The Contemporary Archive of Glagolitic Textual Culture

The Contemporary Archive of Glagolitic Textual Culture is a two-year research infrastructure project that places the concept of an archive – problematized and reimagined from various perspectives and in diverse ways within the humanities over the past thirty years – at its centre. Hosted at the Old Church Slavonic Institute in Zagreb, the project aims to integrate more thoughtfully the Institute’s specialised library, archival materials – comprising valuable but under-researched manuscript legacies of notable scholars of Croatian Glagolitism, primarily Stjepan Ivšić and Vjekoslav Štefanić – and recent scientific research, particularly studies focused on the critical preparation of texts and their literary-historical and cultural-historical contextualisation, with contemporary practices for presenting such content.

With the completion of the post-earthquake renovation of the Škrlec-Balbi Palace at Demetrova 11 in Zagreb’s Upper Town – the headquarters of the Old Church Slavonic Institute – three sections of the building (the courtyard cottage, the central basement space in the main building, and the multimedia hall in the attic) have been purposefully designed as venues for educational and exhibition activities. These spaces are intended to further enhance the visibility and role of the Institute not only in the educational and cultural life of Zagreb but also in the Republic of Croatia as a whole.

The project seeks to creatively transform fundamental research on archival materials and bibliographic analyses – essential for understanding the history of Glagolitic studies as well as for contemporary navigation of still-incompletely researched non-liturgical Glagolitic codices – into long-term popular science and exhibition content. This content is intended for visitors to the Institute who are interested in the history of Croatian Glagolitic script and Glagolitism.