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Glagolitic Script as a Tool: Branko Fučić, the Croatian Identity of Istria, and the Paris Peace Conference, 1947

The determination of the western borders of Croatia and Yugoslavia following World War II to a significant degree relied on the efforts of cultural workers, including the Glagolitic scholar Branko Fučić (1920-1999), who viewed his post-War work and travels to Istria as a patriotic as well as scholarly and patriotic activity. Fučić’s efforts formed a key component in the materials gathered by Istrian, Croatian and Yugoslav authorities to present to the Inter-Allied Commission in Paris showing the predominantly Croatian character of Istria. This paper will explore Fučić’s contributions in that regard, specifically emphasizing how his scholarly findings transgressed what had been up until then accepted fact in Western scholarly, cultural and political circles concerning the ethnic nature of Istria. Branko Fučić was a distinguished Croatian scholar of the Istrian region, the islands and littoral of the Gulf of Kvarner (Quarnero), the wider Zadar area and other territories of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, who dedicated much of his life and scholarly and artistic work to art history, Slavic linguistics, archaeology, ethnology, literature (under the pseudonym Toni Tinov) and other fields. He was born in the village of Bogovići on the island of Krk on 8 September 1920. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts and Letters in Zagreb in 1944 with degrees in several fields: art history and culture, as well as Classical archaeology, Croatian and general history, and the Italian language. In 1965, he earned his doctorate at the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the University of Ljubljana with a dissertation on “Medieval Wall Painting in Istria”. He was a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb and a corresponding member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana. He authored numerous works and contributed to many others: Istarske freske (‘Istrian Frescoes’), Leksikon ikonografije, liturgike i simbolike zapadnog kršćanstva (‘Lexicon of the Iconography, Liturgy and Symbolism of Western Christianity’), Glagoljski natpisi (‘Glagolitic Inscriptions’), Apsyrtides, Vincent iz Kastva (‘Vincent of Kastav’), Terra incognita and many others. He received numerous honours and awards for his scholarly and research work in the field of Croatian art history, culture and Glagolism. Pope John Paul II proclaimed him a Knight Commendator of the Order of St. Gregory the Great (Eques commendator Ordinis Sancti Gregorii Magni), while the Catholic Theological Faculty in Zagreb granted him an honorary doctorate. In 1985, the prestigious Herder Award of the University of Vienna was conferred to him for his Glagoljski natpisi and his overall work in the field of medieval wall painting, iconography and epigraphy. Branko Fučić died in Rijeka on Sunday, 31 January 1999, and he was buried, according to his wishes, at the old St. Apollinaire Cemetery in the Dubašljansko Field. Patriotic path to Istria – as Josip Žgaljić put it in one of his writings and later in his book on Branko Fučić, he does a good job of describing Branko Fučić in a new chapter of his own life, and that period is the one following the conclusion of military operations in World War II. Upon arriving in a recently liberated Istria, Fučić not only fulfilled the long-awaited dream about returning to his patrimony in a broader sense, but immediately started researching its history and began the process of inverting its artistic and glagolitic legacy. Fučić became permanently employed in 1945. First as an employee of a Conservative Bureau in Zagreb from 1945 to 1946. From 1946 to 1947, he worked in a newly established Conservative Bureau for Istria and the Croatian coast in Rijeka. However, Fučić actually had to take over the management of the Archaeological museum in Pula but as that area was under Anglo American units, Dr. Hrvoje Mezulić (1901-1977), then-chief of Committee for the investigation of war crime in Yugoslavia (whom he accidentally met in Rijeka), suggested he goes to Pazin and other places in Istria. Namely, since the war battle for Istria was won, that victory also had to be realized in a post-war period, i.e. on an international legal level. The international committee had to be presented with “evidence” that Istria was Croatian! The role played by the Istrian Croatian clergy and intellectuals was immeasurable. The Paris Peace Treaties from 1947 are the result of efforts of a peace conference held in Paris from July 19th to October 16th of 1946 in whose work was legally carried out by those countries who contributed to the defeat of Nazism and Fascism with their military support. The main task of the conference was the establishment of new post-war international borders, though the same treaties also regulated other matters (e.g. war reparations). Before that, on March 20th, 1946, delivered to the Inter Allied Committee for the demarcation of Yugoslavia and Italy as a crucial piece of evidence of Slavdom/Croatianhood of Istria was a document called: The Memorandum of the Regional National Committee for Istria. That document contained the history of Istria from prehistory to the end of World War II, in addition to containing information on folk costumes, folk songs, music, etc. However, the same document also brought information on Glagolitic inscriptions and manuscripts, as well as noting an important fact with the following words: “the Glagolitic script existed where the Croats existed.” The same Memorandum contained Fučić’s research results. Incited by that state of affers and requests, the Regional National Liberation Committee for Istria in Pazin organized in 1946 an exhibit called Testimonies to the Slavdom of Istria. The reason for the exhibit set up in the building of the Episcopal Seminary in Pazin (today’s Pazin College - classical gymnasium) was the visit of the International Committee to Istria. Although this wasn’t explicitly noted, the exhibit and its supporting catalogue was set up by Božo Milanović and Branko Fučić participated in the entire process as well. The catalogue consists of a short introductory study and its main catalogue part (Documents on the culture and national consciousness of Slavs in Istria, Anti-Slavic activity of Italian occupiers, Croatian Istria in a fight for freedom, Istria - Slavic land, Pula - the capital of Istria, Books, newspapers, and magazines, Ethnographic materials). The catalogue was printed in the form of a soft binding collection and a hardback one, in 350 units “of the month of March, 1946, published by the Regional National Liberation Committee for Istria in the National printing shop, Rijeka.” It was also printed in the form of a French translation called Testimonies to the Slavdom of Istria - Exposition des témoignages sur le caractère slave de l'Istrie (Pazin: Comité régional de libération nationale d'Istrie, mars 1946). Fučić’s post-war activity over 1945 was presented in a very interesting manner - from a personal perspective - by Croatian ethnologist Jelka Radauš-Ribarić. The said author thus writes about the formation of a group consisting of her, historian-archivist Ferdo Hauptmann, Branko Fučić, and his brother and architect Mladen Fučić, in addition to writing about their field work around Istria where every one of them had their tasks: “Ferdo Hauptmann was looking for archive materials, with his main issue in that endeavour being the Glagolitic script. The Fučić brothers were searching for village churches and were determining their conditions. Mladen was processing them architecturally, and many of them led to the discoveries of frescos which also made Branko sincerely happy, later leading him to fully commit to them and using them as his doctorate thesis. I pursued my own path among the people, to talk to them with the goal of collecting original information on the traditional folk life in Istria which was entirely inaccessible to us until then. Every one of us discovered something new which we talked about and commented on every time we met up again. We were like a family, united, tenacious, and full of adoration for our work.” That was the first research group which was officially called the “Istrian group.” That group was formed in the summer of 1945 to establish the condition of the cultural-historical legacy in Istria which was completely unknown back then and was also damaged during World War II. The largest part of Istria was then encompassed by the so-called “Zone B” on the part of the military forces of the Yugoslav army, whereas the civil administration was performed by the Regional Committee situated in Labin. Over the following years, Fučić intensively tours Istria and the Kvarner Gulf (on foot) as a field researcher. His field work entailed research, discovery, salvaging, and documenting everything that was important in the cultural-historical sense. Those activities eventually resulted in the publication of his results related to that work. In Danica - Calendar for the year 1947 published by the Croatian literary society of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Zagreb and the Literary society of St. Hermagoras of Aquileia for Istria in Pazin, he published an article titled The Glagolitic Script in Istria and a short excerpt from the Istrian Book of Boundaries. When the Zagreb-based Danica got its sibling, the Istrian Danica, under the administration of the Istrian literary society of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Pazin, Fučić started collaborating on its pages even more actively. Over a period ending with the 1950s, the magazine published his articles Oldest Glagolitic Inscriptions in Istria and the Kvarner Gulf and Live Cross in Lindar. In conclusion, we can say that this presentation sought to highlight the important contribution of the previously mentioned individuals (who you will rarely find mentioned in any official historiography) who contributed to the fact that Istria found itself within Croatia’s borders with their scientific expert activities.

Glagolitic Script, Branko Fučić (1920-1999), Croatian Identity of Istria, Paris Peace Conference/Treaty of Paris (1946, 1947)

Na konferenciji sudjelovao kao član i suradnik Znanstvenog centra izvrsnosti za hrvatsko glagoljaštvo pri Staroslavenskom institutu u Zagrebu (voditelj: prof. dr. sc. Milan Mihaljević) te kao suradnik projekta Hrvatske zaklade za znanost Izvori, pomagala i studije za hrvatsku povijest od srednjeg vijeka do kraja dugog 19. stoljeća (voditelj: dr. sc. Damir Karbić).