The Old Church Slavonic Institute is dedicated to the research, discovery, identification, systematic cataloging, and processing of Croatian and Old Church Slavonic Glagolitic manuscripts, inscriptions, and printed books.
The Glagolitic script is an important component of Croatian identity, as the Croats used it for nearly 1,000 years, from the 9th to the 19th century. It played a significant role in the history of spirituality and culture of the Croatian people. Even the first monks in this region, the Benedictines, later became Glagolites. The Benedictine Glagolites authored the most significant Glagolitic inscription, the Baška tablet, as well as the Krk inscription, their Pravila (rules or Regula in Glagolitic) and other monuments.
Croatian medieval literature was mostly written in the Glagolitic script, including works such as apocrypha, poems, biblical readings, visions, hagiographies, the Miracles of the Virgin Mary, and Mary’s miracles.
The collection of Glagolitic monuments continues to grow with new discoveries. The finding of the Glagolitic inscriptions in Konavle and the Dubrovnik region has provided evidence of the earliest presence of the Glagolitic script among Croats in this area, with an inscription in the Dubrovnik region being older than the Baška tablet and with the longest text of all inscriptions from the 11th century. Very old Glagolitic fragments bound in books were found in Capuchin monasteries and were featured in the exhibition Exhibits Bordering on Sensation in Rijeka.