Description

An exceedingly rare ephemeral pamphlet in Croatian language was issued after the murder of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, nicknamed Sissi, on September 10^th, 1898, in Sisak, Croatia, at the time a part of Austro-Hungary. Sissi, a beloved empress, known for her beauty, was stabbed to death by the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni in Geneva. The wrappers of the pamphlet are decorated with portraits of the queen and her assassin.

The text describes the funeral and includes various anecdotal stories from the life of the empress, such as Sissi’s affection towards a coloured servant boy Rustimo, whom she received as a present from an Egyptian Viceroy.

The pamphlet was printed in Sisak, by Čupak i Dujak, a publishing house owed by Janko Dujak (1869 – 1925) and Josip Čupak. The firm was founded in 1895, and only existed for four years, when Čupak sold his part and entered the politics. Janko Dujak continued a successful publishing career and in the next decades issued a series of important books and newspapers.

We could not find any institutional examples.