Between Pécs and Fojnica: Private Correspondence of Fra Bono Perišić In the 18th century, the Franciscan province of Bosnia Argentina faced one of the biggest challenges until that point. Following the Treaty of Karlowitz, its territory was split among three states – the Habsburg Monarchy, the Venetian Republic, and the Ottoman Empire – causing numerous difficulties in its functioning, especially in the Bosnian part. The solution was sought in two divisions. First, in 1735, the monasteries in Dalmatia were organized into the Province of the Holy Redeemer, and then in 1757, the area north of the Sava was organized as the Province of St John of Capistrano. This second division took place amid a lot of bitterness and mutual accusations, and for the Bosnian part it was also a sort of trauma, since the initial decision reduced Bosnia Argentina to an ordinary custody and deprived it of all its previous privileges. The Franciscans fought back using historiography as a weapon. Although they succeeded in achieving their goal and managed to restore Bosnia Argentina to its previous status as early as 1758, their administration was aware of the problem of missing historical sources and their careless preservation, and efforts were made to reverse that trend. It was from this impulse that the genre of chronicles first took off, and although the circumstances in which the archival documents were kept in monasteries were still far from adequate, far more attention was now being paid to the issue. One of the most impressive results of these efforts is reflected in the private correspondence of Fra Bono Perišić (1813-1887), especially in the way it was created. Perišić took his vows as a Franciscan in the fall of 1829, having just turned 16 years old. Two years later, he was sent to Pécs, where he spent the following six years studying philosophy and then theology. Perišić’s schooling coincided with the peak of a process that began in 1785, when Joseph II established a foundation for the education of Bosnian clergy, but was exceptional in many ways compared to the situation of other scholarship recipients. Firstly, Perišić was one of the few who spent his entire studies in one place, and secondly, he was an extremely successful student, surpassing even his Hungarian colleagues. Being acutely aware of the need to preserve the written word, Perišić acquired a notebook while staying in Pécs and began to fill it with transcripts of his letters, both those he received and those he sent himself. He continued with this practice until 1835, when news of his mother’s death reached him from Bosnia and motivated him to study even harder to achieve the best possible results. Despite discontinuing his copying practice, Perišić continued to keep the letters he received, and until the end of his stay in Pécs, he also made copies of his own letters on separate pieces of paper. However, although he kept his correspondence until the end of his life and, due to such effort, his epistolary opus should be a well-rounded whole, several reasons prevented this from happening. This circumstance was largely due to the fact that although Perišić was highly respected among his brethren during his lifetime, he never achieved a more notable cursus honorum, while his correspondents included some of the most important Franciscans of the time. Thus, he was the person with whom Franjo Jukić exchanged the largest number of letters, which have remained preserved primarily due to Perišić. A large number of letters were also exchanged with Marijan Šunjić and Paškal Vujičić. It is a historical irony that in all three cases, the letters sent by Perišić have been lost. In 1852, Jukić was arrested and then exiled from Bosnia. Vujičić’s legacy was kept in the archive of the apostolic vicariate in the residence of Brestovsko, which was set on fire in 1878, and the archive of the monastery in Guča Gora, where Šunjić’s legacy was stored, also disappeared in a fire in 1945. The remaining corpus preserved in Fojnica contains only some 200 letters, which, moreover, are not united under a single inventory number. In terms of chronology, the collection is rather uneven, as almost three quarters are related to Perišić’s stay in Pécs, and for the last two years of his stay (1836 and 1837), only those sent by Perišić have been preserved. It has not been possible to determine what happened to the letters he had received and most likely kept, but are now lost. The preserved letters are a valuable historical source that reflects a number of aspects to be researched. As a student, Perišić corresponded with individuals in Bosnia and in the Monarchy, mostly Bosnian Franciscans who can be divided into two groups. One group consisted of older Franciscans who had remained in Bosnia and served as guardians, masters of novices, or parish priests. The other group consisted of younger clerics, often Perišić’s colleagues from the novitiate, most of whom likewise studied in the Hungarian-Croatian part of the Monarchy. The topics of correspondence were determined by this situation. Perišić wrote to his correspondents in Bosnia mainly to obtain financial aid and report on his success. With his peers, he exchanged information about their mutual acquaintances, studies, opportunities in Bosnia, and other news from home. Some names stand out in both groups. Among the older Franciscans, it is Mato Kristićević, with whom Perišić definitely exchanged the largest number of letters. Kristićević’s brother was Perišić’s maternal grandfather and played an important role in his religious formation. The letters reveal that it was Kristićević who had taught Perišić the Latin language from an early age and also encouraged him to compose letters, instilling in him the awareness of the importance of preserving written sources. Perišić regularly wrote to Kristićević, who collected money for him from other Franciscans and sent him news about his family and the situation in Fojnica and the monastery. As for the other scholarship recipients among Perišić’s correspondents, one should mention Anđelo Skočibušić and Franjo Franjković as his closest friends. The many letters he exchanged with them provide insight into the nuances of their relationships and the different circumstances in which they studied. In addition to these letters, the few that Perišić sent to his parents are valuable historical sources. Perišić’s attitude towards language is interesting as well. With a few exceptions, he regularly wrote in Latin and encouraged his younger correspondents to do the same. In the letters he received, both Latin and Croatian are equally represented. Kristićević often advised Perišić to use his stay in Pécs to learn Hungarian and German. Although it is unclear from the available letters to what extent Perišić followed his advice, he seems to have been well integrated into the Pécs community. Six years after his return to Bosnia, he was able to send letters to several of his former colleagues and lecturers, and he received replies from some of them. As expected, they include a large number of names, mostly of clerics in the Pécs diocese. Among them, it is worth highlighting Károly Csajághy and his namesake Szentmiklósy, who appear to have been Perišić’s closest friends in his student days, as well as Mihály Virág, a former lecturer with whom, judging by the available letters, he remained friends for many years. Perišić celebrated his first Mass in Bogád, which shows the multicultural character of the Pécs diocese at the time. At the Mass, sermons were given in Croatian, Hungarian, and German, and Perišić’s lecturers as well as Franciscans from the Province of St Ladislas, in whose monastery he had lived during his studies, were in attendance. Due to the abovementioned circumstances, the rest of Perišić’s correspondence is less well preserved. Also, in contrast to his Pécs days, Perišić ceased to copy his letters at the time, so future research will hopefully bring them to light. The existing sample of letters suggests that he maintained connections with individuals across a wide geographic area, and the letters from that later period also cover a wider range of topics.