Glagolitic script

The oldest known Slavic alphabet, devised in the ninth century to write Old Church Slavonic. Its distinctive letterforms differ from the later Cyrillic script.

Old Church Slavonic: The earliest literary Slavic language, developed for Christian texts in the ninth century. Glagolitic was devised to write this language.
Byzantine mission to Great Moravia: The ninth-century mission led by Constantine and Methodius to teach Christianity in Great Moravia. It created the immediate setting for a written Slavic liturgy.
Glagolitic letterforms: The characteristic geometric and often looped shapes of letters in the Glagolitic script. Their distinctive forms make Glagolitic manuscripts identifiable.
Codex Zographensis: A late tenth- or early eleventh-century Glagolitic manuscript containing an Old Church Slavonic Gospel text. It preserves an early witness to Glagolitic biblical writing.
Glagolitic alphabet: The set of letters used in the Glagolitic writing system. Its letter inventory shows how the script represented Slavic sounds.
Pope Adrian II: The bishop of Rome from 867 to 872, who authorized Slavic liturgical books. His approval helped legitimize worship using texts written in the new script.
Glagolitic numerals: Numerical values assigned to letters of the Glagolitic alphabet. Letters could serve as numbers as well as signs for speech.
Codex Assemanius: An eleventh-century Glagolitic Gospel manuscript written in Old Church Slavonic. Its pages document the script’s use in a substantial liturgical book.
Saints Cyril and Methodius: Ninth-century Byzantine missionaries who translated Christian texts for Slavic-speaking peoples. Tradition associates the script’s creation with Cyril and the brothers’ mission.
Pope Stephen V: The bishop of Rome from 885 to 891, who opposed aspects of Slavic-language liturgy. His stance contributed to the expulsion of Methodius’s followers from Moravia.

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