Ćus Rukonić: Grboslovna baština cresko-lošinjsko otočja, Creski muzej, Cres, 2023.
After the presentation in Cres and Mali Lošinj last month, Jasminka Ćus Rukonić’s monograph “heraldic Heritage of the Cres-Lošinj Islands” was presented in Rijeka on 6 July 2023. The presentation was held in the beautiful Marble Hall, the so-called The Governor’s Palace, or the Maritime and Historical Museum of the Croatian Littoral, Rijeka. At the well-attended event, the book was presented by the director of the Cres Museum, Jelena Dunato, the president of HGZD, Dr. Željko Heimer, and the author herself.
On 248 pages, in 17 chapters and 1008 catalog units, Ćus Rukonić has covered the coats of arms of the states that governed the archipelago, from the Venetian Republic to modern Croatia, then the provincial coats of arms and those of individual towns and communes, then the coats of arms of rulers and other officials, island families and church dignitaries, orders and brotherhoods, religious symbols and signs of various trades, crafts and associations.
Jelena Dunato, editor of the publication and director of the Cres Museum, which is the publisher, said the book is “the magnum opus of the museum advisor Jasminka Ćus-Rukonić”. She recalled her rich bibliography in the field of heraldry, and concluded that the time had come for “all these studies to be combined in one publication supplemented with new knowledge, photographs and illustrations, in the desire to present a well-rounded study to expert circles, and to the general public point out this extremely important part of heritage so that it is not devastated by sudden tourist development out of sheer ignorance”.
Dr. Heimer, who was a reviewer of this monograph, read parts from his review and emphasized the significance of this kind of monograph for Croatian heraldic heritage and the exceptional methodological and terminological achievements, which will become an example of good practice for all researchers dealing with our regional heraldic heritage. He also pointed out some specifics that make the heraldry of Cres-Lošinj different and therefore even more interesting – on the one hand, the island’s isolation from the continent, and on the other hand, the same island’s openness to trade routes, means that coats of arms under the influence of the Venetian, Roman, Piedmontese, Lombard, Spanish, Austrian, but also local and eastern Adriatic or Croatian-Hungarian heraldry can be recorded on the islands. He emphasized that with this work the author has collected and presented a complete picture of Cres and Lošinj heraldic heritage, thus rounding off her more than thirty years of work on these topics, which she got to know in great detail during that period – not only from previously published books and journals, not only from documents in the archives, but also through tireless field work, researching individual coats of arms on the most remote houses of Cres and Lošinj. It should also be emphasized that the vast majority of in-situ photographs of coats of arms were taken by the author herself or by her collaborators under her guidance, and thus represent authentic evidence of the heraldic heritage where it was originally created. On the other hand, it shows that the author had to personally walk all the paths and leave her footprint in front of literally every coat of arms presented in this monograph.
At the end, the author presented with a short presentation, several of the most interesting coats of arms according to her choice, which in one way or another stand out among more than a thousand recorded examples.
Croatian national television show Culture news (HRT Vijesti iz kulture) covered the presentation on 6 July 2023:
Title: Grboslovna baština cresko-lošinjskog otočja
[in English] Heraldic Heritage of the Cres and Lošinj Islands
Author: Jasminka Ćus Rukonić
Place : publisher, year: Cres : Creski muzej, 2023.
ISBN: 978-953-8287-08-4
Pages: 250
Dimensions: 28 cm
Binding: hard cover
Price: 30 €
Orders: https://creskimuzej.com/publikacije/