As the last event in the series of this year’s celebration of the Tripundan festivities in Split, or the “Days of Boka in Split” event, from 3 to 26 February 2026, on Thursday 26 February, a lecture was held in the premises of the Croatian Maritime Museum in Split, co-organized and in collaboration with three institutions: the Croatian Maritime Museum, the Croatian Brotherhood “Boka Navy 809” Split, and the Croatian Heritage Foundation – Split branch, with the presenter Mate Božić, a program associate, also the head of the School of Heraldry – Klis and a member of the Croatian Heraldry and Vexillology Association.
In addition to representatives and members of the aforementioned institutions, the presentation was also attended by members of the History Students’ Association “Toma Arhiđakon” – ISHA Split, then the Historical Unit “Kliški Uskoci” as well as the Croatian Noble Union – Split branch and the Croatian Genealogical Society “Pavao Ritter Vitezović”, as well as the Croatian Heraldry and Vexillological Association itself, which the presenter greeted at the very beginning of his lecture. Before the start of the presentation, the audience was also addressed by the gastald of the Croatian Brotherhood “Bokeljska mornarica 809” Split Luka Perković and the head of the Split branch of the Croatian Heritage Foundation Ante Ćaleta.
The presentation began with a historical overview of the past of the wider area of Boka Kotorska from the early Middle Ages to the beginning of the 18th century, when the Boka Armorial was created around 1719. Thus, it was possible to learn that the present-day Boka Kotorska was called the Risan Bay (Sinus Rhisonicus) until the 12th century, given the great importance of the town of Risan for the entire mentioned area at that time. Kotor, located somewhat east of Risan, took over the primacy in the area only during the 14th century, and from then on the bay began to bear the name of that town. After Kotor surrendered to the Venetian Republic in 1420, starting from the mid-15th century, the Ottoman incursions and conquests posed a particular danger to the Boka area, which continued throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. It was only during the Morean War (1684–1699) that Venetian land and naval military action took place, which ultimately led to the liberation of the northwestern coast from Risan (1684) to Kotor (1687) and the complete annexation of today’s Boka Kotorska to the Venetian southern Adriatic possessions.
It was precisely in the historical period when the Boka Armorial was created, thanks to their exceptional contributions within the framework of military service to the Venetian Republic during the Candian and Morean Wars, that the towns of Perast, Prčanj and Dobrota were freed from the administrative jurisdiction of the town of Kotor. This circumstance, along with the permanent cessation of military conflicts and the creation of the prerequisites for free navigation in the southern part of the Adriatic Sea, enabled the rapid economic rise of the aforementioned towns. Thus, during the first decades of the 18th century, one of a series of numerous copies of the famous first Croatian armorial book by Korjenić-Neorić from 1595 was created in the area of Boka Kotorska. This is a version that stands out from the others due to the very large number of added heraldic symbols of local families in comparison to other variants of the aforementioned collection of coats of arms that have survived to this day. Therefore, this heraldic work can rightly be called the Boka Armorial.
The year 1719 was crucial for the creation of this armorial book – when the deed was authenticated in Venice, just after the end of the Second Morean War of 1714-1718, also known as the Little War or the Sinj War. At that time, the territorially enclosed area of today’s Boka Kotorska was completely liberated from the Ottomans, of course within the framework of the then mistress of the Adriatic – the Venetian Republic, including: Herceg-Novi, Risan, Dobrota, Kotor, Prčanj, Tivat and of course Budva, while the Venetian possessions continued southwards all the way to Bar, including the area of Paštrovići.
The Boka Armorial of 1719 itself represents a version of the Korjenić-Neorić Armorial of 1595, and just as the first Croatian armorial book from the end of the 16th century was created with the aim of allegedly “confirming”, and in fact acquiring, the future rights and privileges of certain Dubrovnik-Slan families in the context of the planned liberation of the Balkan hinterland from the Ottomans – while referring to ancient medieval state-legal relations that preceded Ottoman rule – so too was the Boka Armorial from the beginning of the 18th century created with the same intention, combining historically recorded heraldic symbols of real and recognized feudal families with the coats of arms of those families that only wanted or intended to become so. Therefore, if the Korjenić-Neorić Armorial were to be called a heraldic copy in the historiographic sense, the Boka Armorial would be a kind of “copy of a copy”.
It contains the coats of arms of families and clans originating from a number of towns and villages in the Bay of Kotor, including the neighboring Paštrovići area, who, after the final phase of the liberation of these Croatian regions from the Ottomans, sought to present themselves to the Venetian authorities with this coat of arms as the centuries-old holders of ancient noble privileges. The ultimate goal of the creation of this heraldic collection would therefore have been the presentation of the nobility and the acquisition of appropriate privileges within the structures of the Venetian Republic, and among those inhabitants of the Bay who considered themselves particularly deserving of the fact that these regions were finally liberated from Ottoman rule.
However, the structure of the work itself reveals the influence of the Dubrovnik writer Mavro Orbini (who died in Dubrovnik in 1611), more precisely his work The Kingdom of the Slavs (Il Regno degli Slavi), published in Pesaro, Italy, in 1601. However, since The Kingdom of the Slavs was then on the Index librorum prohibitorum, i.e. the list of prohibited books in the Catholic Church, more precisely the official list of works that were in any way contrary to the faith, which is why it was forbidden to read, permanently keep, print and distribute them, the compilers of the Boka Armorial kept quiet about their use of Orbini’s work, and simply attributed his writings in their entirety to a certain Mihovil of Solin, the alleged author of medieval chronicles from the 11th century.
Thus, in the catalogue of today’s Zadar Scientific Library, the aforementioned writer (mentioned by Orbini) is also listed as the author of the work: “Mihovil Solinjanin, Arme dell’ illirico stato di Dalmatia; sign.Ms 745/28237 This manuscript written on 239 pages contains numerous coats of arms of the Kingdom of the Slavs from 1010, described by the chronicler Mihovil Solinjanin (Michael Salonitanus), and this transcript dates from 1719. His notes were later used in their work by historians Zavorović, Lukarević, Mauro Orbini and many others. The manuscript came to the Library thanks to a donation from the family library of Vladimir Pappafava in 1927.”
Thus, the compilers of this armorial book, in order to achieve their goals, reached even further into the past. Namely, while the authors of the first Croatian armorial book, Korjenić-Neorić (from 1595), referred to the alleged origin of this heraldic collection in the mid-14th century, the title and the introductory text of the Boka Armorial – emphasizing the authority of the legendary Mihovil of Solin – aimed at an even older period, more precisely the 11th century. Ultimately, by combining the land and noble heraldic emblems from the works of Mavro Orbini (early 17th century) and the coats of arms from the Korjenić-Neorić armorial (late 16th century) with the coats of arms of local families throughout the Boka Kotorska region that had been created and recorded by then (with the notable exception of Kotor itself), the Boka Armorial was created, or – given the diverse origins of the collected heraldic emblems – better said, the Boka Armorial.
The presentation continued by explaining the structure of the armorial book, or rather the depiction of the coats of arms contained in it. It was said that the introductory part of the armorial itself consists of coats of arms of noble families and state coats of arms taken from the work of Mavro Orbini published in 1601 (11 coats of arms – about 4.5% of the entire collection of coats of arms) and then state coats of arms of parts of the imaginary Illyria (for example: Slavonia, Dalmatia, Croatia…) taken from the Korjenić-Neorić Armorial from 1595 (a total of 9 coats of arms). However, along with these symbols, some original coats of arms of the Bay of Kotor families were also included.
The next, main part of the Boka Armorial contains a reprint of the Korjenić-Neorić Armorial (which, in addition to the land coats of arms, originally contained 141 heraldic emblems of noble and “noble” families). The heraldic emblems taken from the Korjenić-Neorić Armorial from the end of the 16th century make up slightly less than two-thirds (62-63%) of the coats of arms in the Boka Armorial from the beginning of the 18th century.
Finally, the final part is presented – i.e. the addition of original coats of arms of families from the wider area of Boka Kotorska – which makes up one third (32%) of the total number of coats of arms (238). In this regard, the Boka Armorial – compared to other copies of the Korjenić-Neorić Armorial – stands out for its originality (since other versions or reprints of that coat of arms contain a far smaller number of added original or inserted coats of arms).
The lecture was concluded with the announcement of the preparation of an edition of this Boka Armorial (which is currently being restored in the Zagreb Central Laboratory for Conservation and Restoration, and is otherwise kept in the Zadar Scientific Library) in cooperation with associations of Boka Croats. This was followed by questions from the audience and a short discussion, and the entire event was concluded by the museum director Ljubomir Radić with a thank you to the presenter, the organizers, and an expression of interest in presenting a printed edition of this valuable manuscript work of Croatian heraldic heritage.
CIGH