Archival Collection

The Split City Museum safeguards the city’s collective memory and experience, with its archival material serving as a valuable complement and source of knowledge, shaped by and adapted to the cultural and social context that gives our lives both spiritual and social significance.

Maintained as a distinct collection within the Museum, the archival holdings are as diverse as the activities of a city museum, encompassing all aspects of cultural, historical, social, artistic, economic, and urban life. The archival material has been collected systematically since the founding of the Museum, alongside the acquisition of objects for its collections and documentation. Both the movable and immovable cultural heritage preserved in the Museum are closely linked to the documents in this Collection. In this respect, work on the museum’s entire holdings is inseparable from research within the archival material.

The Archival Collection is organised into a variety of fonds and sub-collections, including family fonds, fonds of individual figures, as well as institutional, association, and other groups fonds. The oldest fonds date from the 14^th century to the second half of the 20^th century.

These fonds represent Split’s written heritage, encompassing both secular and ecclesiastical materials. The Collection also holds a number of exceptionally important individual documents, including the 14^th-century Statute of the City of Split, as well as the Libro d’oro, the manuscript record book of the Great Council’s sessions from 1420 to 1797, and the Musical Dictionary by Julije Bajamonti, an 18^th-century polymath and composer.