RACKI, Franco. – Croatian historical canonist, born at Fuzine on 25 Nov. 1828, died at Zagreb on 13 Feb. 1894. Ordained priest on 15 Aug. 1852, he took a degree in theology at Vienna in 1855. From 1857 to 1860 he was in Rome as canon of S. Girolamo degli Illirici and worked in the Roman and other Italian archives.
In 1860 he returned to Zagreb and, together with Strossmayer, was one of the founders of the Jugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (1866), its first president (1867–85) and its driving force until his death. From 1877 he became a canon in Zagreb and acquired deserved fame as a Croatian historian, especially for the period of the national rulers (7th–12th cent.). While in the political-national sphere he bore the stamp of his time, in religious matters he consistently appeared as a man of markedly ecclesiastical outlook (Jagić).
He began his work in ecclesiastical history, especially with studies on SS. Cyril and Methodius (Vieh i djelovanje sv. Cyrilla i Methoda slovenskih apolotov, 2 vols., Zagreb 1857 and 1859, and Pismo slovensko, ibid. 1861); on Croatian history he published a series of often lengthy dissertations, mostly issued by the Jugoslav Academy. Among these his principal work remains Hrvatska prije XII. veka glede na zemljišni obseg i narod (Rad. Jug. Ak., 56 and 57); to this must be added Nutorije stanje Hrvatske prije XII. stoljeća (Rad. 70, 79, 91, 99, 105, 115, 116). Other works are listed in Popis izdanja Jugoslavenske Akademije 1867–1950 (Zagreb 1951). Fundamental is the collection Documenta historiae Chroatica periodum antiquum illustratia (Zagreb 1877, published as vol. VII of the series Monumenta spectantia historiam Slavorum meridionalium).