Dubrovnik Missal
The Dubrovnik Missal is a 12th‑century Croatian prayer book from Dubrovnik, used in Mass at the Dubrovnik Cathedral. It is written in Beneventan script and notation and is the best example of Beneventan chant in southern Dalmatia. It is protected as a Zero Category Monument, the highest level of protection.
The missal contains 230 prayers and 230 hymns. Its tunes vary: some are the same as other European songs of the time, some are different versions, and some, like the exsultet, are unique to this book. This shows that Dubrovnik had a highly developed Gregorian music tradition.
The Missal disappeared for unknown reasons and later turned up at a Venice auction in 1817 as part of the private library of Jesuit Matteo Luigi Canonici. It is now kept in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Elias Avery Lowe was the first scholar to tie it to Dubrovnik, noting references to saints Peter, Andrew, and Lawrence celebrated there as Sveti Petilovrijenci.
Croatian musicologist Don Miho Demović found the Missal in the Bodleian about 40 years ago. With the library’s permission, a reprint was published in 2011 by the Dubrovnik Library, with financial support from Pavica Šper Šundrica.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 16:31 (CET).