Franjevačke početnice od Divkovića do Jukića
Franciscan primers from Divković to Jukić

Summary/Abstract: Contemporary impression that reading is simple is just an illusion acquired through automatic and unconscious processes of learning this skill, cognitive neuroscientists warn. The architecture of the human brain was not designed for reading, and mastering of literacy is one of the most important epigenetic achievements of homo sapiens in a way that reading has become „transformative catalyst of the intellectual development of an individual and literal cultures“ in the past millennia (Wolf 2019:12). In this sense the role of the Franciscan primers in Croatian language in the history of teaching literacy over a Bosna Srebrena province, ie. within the current borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is going to be observed. Hence this article analyzes all printed Franciscan primers from the first known, which was published in bosanica script together with little Nauk krstjanski by Matija Divković in 1669 to the last one of the six latinic primers, which had been published during the 19th century until the Austro-Hungarian military occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878. In this research corpus special attention is going to be dedicated to Divković’s bukvica, the first and only specialized textbook for teaching reading, printed in bosanica script, and latinic primers Poçetak slovstva (Split 1815) by Augustin Miletić, Bukvar iliti poçetak slovstva illiriçkogʼ, i latinskog jezika (Budim 1836) by Stjepan Marijanović and Početak pismenstva (Zagreb 1848) by Ivan Frane Jukić. Through these didactic handbooks the process of transition from bosanica to Latin script is followed, as well as the process of enquiry for the appropriate reform of Latin graphics, which ended by final acceptance of Illyrian graphics in Jukić’s primer. Shaping of primers, impact of methods of teaching the initial literacy and their shifts in practical use will be perceived within social-political context of the last centuries of Ottoman rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Franciscans are among the first ones who joined the tradition of publishing specialized textbooks in our area, which testifies of a high degree of concern for education and literacy in the vernacular.

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