of the Italian Jesuit Ardelio Della Bella (Foggia, 1655 – Split, 1737) printed in Dubrovnik.

Veranzio, Fausto: Dictionarium quinque nobilissimarum Europae linguarum: Latintae, Italicae, Germanicae, Dalmatiae & Ungaricae ; cum privilegiis. Venetiis: Apud Nicolaum Morettum, 1595.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: Res/4 Polygl. 79 m

Loderecker, Peter: Dictionarium septem diversarum linguarum, videlizet latine, italice, dalmatice, bohemice, polonice, germanice et ungarice. Praga, 1605.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: 4 Polygl. 46

Della Bella, Ardelio: Dizionario Italiano-Latino-Illirico: A cui si premettono alcune brevi Instruzioni Gramaticali, necessarie per apprendere la lingua e l'Ortografia Illirica ; Ricoretta nell' Ortografia Illirica ed Italiana ... (2 volumes). Ragusa: Privilegiata, (1785).
Digital version (volume 1)
Digital version (volume 2)
Printed versions in the BSB catalogue, call numbers: 4 Polygl. 8-1 | 4 Polygl. 8-2

Voltiggi, Giuseppe: Ricsoslovnik (vocabolario - Wörterbuch) illiricskoga, italianskoga i nimacskoga jezika: s'jednom pridpostavljenom grammatikom illi pismenstvom. Vienna: Kurtzbeck, 1803.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: Polygl. 146 l

Mažuranić, Ivan: Deutsch-ilirisches Wörterbuch. Agram: Gaj, 1842.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: L.rel. 843

Maps

The collection of old maps of the Croatian area held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is remarkable, even though the several hundred maps are still awaiting detailed description and processing.

Among them there are also maps by Croatian cartographers, such as maps of Istria by Pietro Coppo (Croatian Petar Kopić 1470 – around 1555), for example, which were reproduced again and again by later cartographers, also including Abraham Ortelius in his "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum" (first edition 1570).

Coppo, Pietro; Bertelli, Ferdinando: Istria. [Venedig], 1569.
Digital version
Printed version in the BSB catalogue, call number: 2 Mapp. 464#41

Outlook

Taking stock of the Croatian collection of the 16th and17th centuries shows a clear focus on theological, philosophical, geographical, medical and generally scholarly literature, which was directed at a public of European scholars – mostly in the Latin language – and largely the same is applicable to the 18th century. However, this means that the collection is lacking an important part of the Croatian book production, namely the fiction works of the time in the Croatian language. The edition of "Judita" that came to the royal court library through Widmanstetter's collection is the only specimen to represent the thriving Croatian-language Renaissance literature, including authors such as Petar Zoranić, Petar Hektorović, Marin Drzić and many others, who are still famous today. Of the Ragusan baroque literature the library holds hardly any first editions.

Literature

Wirtz, Gudrun: Von fremden Menschen und Ländern? Die frühe Osteuropasammlung der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek im Spiegel ihrer Bavarica. In: Ceynowa, Klaus; Hermann, Martin (ed.): Bibliotheken: Innovation aus Tradition: Rolf Griebel zum 65. Geburtstag. München, Berlin: De Gruyter Saur, 2014. p. 334-350. [Digital version: Open access at De Gruyter]

Wirtz, Gudrun: Breviarium Romanum 1483. In: venezianisch, glagolitisch, digital. Available at: http://ostbib.hypotheses.org/594#more-594 [Last access 10/17/2015].
OstBib. Available at: http://ostbib.hypotheses.org/)

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