Bosnian Cyrillic, widely known as Bosančica is a variant of the

Cyrillic alphabet , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = Gr ...

that originated in medieval Bosnia. The term was coined at the end of the 19th century by

Ćiro Truhelka Ćiro Truhelka (2 February 1865 – 18 September 1942) was a Croatian archeologist, historian and art historian who devoted much of his professional life to the study of the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He wrote about prehistoric, Roman and ...

. It was widely used in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and the bordering areas of modern-day Croatia (southern and middle

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see names in other languages) is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of the Adriatic Sea, str ...

and

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranea ...

regions). Its name in Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian is ''Bosančica'' and ''Bosanica'' the latter of which can be translated as ''Bosnian script''.

Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

scholars call it ''Serbian script'', ''Serbian–Bosnian script'', ''Bosnian–Serb Cyrillic'', as part of variant of

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ( sr, / , ) is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian, th ...

and the term "bosančica" according to them is Austro-Hungarian

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

Croat The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Ge ...

scholars also call it ''Croatian script'', ''Croatian–Bosnian script'', ''Bosnian–Croat Cyrillic'', ''harvacko pismo'', ''arvatica'' or ''Western Cyrillic''. For other names of Bosnian Cyrillic, see below. The use of Bosančica amongst

Bosnians Bosnians (Bosnian language: / ; / , / ) are people identified with the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina or with the region of Bosnia. As a common demonym, the term ''Bosnians'' refers to all inhabitants/citizens of the country, regardless ...

was replaced by

Arebica Arebica () is a variant of the Arabic script used to write the Serbo-Croatian language. It was used mainly between the 15th and 19th centuries and is frequently categorized as part of Aljamiado literature. Before World War I there were unsucce ...

upon the introduction of

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

Bosnia Eyalet The Eyalet of Bosnia ( ota, ایالت بوسنه ,Eyālet-i Bōsnâ; By Gábor Ágoston, Bruce Alan Masters ; sh, Bosanski pašaluk), was an eyalet (administrative division, also known as a ''beylerbeylik'') of the Ottoman Empire, mostly based o ...

, first amongst the elite, then amongst the wider public. The first book in Bosančica was printed by

Frančesko Micalović Frančesko Ratkov Micalović was an early 16th-century Ragusan printer who printed the first books on vernacular language of population of contemporary Ragusa (modern-day Dubrovnik). Micalović prepared Cyrillic script types and organized printi ...

in 1512 in Venice.

History and characteristic features

It is hard to ascertain when the earliest features of a characteristic Bosnian type of

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking c ...

had begun to appear, but paleographers consider the

Humac tablet The Humac tablet ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Хумачка плоча, Хумска плоча, separator=" / ", Humačka ploča, Humska ploča) is an Old Slavic epigraph in Bosnian Cyrillic script in the form of a stone tablet, believed to be variously da ...

(a tablet written in Bosnian Cyrillic) to be the first document of this type of script and is believed to date from the 10th or 11th century. Bosnian Cyrillic was used continuously until the 18th century, with sporadic usage even taking place in the 20th century. Historically, Bosnian Cyrillic is prominent in the following areas: *Passages from the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

in documents of

Bosnian Church The Bosnian Church ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=/, Crkva bosanska, Црква Босанска) was a Christian church in medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina that was independent of and considered heretical by both the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodo ...

adherents, 13th and 15th century. *Numerous legal and commercial documents (charters, letters, donations) of nobles and royalty from medieval Bosnian state in correspondence with the

Republic of Ragusa The Republic of Ragusa ( dlm, Republica de Ragusa; la, Respublica Ragusina; it, Repubblica di Ragusa; hr, Dubrovačka Republika; vec, Repùblega de Raguxa) was an aristocratic maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik (''Ragusa'' ...

and various cities in

(''e.g.'' the

Charter of Ban Kulin The Charter of Ban Kulin ( Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian: Povelja Kulina bana / Повеља Кулина бана) was a trade agreement between the Banate of Bosnia and the Republic of Ragusa that effectively regulated Ragusan trade rights in Bosnia, ...

, beginning in the 12th and 13th centuries, and reaching its peak in the 14th and 15th centuries. * Tombstone inscriptions on marbles in medieval

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and ...

, chiefly between 11th and 15th centuries. *Legal documents in central

, like the

Poljica Statute The Poljica Statute is the most important historical source for the Republic of Poljica. The statute determined the law of Poljica, which is, by its form, style, content and establishment of social-economic relations, totally different from the ...

(1440) 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 A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...

in central

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian and Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian, Italian and Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic betwe ...

, 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 Kvarner Gulf (, or , la, Sinus Flanaticus or ), sometimes also Kvarner Bay, is a bay in the northern Adriatic Sea, located between the Istrian peninsula and the northern Croatian Littoral mainland. The bay is a part of Croatia's internal ...

. *The Roman Catholic diocese in

Omiš Omiš (, Latin and it, Almissa) is a town and port in the Dalmatia region of Croatia, and is a municipality in the Split-Dalmatia County. The town is situated approximately south-east of Croatia's second largest city, Split. Its location is w ...

had a

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy ...

(called ''arvacki šeminarij'', "Croat seminary") active in the 19th century, in which ''arvatica'' letters were used. *Liturgical works (missals, breviaries, lectionaries) of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

from Dubrovnik, 15th and 16th century - the most famous is a printed breviary from 1512 *The comprehensive body of Bosnian literacy, mainly associated with the

Franciscan order The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

, 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 Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

literature: numerous polemical tractates in the spirit of the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...

, popular tales from the

catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adul ...

s, breviaries, historical

chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and ...

s, local church histories, religious poetry and didactic works. Among the most important writings of this circle are works of Matija Divković,

Stjepan Matijević Stjepan is a Croatian masculine given name, variant of Stephen, used by ijekavian speakers. In Croatia, the name Stjepan was among the top ten most common masculine given names in the decades up to 1969. Notable people with the name include: * S ...

and Pavao Posilović. *After the Ottoman conquest, Bosnian Cyrillic was used, along with

, by the Bosnian Muslim nobility, chiefly in correspondence, mainly from the 15th to 17th centuries (hence, the script has also been called ''begovica'', " bey's script"). Isolated families and individuals could write in it even in the 20th century. In conclusion, main traits of Bosnian Cyrillic include: *It was a form of Cyrillic script mainly in use in

, central

and

. *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 (scriptory, morphological, orthographical) show strong connection with the

Glagolitic The Glagolitic script (, , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Cyril, a monk from Thessalonica. He and his brother Saint Methodius were sent by the Byzan ...

script, unlike the standard

Church Slavonic Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Her ...

form of

associated with

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...

churches. *It had been in use, in ecclesiastical works, mainly in

and

in historical lands of

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and Pars pro toto#Geography, often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of Southern Europe, south and southeast Euro ...

Herzegovina Herzegovina ( or ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Hercegovina, separator=" / ", Херцеговина, ) is the southern and smaller of two main geographical region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Bosnia. It has never had strictly defined geogra ...

and

. Also, it was a widespread script in Bosnian Muslim circles, which, however, preferred modified Arabic ''

aljamiado ''Aljamiado'' (; ; ar, عَجَمِيَة trans. ''ʿajamiyah'' ) or ''Aljamía'' texts are manuscripts that use the Arabic script for transcribing European languages, especially Romance languages such as Mozarabic, Aragonese, Portuguese, S ...

'' script.

Serbian Orthodox The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous ( ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. The majority of the population ...

clergy and adherents used mainly the standard

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 Brač is an island in the Adriatic Sea within Croatia, with an area of , making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. It is separated from the mainland by the Brač Channel, which is wide. The island's tall ...

island in

in the 1250s.

Polemics

The polemic about "ethnic affiliation" of Bosnian Cyrillic started in the 19th century, then reappeared in the mid-1990s. The polemic about attribution and affiliation of Bosnian Cyrillic texts seems to rest on following arguments: *Serbian scholars claim that it is just a variant of

; actually, a "minuscle", or Italic (cursive) script devised at the court of

Serbian king This is an archontological list of Serbian monarchs, containing monarchs of the medieval principalities, to heads of state of modern Serbia. The Serbian monarchy dates back to the Early Middle Ages. The Serbian royal titles used include Knyaz ...

Stefan Dragutin Stefan Dragutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Драгутин, hu, Dragutin István; 1244 – 12 March 1316) was King of Serbia from 1276 to 1282. From 1282, he ruled a separate kingdom which included northern Serbia, and (from 1284) the neigh ...

, 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 Vladimir Ćorović ( sr-cyrl, Владимир Ћоровић; 27 October 1885 – 12 April 1941) was a Serbian historian, university professor, author, and academic. His bibliography consists of more than 1000 works. Several of his books on the ...

, Petar Kolendić, Petar Đorđić, Vera Jerković, Irena Grickat,

Pavle Ivić Pavle Ivić ( sr-cyr, Павле Ивић, ; 1 December 1924 – 19 September 1999) was a Serbian South Slavic dialectologist and phonologist. Biography Both his field work and his synthesizing studies were extensive and authoritative. A few of ...

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" (or Bosnian Cyrillic, for that matter). 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 Vatroslav Jagić (; July 6, 1838 – August 5, 1923) was a Croatian scholar of Slavic studies in the second half of the 19th century. Life Jagić was born in Varaždin (then known by its German name of ''Warasdin''), where he attended the el ...

, Mate Tentor,

, Vladimir Vrana, Jaroslav Šidak, Herta Kuna, Tomislav Raukar,

Eduard Hercigonja Eduard Hercigonja (20 August 1929 – 22 May 2022) was a Croatian philologist, Croatist and literary historian. University professor and a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, he authored several fundamental works on medieval Cro ...

and Benedikta Zelić-Bučan. * 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 ('Bosnian script'), with Croats also calling it "arvatica" ('Croatian script') or "Western Cyrillic". The irony of the contemporary status of Bosnian Cyrillic is this: some scholars are still trying to prove that Bosnian Cyrillic is ethnically theirs, while simultaneously relegating the corpus of texts written in Bosnian Cyrillic to the periphery of national culture. This extinct form of

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...

is unrelated to Croatian paleography, which focuses on writing corpora

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

Script. In addition, has a relation with Slavonic-Serb Alphabet, successor of Old Serbian Cyrillic and predecessor of Modern Serbian Cyrillic.

Legacy

In 2015, a group of artists started a project called "I write to you in Bosančica" which involved art and graphic design students from

Banja Luka Banja Luka ( sr-Cyrl, Бања Лука, ) or Banjaluka ( sr-Cyrl, Бањалука, ) is the second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city of Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is also the ''de facto'' capital of this entity. ...

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

Široki Brijeg , , nickname = , motto = , image_map = BiH municipality location Široki Brijeg.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location o ...

, and

Trebinje Trebinje ( sr-Cyrl, Требиње, ) is a city and municipality located in the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the southernmost city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is situated on the banks of Trebišnjica river in the r ...

. Exhibitions of the submitted artworks will be held in

Široki Brijeg , , nickname = , motto = , image_map = BiH municipality location Široki Brijeg.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location o ...

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

, and

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

. The purpose of the project was to resurrect the ancient script and show the "common cultural past" of all the groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first phase of the project was to reconstruct all of the ancient characters by using ancient, handwritten documents.

Names

The name ''bosančica'' was first used by

Fran Kurelac Fran may refer to: People and fictional characters * Fran (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Fran (footballer, born 1969) or Francisco Javier González Pérez * Fran (footballer, born 1972), Spanish retired football ...

in 1861. Other instances of naming by individuals, in scholarship and literature or publications (chronological order, recent first): *''poljičica, poljička azbukvica'', among the people of Poljica and Frane Ivanišević (1863−1947) *''srbskoga slovi ćirilskimi'' (Serbian Cyrillic letters) and ''bosansko-dalmatinska ćirilica'' (Bosnian-Dalmatian Cyrillic), by Croatian linguist

(1838–1923) *''bosanska ćirilica'' ("Bosnian Cyrillic"), by Croatian historian and Catholic priest

Franjo Rački Franjo Rački (25 November 1828 – 13 February 1894) was a Croatian historian, politician and writer. He compiled important collections of old Croatian diplomatic and historical documents, wrote some pioneering historical works, and was a key f ...

(1828–1894) *''bosanska azbukva'' ("Bosnian alphabet"), by Catholic priest

Ivan Berčić Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was Bulgari ...

(1824–1870) * (Bosnian-Catholic alphabet), by Franciscan writer Ivan Franjo Jukić (1818–1857) * (Bosnian or Croatian Cyrillic alphabet), by Slovene linguist

Jernej Kopitar Jernej Kopitar, also known as Bartholomeus Kopitar (21 August 1780 – 11 August 1844), was a Slovene linguist and philologist working in Vienna. He also worked as the Imperial censor for Slovene literature in Vienna. He is perhaps best known ...

(1780–1844) *''bosanska brzopisna grafija'' ("Bosnian cursive graphics"), by

E. F. Karskij E is the fifth letter of the Latin alphabet. E or e may also refer to: Commerce and transportation * €, the symbol for the euro, the European Union's standard currency unit * ℮, the estimated sign, an EU symbol indicating that the weigh ...

*''zapadna varijanta ćirilskog brzopisa'' ("Western variant of Cyrillic cursive"), by Petar Đorđić * ''Serbian letters'', by

Bosnian Franciscan Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena (also ''Bosna Argentina''; officially la, Provincia OFM Exaltationis S. Crucis - Bosna Argentina) is a province of the Franciscan order of the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their headquarters ...

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"''.

Gallery

File:Humacka ploca 2v.jpg,

(10th–11th century) File:Povelja Kulina bana.jpg,

of Bosnia (12th century) File:Batalovof2.jpg,

Batalo }; before 1391–1404), who is simply known as Batalo, in some research also Batal, was a medieval Bosnian nobleman from Lašva. He was the holder of the medieval Bosnian title of "tepčija". In Medieval Bosnia the title of tepčija appeared some ti ...

's Gospel (1393) File:Hvalov zbornik1.jpg,

Hval's Codex Hval's Codex ( sh, Hvalov zbornik/Хвалов зборник) or Hval's Manuscript (''Hvalov rukopis''/Хвалов рукопис) is a Bosnian Cyrillic manuscript of 353 pages written in 1404, in Split, for Duke Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić. It w ...

, 1404, kept in the University of Bologna Library, Italy File:Poljički statut..jpg,

(1400) File:Alte schrift eremitage blaca brac kroatien.JPG, Document from

References