Glagolitic had spread as far as the
Kievan Rus' and the
Kingdom of Bohemia. Although its use declined there in the 12th century, some manuscripts in the territory of the former retained Glagolitic inclusions for centuries. It had also spread to
Duklja and
Zachlumia in the Western Balkans, from where it reached the
March of Verona. There, the
Investiture Controversy afforded it refuge from the opposition of
Latinizing prelates and allowed it to entrench itself in
Istria, from which place it spread to nearby lands. It survived there and as far south as
Dalmatia without interruption into the 20th century for
Church Slavonic in addition to its use as a secular script in parts of its range, which at times extended into
Bosnia,
Slavonia, and
Carniola, in addition to 14th–15th century exclaves in
Prague and
Kraków, and a 16th-century exclave in
Putna. Its authorship by Cyril was forgotten, having been replaced with an attribution to
St. Jerome by the early
Benedictine adopters of Istria in a bid to secure the approval of the papacy. The bid was ultimately successful, though sporadic restrictions and repressions from individual bishops continued even after its official recognition by
Pope Innocent IV. These had little effect on the vitality of the script, which evolved from its original Rounded Glagolitic form into an
Angular Glagolitic form, in addition to a cursive form developed for
notary purposes. The
Ottoman conquests left the script without most of its continental population, and as a result of the
Counter-Reformation its use was restricted in Istria and the
Diocese of Zagreb, and the only active printing press with a Glagolitic type was confiscated, leading to a shift towards
Latinic and Cyrillic literacy when coupled with the
Tridentine requirement that priests be educated at seminaries. The result was its gradual death as a written script in most of its continental range, but also the unusually late survival of medieval
scribal tradition for the reproduction of Glagolitic texts in isolated areas like the island of
Krk and the
Zadar Archipelago. Although the
Propaganda Fide would eventually resume printing Glagolitic books, very few titles were published, so the majority of Glagolitic literary works continued to be written and copied by hand well into the 18th century. In the early 19th century, the policies of the
First French Empire and
Austrian Empire left the script without legal status, and its last remaining centers of education were abolished, concurrent with the weakening of the script in the few remaining seminaries that used the cursive form in instruction, resulting in a rapid decline. But when the
Slavicists discovered the script and established it as the original script devised by Cyril, Glagolitic gained new niche applications in certain intellectual circles, while a small number of priests fought to keep its liturgical use alive, encountering difficulties but eventually succeeding to the point that its area
expanded in the early 20th century. Latinic translations and transliterations of the matter of the
missal in this period led to its decline in the decades before
Vatican II, whose promulgation of the vernacular confined regular use of Glagolitic to a few monasteries and academic institutions, in addition to a small population of enthusiasts, whose numbers grew and shrank with the prevalence of the script in literature, but grew exponentially in pious and
nationalist circles in the years leading up to and following the
Independence of Croatia, and again more broadly with the
Internet.
Origins , found in the 19th century on
Krk, conventionally dated to about 1100 '', found in the
Zograf Monastery in 1843 attributed the Glagolitic script to Saint Jerome. The creation of the characters is popularly attributed to
Saints Cyril and Methodius, who may have created them to facilitate the introduction of Christianity. It is believed that the original letters were fitted to Slavic dialects in geographical
Macedonia specifically (the Byzantine
theme of Thessalonica). The words of that language could not be easily written by using either the Greek or Latin alphabets. The number of letters in the original Glagolitic alphabet is not known, but it might have been close to its presumed Greek model. The 41 letters known today include letters for non-Greek sounds, which might have been added by Saint Cyril, as well as
ligatures added in the 12th century under the influence of
Cyrillic, as Glagolitic lost its dominance. A widely accepted example of deliberate construction are the
symmetric letters
i and
slovo , which together form the abbreviation of the
nomen sacrum Isusъ ‘Jesus’, but a general design principle like in the
Canadian syllabics could not be proven. A plausible hypothesis is that “Cyril freely invented the Glagolitic letters, sometimes being inspired by theological ideas […] and sometimes using associations with other scripts he knew”. For writing numbers, the
Glagolitic numerals use letters with a numerical value assigned to each based on their native alphabetic order. This differs from
Cyrillic numerals, which inherited their numeric value from the corresponding Greek letter (see
Greek numerals). The two brothers from
Thessaloniki, who were later canonized as Saints Cyril and Methodius, were sent to
Great Moravia in 862 by the
Byzantine emperor at the request of Prince
Rastislav, who wanted to weaken the dependence of his country on
East Frankish priests. The Glagolitic alphabet, however it originated, was used between 863 and 885 for government and religious documents and books and at the Great Moravian Academy (
Veľkomoravské učilište) founded by the missionaries, where their followers were educated. The
Kiev Missal, found in the 19th century in Jerusalem, was dated to the 10th century. In 885,
Pope Stephen V issued a
papal bull to restrict spreading and reading Christian services in languages other than Latin or Greek. Around the same time,
Svatopluk I, following the interests of the
Frankish Empire and its clergy, persecuted the students of Cyril and Methodius, imprisoned and expelled them from
Great Moravia. In 886, an East Frankish bishop of
Nitra named
Wiching banned the script and jailed 200 followers of Methodius, mostly students of the original academy. They were then dispersed or, according to some sources, sold as slaves by the Franks. However, many of them, including Saints
Naum,
Clement,
Angelar,
Sava and
Gorazd, reached the
First Bulgarian Empire and were commissioned by
Boris I of Bulgaria to teach and instruct the future clergy of the state in the
Slavic language. After the
adoption of Christianity in Bulgaria in 865, religious ceremonies and
Divine Liturgy were conducted in
Greek by clergy sent from the
Byzantine Empire, using the
Byzantine rite. Fearing growing Byzantine influence and weakening of the state, Boris viewed the introduction of the Slavic alphabet and language into church use as a way to preserve the independence of the
Bulgarian Empire from Byzantine
Constantinople. As a result of Boris' measures, two academies, one in
Ohrid and one in
Preslav, were founded.
Spread of the script From there, the students travelled to other places and spread the use of their alphabet. Students of the two
apostles who were expelled from Great Moravia in 886, notably
Clement of Ohrid and
Saint Naum, brought the Glagolitic alphabet to the
First Bulgarian Empire and were received and accepted officially by
Boris I of Bulgaria. This led to the establishment of the two literary schools: the
Preslav Literary School and the
Ohrid Literary School. Some went to
Croatia (
Dalmatia), where the squared variant arose and where Glagolitic remained in use for a long time. In 1248,
Pope Innocent IV granted the Croatians of southern Dalmatia the unique privilege of using their own language and this script in the
Roman Rite liturgy. Formally granted to bishop Philip of
Senj, permission to use the Glagolitic liturgy (the
Roman Rite conducted in the
Slavic language instead of
Latin, not the
Byzantine rite), actually extended to all Croatian lands, mostly along the
Adriatic coast. The
Holy See had several Glagolitic
missals published in Rome. Authorization for the use of this language was extended to some other Slavic regions between 1886 and 1935. In missals, the Glagolitic script was eventually replaced with the Latin alphabet, but the use of the
Slavic language in the
Mass continued, until replaced by modern vernacular languages. At the end of the 9th century, one of these students of Methodius –
Saint Naum, one of the founders of the
Pliska Literary School (commonly known as the Preslav Literary School, where the Bulgarian capital, along with the school, was transferred to in 893) – is often credited, at least by supporters of
glagolitic precedence, for the "creation" or wider adoption of the
Cyrillic script, which almost entirely replaced Glagolitic during the
Middle Ages. The Cyrillic alphabet is derived from the Greek alphabet used at that time, with some additional letters for sounds peculiar to Slavic languages (like ⟨ш⟩, ⟨ц⟩, ⟨ч⟩, ⟨ъ⟩, ⟨ь⟩, ⟨ѣ⟩), likely derived from the Glagolitic alphabet. The decision by a great assembly of notables summoned by Boris in the year 893 in favor of Cyrillic created an alphabetical difference between the two literary centres of the Bulgarian state in Pliska and Ohrid. In the western part the Glagolitic alphabet remained dominant at first. However, subsequently in the next two centuries, mostly after the fall of the
First Bulgarian Empire to the
Byzantines, Glagolitic gradually ceased to be used there at all. Nevertheless, particular passages or words written with the Glagolitic alphabet appeared in Bulgarian Cyrillic manuscripts till the end of the 14th century. Some students of the Ohrid academy went to
Bohemia where the alphabet was used in the 10th and 11th centuries, along with other scripts. It is not clear whether the Glagolitic alphabet was used in the
Duchy of Kopnik before the
Wendish Crusade, but it was certainly used in
Kievan Rus'. Another use of Glagolitic is presumed in now southern Poland (
Duchy of Vistula/
White Croats state) and the
Transcarpathia region.
Survival and use in Croatia In Croatia, from the 12th century, Glagolitic inscriptions appeared mostly in littoral areas:
Istria, Primorje,
Kvarner, and Kvarner islands, notably
Krk,
Cres, and
Lošinj; in Dalmatia, on the islands of Zadar, but there were also findings in inner
Lika and
Krbava, reaching to
Kupa river, and even as far as
Međimurje and
Slovenia. ''
Hrvoje's Missal from 1404 was illuminated in Split, and it is considered one of the most beautiful Croatian Glagolitic books. The 1483 Missale Romanum Glagolitice'' was the first printed Croatian Glagolitic book. It was believed that Glagolitsa in Croatia was present only in those areas. But, in 1992, the discovery of Glagolitic inscriptions in churches along the
Orljava river in
Slavonia totally changed the picture (churches in
Brodski Drenovac,
Lovčić, and some others), showing that use of the Glagolitic alphabet was spread from Slavonia also. Sporadic instances aside, Glagolitic survived beyond the 12th century as a primary script in Croatian lands alone, although from there a brief attempt at reintroduction was made in the
West Slavic area in the 14th century through the
Emmaus Benedictine Monastery in
Prague, where it survived well into the 15th century, the last manuscript with Glagolitic script dating to 1450–1452. Its use for special applications continued in some Cyrillic areas, for example in the Bologna Psalter (1230–1241), the Sinodalna 895 Menaion (1260), the RPK 312 Gospel (13th), the Karakallou Epistolary (13th), the NBKM 933 Triodion (13th), the Skopje 1511 Octoechos (13th), the BRAN 4.9.39 Miscellany (13th), the Hilandar Chrysorrhoas (13th/14th), the Mazurin 1698 Pandects (13th/14th), the Sofia Psalter (1337), the SANU 55 Epistolary (1366–1367), the RNB F.п.I.2 Psalter (14th), the Čajniče Gospel (late 14th), the Radosav Miscellany (1444–1461), the Prague NM IX.F.38 Psalter (18th) and in the initials of many manuscripts of the Prophets with Commentary dating to the late 15th and early 16th centuries from
Muscovy and
Russia. Most later use in the Cyrillic world was for cryptographic purposes, such as in the Krushedol Miscellany (15th), the RNB F.п.I.48 Prologue (1456), the Piskarev 59 Isaac (1472), the Shchukin 511 Miscellany (1511) and the Hludov Gospel (17th/18th). a combination of the
Žgombić miscellany, the , and the Senj Quaderna, and the
Law code of Vinodol The early development of the Glagolitic minuscule script alongside the increasingly square majuscule is poorly documented, but a mutual relationship evolved between the two varieties: the majuscule being used primarily for inscriptions and higher liturgical uses, and the minuscule being used in both religious and secular documents. Ignoring the problematic early Slavonian inscriptions, the use of the Glagolitic script at its peak before the
Croatian-Ottoman wars corresponded roughly to the area that spoke the
Chakavian dialect at the time, in addition to some adjacent
Kajkavian regions within the
Zagreb bishopric. As a result, vernacular impact on the liturgical language and script largely stems from Chakavian sub-dialects, although South Chakavian speakers mostly used Cyrillic, with Glagolitic only in certain parishes as a high liturgical script until a Glagolitic seminary was opened in Split in the 18th century, aside from a period of time in the parish of Kučiće-Vinišće. Notable angular majuscule manuscripts written in this period include: parts of
Glagolita Clozianus, the
Ohrid epistolary, the
Vienna folia, the
Gršković Fragment, the
Mihanović Fragment, the
First Vrbnik Breviary, the
Vrbnik Statute, the
Reims Gospel, the
Missal of duke Novak,
Hrvoje's Missal, the
Berlin missal and parts of the
Kiev Missal. Notable minuscule manuscripts include:
Greblo's quaresimal,
Tumačenje od muke, the
Kastav Statute, the
Istrian Demarcation, and the
Law code of Vinodol. DE-1 Ms. ham. 444.pdf|
Berlin missal (1402)
Decline in Croatia The
Ottoman Empire's repeated incursions into Croatia in the 15th and 16th centuries posed the first major existential threat to the script's survival. The Counter-Reformation, alongside other factors, led to the suppression of Glagolitic in Istria in the 16th–17th centuries as well as in the Zagreb archdiocese. The Latinisation of the coastal cities and islands took much longer, where the script continued to be used by the notaries of Krk into the first decade of the 19th century, with education by rural chapters on that island ensuring the survival of the script until well after their abolition by the Napoleon administration in the second decade of the 19th century.
Novitiates continued to be educated primarily in the Glagolitic script as late as the third decade of the 19th century. But without centres of education, Latin script and Italian rapidly took over, so that very little was written in the script after the third quarter of the 19th century except for ceremonial purposes, and soon very few could read the cursive script apart from a few scholars. Omišalj Baptismal Register.png|The final Glagolitic entry in the
Omišalj parish's baptismal register, by the cleric Nicholas in 1817 1832 entry of Mate Puhov (HR-ZaAHAZU IV a 80-41 f. 4v).svg|1832 journal entry by Mate Puhov of
Sali, lay Glagolite HR-ZaKSI F 244.pdf|Rural chapter book of
Dubašnica, 1820–1846 Because knowledge of Glagolitic became rare even in academia, most efforts surrounding Glagolitic manuscripts in the
late modern period focused on transliteration. For example, an ongoing project run by the
Centre for Research in Glagolitism of the
University of Zadar uses
crowdsourcing to speed up the pace of transliterating cursive Glagolitic manuscripts. 1853-01-17 Ivan Kukuljević ownership note (HR-ZAHAZU I a 74 f. 56r).svg|
Ivan Kukuljević's 1853 note of purchase in
Rule of Saint Benedict copy he designated
Cod. Glag. X Bukvar staroslovenskoga jezika page 69 c.png|Modernised handwriting of in 1860 1909-08-03 Ćiril Studenčić letter (within HR-ZaNSK R 6215).png|
Cyclostyle letter of Ćiril Studenčić dated 1909 within manuscript sent to
Vatroslav Jagić from
Zadar the following year
Academic debates The exact nature of relationship between the Glagolitic alphabet and the
Early Cyrillic alphabet, their order of development, and influence on each other has been a matter of great study, controversy, and dispute in
Slavic studies since the 19th century. ==Versions of authorship and name==