Bosnian Cyrillic

History and characteristic features

• Passages from the Bible in documents of Bosnian Church adherents, 13th and 15th century.
• Numerous legal and commercial documents of nobles and royalty from medieval Bosnian state in correspondence with the Republic of Ragusa and various cities in Dalmatia and other numerous charters from this area; Poljica and neighbourhood Roman Catholic church books used this alphabet until the late 19th century.
• The "Supetar fragment" from the 12th century was found in Monastery of [Saint Peter in the Forest] in central Istria, among the stones of a collapsed southern monastery wall. Until the 15th century it was a Benedictine monastery and later a Pauline monastery. This finding could indicate that Bosančica spread all the way to Istria and Kvarner Gulf.
• The Roman Catholic diocese in Omiš had a seminary active in the 19th century, in which arvatica letters were used.
• Liturgical works of the Roman Catholic Church from Dubrovnik, 15th and 16th century, the most famous of which is a printed breviary from 1512.
• The comprehensive body of Bosnian literature, mainly portion associated with the Franciscan order, from the 16th to mid-18th century and early 19th century. This is by far the most abundant corpus of works written in Bosnian Cyrillic, covering various genres, but belonging to the liturgical literature: numerous polemical tractates in the spirit of the Counter-Reformation, popular tales from the Bible, catechisms, breviaries, historical chronicles, local church histories, religious poetry and didactic works. Among the most important writings of this circle are works of Matija Divković, Stjepan Matijević and Pavao Posilović.
• After the Ottoman conquest, Bosnian Cyrillic was used, along with Arebica, by the Bosnian Muslim nobility, chiefly in correspondence, mainly from the 15th to 17th centuries. Isolated families and individuals could write in it even in the 20th century.

• It was a form of Cyrillic script mainly in use in Bosnia and Herzegovina, central Dalmatia and Dubrovnik.
• Its earliest monuments are from the 11th century, but the golden epoch covered the period from the 14th to 17th centuries. From the late 18th century it rather speedily fell into disuse to be replaced by the Latin script.
• Its primary characteristics show strong connection with the Glagolitic script, unlike the standard Church Slavonic form of Cyrillic script associated with Eastern Orthodox churches.
• It had been in use, in ecclesiastical works, mainly in Bosnian Church and Roman Catholic Church in historical lands of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia and Dubrovnik. Also, it was a widespread script in Bosnian Muslim circles, which, however, preferred modified Arabic aljamiado script. Serbian Orthodox clergy and adherents used mainly the standard Serbian Cyrillic of the Resava orthography.
• The form of Bosnian Cyrillic has passed through a few phases, so although culturally it is correct to speak about one script, it is evident that features present in Bosnian Franciscan documents in the 1650s differ from the charters from Brač island in Dalmatia in the 1250s.

Controversy

• Serbian scholars claim that it is just a variant of Serbian Cyrillic; actually, a "minuscle", or Italic script devised at the court of Serbian king Stefan Dragutin, and accordingly, include Bosnian Cyrillic texts into the Serbian literary corpus. Authors in Prilozi za književnost, jezik, istoriju i folklor in 1956, go as far to state that Bosančica was a term introduced through Austro-Hungarian propaganda, and regarded it a type of cursive Cyrillic script, without specifics that would warrant an "isolation from Cyrillic". The main Serbian authorities in the field are Jorjo Tadić, Vladimir Ćorović, Petar Kolendić, Petar Đorđić, Vera Jerković, Irena Grickat, Pavle Ivić and Aleksandar Mladenović.
• On the Croatian side, the split exists among philologists. One group basically challenges the letters being Serbian, and claims that majority of the most important documents of Bosnian Cyrillic had been written either before any innovations devised at the Serbian royal court happened, or did not have any historical connection with it whatsoever, thus considering Serbian claims on the origin of Bosnian Cyrillic to be unfounded and that the script, since they allege belonging to the Croatian cultural sphere, should be called not Bosnian, but Croatian Cyrillic. Other group of Croatian philologists acknowledges that "Serbian connection", as exemplified in variants present at the Serbian court of king Dragutin, did influence Bosnian Cyrillic, but, they aver, it was just one strand, since scriptory innovations have been happening both before and after the mentioned one. First group insists that all Bosnian Cyrillic texts belong to the corpus of Croatian literacy, and the second school that all texts from Croatia and only a part from Bosnia and Herzegovina are to be placed into Croatian literary canon, so they exclude c. half of Bosnian Christian texts, but include all Franciscan and the majority of legal and commercial document. Also, the second school generally uses the name "Western Cyrillic" instead of "Croatian Cyrillic". Both schools allege that supposedly various sources, both Croatian and other European, call this script "Croatian letters" or "Croatian script". The main Croatian authorities in the field are Vatroslav Jagić, Mate Tentor, Ćiro Truhelka, Vladimir Vrana, Jaroslav Šidak, Tomislav Raukar, Eduard Hercigonja and Benedikta Zelić-Bučan.
• Herta Kuna, in her seminal book, Medieval Bosnian Literature, stated that “ entire literacy of medieval Bosnia was written in a somewhat specific type of Cyrillic script that has certain differences from other Cyrillic scripts in use in Slavic areas.” She points out: “t is precisely the Bosnian Cyrillic script that has retained some specificities in terms of graphics that are characteristic of the Glagolitic script and derive from it.”
• Jahić, Halilović, and Palić dismiss claims made by Croatian or Serbian philologists about national affiliation.
• Ivan G. Iliev, in his "Short History of the Cyrillic Alphabet", summarizes the Cyrillic variant and acknowledges it was spread into and used in both Bosnia and Croatia, where these variants were called "bosančica" or "bosanica" in Bosnian and Croatian, with Croats also calling it "arvatica" or "Western Cyrillic".

Legacy

Names

• poljičica, poljička azbukvica, among the people of Poljica and Frane Ivanišević
• srbskoga slovi ćirilskimi and bosansko-dalmatinska ćirilica, by Croatian linguist Vatroslav Jagić
• bosanska ćirilica, by Croatian historian and Catholic priest Franjo Rački ; Herta Kuna, in her seminal book, Medieval Bosnian Literature.
• bosanska azbukva, by Catholic priest Ivan Berčić
• , by Franciscan writer Ivan Franjo Jukić
• , by Slovene linguist Jernej Kopitar
• bosanska brzopisna grafija, by E. F. Karskij
• zapadna varijanta ćirilskog brzopisa, by Petar Đorđić
• Serbian letters, by Bosnian Franciscan writer Matija Divković, who explains in preface to his Nauk krstjanski za narod slovinski, that he wrote "for the Slavic folk in correct and true Bosnian language", while Georgijević also notes that he referred to the Bosnian Cyrillic, which he wrote in, as "Serbian letters".

Letters

Libraries