The Epigraphic Collection (collection of inscriptions) is the oldest in the Archaeological Museum in Split. It preserves inscriptions that were found before the Museum’s establishment. The first inscriptions in the Collection were discovered by the Split nobleman Dmine (Dominik) Papalić (turn of the 15th/16th centuries) and his friend Marko Marulić (1450-1524), the father of Croatian literature, while touring the ruins of Salona. The inscriptions were built into the courtyard of the Papalić Palace. Marulić recorded the inscriptions and called them the Papalić Collection. He compiled the first catalogue under the title Inscriptiones Latinae antiquae Salonis repertae. The inscriptions remained in the courtyard of the Papalić Palace until 1885, when they were removed and transferred to the Archaeological Museum in Split, which was then located in a building next to the eastern wall of Diocletian’s Palace. Five inscriptions from the Papalić Collection are displayed in the atrium of today’s museum building.
Split Archbishop Pacifico Bizza (1696-1756) established the Museum Spalatinum archiepiscopale in 1750, which also held inscriptions discovered in Salona. Today, 35 of the 182 inscriptions are held in the Archaeological Museum in Split.
Currently the Epigraphic Collection houses more than six thousand inscriptions, which puts it in the ranks of the largest collections of its type in Europe. Most of the inscriptions are in Latin, while a smaller number is in Greek. Most of them are from Salona (Solin), and the rest are from other Dalmatian sites.
The Epigraphic Collection was established as a separate unit of the Archaeological Museum in Split in 1993. Before that it was part of the Antiquities Department and then the Early Christian and Epigraphic Collection.
The collection contains the following categories of inscriptions: gravestone, honorific, dedicatory and military, and the types of monuments on which they can be seen are: stelae, cippi, altars, sarcophaguses, architectural fragments, etc. The inscriptions are displayed in the lapidarium, atrium and the Museum’s main building as part of the permanent display. The remainder are stored in depots and the Museum’s back garden.
Don Frane Bulić was the first trained epigraphy specialist in the Archaeological Museum. He began maintaining inventory logs, including those for inscriptions: A, BLitt. and CLitt. In them he listed all inscription materials that he found in the Museum or which are located in situ at sites in Salona. The materials came to the Museum through field work, purchases and donations. Bulić continued the practice of publishing inscriptions in the Museum’s journal Bullettino di archeologia e storia Dalmata, later renamed Vjesnik za arheologiju i historiju Dalmatinsku.
After Bulić, Mihovil Abramić, Branimir Gabričević and Duje Rendić Miočević handled inscriptions. Rendić Miočević mainly dealt with Greek inscriptions and Illyrian onomastics. He also published a collection of old Greek and Latin epigraphic poetry from the Adriatic seaboard called Carmina epigraphica. Emilio Marin was the curator of the Epigraphic Collection for many years. Together with Noël Duval from the University of Paris IV/ Sorbonne and the École Française de Rome, he initiated a project to publish a collection of Christian inscriptions. Other experts in the field of Early Christian archaeology and epigraphy participated in the project (Jean-Pierre Caillet, Denis Feissel, Nancy Gauthier and François Prévot). After Marin, Mario Radaljac briefly served as the Collection’s curator. The current curator of the Epigraphic Collection is Nino Švonja.