Filip Vezdin or Wesdin (Paulinus a Sancto Bartolomaeo, 1748-1806), pioneer of European indology, was born in a Croatian village of Cimov (Hof am Leithagebirge) in Lower Austria in Burgenland (Gradisce). He completed his studies of philosophy and theology, Roman languages and English in Linz and Prague. Besides native Croatian he spoke Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese and English. As a Carmelitan missionary (with monastic name Paulin of St. Bartholomew) Vezdin was sent to India in 1776, where he learned Sanskrit and several Indian dialects.

For more information see Filip Vezdin (in Croatian)

Vezdin is the author of Sidharubam seu gramatica samscrdamica, the first printed Sanskrit grammar in Europe, published in 1790 in Rome. Extended edition was published in 1804 and entitled Vyacarana seu locupletissima samsrdamicae linguae instituio.

The first printed Sanskrit grammar in Europe, written by Filip Vezdin in 1790,
photo from volksgruppen.orf.at/hrvati/visti/stories/45925/

He wrote numerous works on Indian culture, and in addition to Sanskrit also learned Malayalam, the Malabar coastal language, in which he wrote his works as well. At the request of a local ruler, King Rama Varmer of the Travancore, he wrote an English-Portugese-Malayalam grammar. The King, enthusiasted with Vezdin’s fluency in Malayalam, asked him to be his teacher of English and Portuguese in his palace in Padmanabpuram. Vezdin’s works are kept in Rome, Vienna and Uppsala. The first methodical study of connections between Indo-European languages is contained in his work De antiquitae et affimitate lingaue zendicae, samscrdamicae et germanicae disseratio, Rome 1798.

Filip Vezdin, pioneer of European indology,
photo from volksgruppen.orf.at/hrvati/visti/stories/45925/

Vezdin’s best known work is Systema brahmanicum liturgicum, mythologicum, civile ex monumentis Indicis Musei Borgian Velitris, Rome 1791, dealing with literature, mythology and civil order of brahmanic India, customs and the way of life. His most interesting and most popular work is his travel-book Viaggio alle Indie orientali, Rome 1796. He also published two philological studies about connections between Hungarian and Laponian languages. Vezdin is considered as one of pioneers of European indology.

About twenty of his books were published already during his lifetime. Some of them were translated into German, French, English and Swedish. It is therefore no surprise that he was a member of the Royal Academy in Naples, and of the Academy “Dei Volsci” in Velletri and Padova.

A postage stamp issued by a Cultural Association, Hof
am Leithaberge, Austria in 2006, commemorating 200 years since Vezdin’s death.
Many thanks to Dr Luca Leoni, Velletri.

In 2006 a memorial tablet dedicated to Filip Fezdin was placed in Velletri, a town near Rome, on the building of Museo Borgia (in Via della Trinita), where Vezdin had been working. The tablet mentions his Croatian descent: “Croato del Burgenland”. Also, on that occasion an Italian translation of the monograph written by Dr. Branko Franolic about Filip Vezdin was promoted in the City Council of Velletri (“Paolino di San Bartolomeo, pioniere dell’indologia nell’Europa di fine Settecento”, translated from the English original by Dr. Luca Leoni).

Memorial tablet dedicated to Filip Vezdin in Velletri, Italy, 2006
Many thanks to Dr Luca Leoni, Velletri, for the photo and his translation:

TO VELLETRI’S VOLSCIAN ACADEMIC PAOLINO DI SAN BARTOLOMEO BAREFOOTED CARMELITE IN THE WORLD IVAN FILIP VEZDIN BURGENLAND CROAT MISSIONARY IN INDIA PIONEER OF INDOLOGY FATHER OF INDOEUROPEAN PHILOLOGY FAITHFUL AND DEVOTED COLLABORATOR OF THE LEARNED PATRON CARDINAL STEFANO BORGIA HE MASTERED HIS STUDIES IN THE FAMOUS BORGIA MUSEUM FORMERLY PLACED HERE THE CITY OF VELLETRI PLACED THIS 1806-2006

Filip Vezdin, portrait from 1793 probably by J.H. Cabott (1754-1841),
once in cardinal Stefano Borgia’s library in “Palazzo Altemps”, Rome,
now conserved in “Propaganda Fide”, Rome
(many thanks to Dr Luca Leoni, Velletri)

Vezdin’s research gave a great impetus to investigation of culture and civilization of India in Europe. In 1999 Vezdin’s image was carved into the white marble memorial plaque in the City Museum of Trivandrum, the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. Furthermore, the following text was written in the Sanskrit, Malayalam, Croatian and English languages on memorial tablet in the museum:

Ivan Filip Vezdin, Burgenland Croat, Discalceate Carmelite, with the monastic name Paulin of St. Bartholomew, a missionary in Malabar from 1776 to 1789. The author of the first printed Sanskrit grammar and forerunner of Indian and Indo-European studies to the great honour of his homeland and the Croatian and Indian people.

Ivan Filip Vezdin, gradiscanski Hrvat, bosonogi karmelicanin, 1776. – 1789., misionarski je djelovao na Malabaru. Pisac prve tiskane sanskrtske gramatike i preteca indijskih i indoeuropskih studija na veliku cast svojoj domovini te hrvatskom i indijskom narodu.

According to distinguished Croatian linguist Vatroslav Jagic (1838-1928), Filip Vezdin was born in lower-Austrian village of Hof an der Leitha, and in this village already in the time of Jagic [more specifically, in1865, when Jagic wrote these lines] only the Croatians live, and speak between themselves Croatian, while the older people do not speak German. According to Jagic, it can be said for sure that Vezdin’s mother did not speak German, while his father understood hardly anything of German. Jagic mentioned a realiable friend of him, who said that Vezdin’s relatives still live in that village, and that they are true Croatians. Source Vatroslav Jagic: Slovjensko jezikoslovlje, Zagreb 1865. Here is Jagic’s original text in Croatian:

… Doskora zatim sazna Evropa i pobliže o sanskritskom jeziku. Ime onoga, koji napisa prvu sanskritsku gramatiku kao izučen tudjinac, dvostruke je po nas ovdje važnosti: ne samo što je to bila prva od Evropejca i za Evropejce sastavljena gramatika toga jezika, nego takodjer što ju je napisao naš čovjek, Hrvat rodom iz Austrije, po imenu Ivan Filip Vezdin, učenomu svietu poznatiji pod redovničkim imenom Paulinus a Bartholomaeo.  On dakle napisa prvu gramatiku sanskritsku, te je izda na sviet u Rimu god. 1790; osim toga ima od njega i drugih znamenitih knjiga, koje se tiču sanskritskoga jezika, književnosti i starina. Da je Vezdin zbilja pravi Hrvat bio, rodjen u dolnjo-austrijskom selu Hof an der Leitha, to je podpuna istina; zato što u onom selu još i danas (1865.) živu sami Hrvati, te i danas medju sobom samo hrvatski govore, a stariji ljudi niti ne umiju njemački. Može se dakle za cielo reći, da Vezdinova majka nije nimalo, a otac jedva štogod razumio njemački. Osim toga kaza mi vjerodostojni prijatelj (Pavao Žulić, moj dodatak), da i njegova rodbina još u onom selu živi, pak i oni su sami korjeniti Hrvati. To sam ovdje zato napomenuo, da se svakomu pravo učini; dakle i nam da bude, što je naše. (See Hrvatske novine, Tajednik Gradišćanskih Hrvatov, 6. 4. 2012, or the journal Književnik, Zagreb, 1865, no 2, pp. 507-509, where the original Jagic’s text appears.)

For more information see

• Branko Franolic: Filip Vezdin (“Filip Vezdin’s contribution to indic studies in Europe at the turn of the 18th century”)
• [Zoric]
• Filip (Philippus) Vezdin (Vesdin), 1748.-1806.
• Luca Leoni: Nel bicentenario della morte del carmelitano scalzo di origini croate che fu pioniere dell’indologia e padre della filologia indoeuropea
• Tomislav Mrkonjic: “Velikan hrvatskih korijena”, Glas Koncila, 19 February 2006, p. 18
• Zdravka Matisic: Radost, strah, predanost / Joy, Fear, Dedication; Contribution to the biography of Filip Vesdin Paullinus a Sancto Bartholomaeo, in Croatian and English, Odjel za orijentalistiku Hrvatskog filoloskog drustva i Filozofski fakultet, Zagreb 2006