New Glagolitic puzzle presents Croatian tradition in modern way

Glagolitic puzzle (Photo: 3designŠaneli)

A new puzzle presenting the Croatian tradition of Glagolitic script in a modern way has won a number of number of awards. 

Innovator Zlatko Šakić, who is from Rijeka on northern Adriatic coast, took out two big awards at the 17^th edition of the International Exhibition of Inventions ARCA 2019 for his unique Glagolitic puzzle which is written three ways. 

The Glagolitic alphabet was preserved only by Croats who used it from the 12th to the 20th century, mostly in liturgy.  

Šakić explains how his puzzle works. “From one angle, the letters are read in the Latin script, from another angle it is read in Glagolitic script, and for the visually impaired and the blind, the same letters are in Braille. Everyone who saw the puzzle live was impressed, which is really nice.”

(Photo: 3designŠaneli)

(Photo: 3designŠaneli)

The puzzle won two gold medals, one awarded by ARCA and the other by the Macedonian Innovators Association, and judges said that the puzzle could well be a national souvenir as it presents a Croatian tradition in a new way. 

Zlatko Šakić with his awards (Private album)

Earlier this year, the Croatian Parliament voted to declare the 22nd of February as the official Croatian Glagolitic Script Day. Croatian Glagolitic Script Day observes the memory of the publishing of Missale Romanum Glagolitice, Croatian: Misal po zakonu rimskoga dvora), a Croatian missal, written in the Glagolitic script, and incunabulum printed on 22 February 1483.

Missale Romanum Glagolitice was printed in two colours – black and red, and just 28 years after the Gutenberg Bible was printed. This showed that Croats had been extremely developed in the social, economic and cultural sense already in the 15th century. It is also the first printed Croatian book and also the first missal in Europe not published in the Latin script.