Croatian History

In 1605 a Czech Benedictine Petr Loderecker published the book Dictionarium septem diversarum linguarum: videlicet Latine, Italice, Dalmatice (Croatian), Bohemice, Polonice, Germanice & Ungarice… in Prague (around 5000 words for each language). This dictionary represents an extension of Vrancic’s 1595 Dictionary of the five most noble European languages: Latin, German, Italian, Croatian and Hungarian, in which Czech and Polish languages have been added. In Loderecker’s book we can find the following descriptions: Dalmatian = Croat, Dalmatia = Croatia, Dalmatian =…

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A significant Croat, born on the island of Hvar, very little known even among the Croats, was Ivan Franje Bjundovic (Giovanni Francesco Biondi, 1573-1645). After having met Sir Henry Watton, English ambassador in Venice, with whom he shared the same interests as a lawyer and literature fan, he journeyed to England and carried confidential messages to King James I. Obviously, he was considered a competent scholar and diplomat, since James himself entrusted him with important diplomatic missions. Bjundovic wrote a…

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Bartol Kasic (1575-1650), a Croatian Jesuit, was the author of the first Croatian Grammar “Institutiones lingue illyricae”, printed in Rome 1604. About the same time he prepared the Croatian – Italian dictionary, which remained unpublished until 1990. In the period of 1631-1636 he translated the whole Bible into spoken Croatian, but unfortunately the book remained only in handwriting. In his “Ritual Rimski” (“Rituale Romanum”, Rome, 1640) he cites very old Croatian names for months that are in use even today…

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Jakov Mikalja (Giacomo Micaglia, ~1600 – 1654) was lexicographer and theological writer born in Peschici in Italy in Molise (the name of Peschici is obviously of Croatian origin), collaborator of Bartol Kasic. He was descendant of Croatian exiles that had to escape before the Turks from Dalmatia. After his studies he lectured at the Jesuit collegium in Dubrovnik. His most important work is a dictionary Blago jezika slovinskoga containing 25,000 words (Thesaurus linguae Illyricae sive Dictionarium Illyricum, 1649, printed in…

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Ivan Lucic, or Lucius (born in Trogir, 1604 – Rome, 1679) was the founder of modern Croatian historiography, with his major work “De Regno Dalmatiae et Croatiae libri sex” (Amsterdam, 1666). However, the oldest Croatian historigraphic work is Croatian Chronicle, written by Grgur of Bar in the 12th century. photo from Croatian Historical Musem Map dedicated to Petar Zrinski, ban of Croatia. The map was created at the workshop of Joannes Blaeu in Amsterdam as an addition to the work…

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Ardelio Della Bella published his Italian-Latin-Croatian dictionary (Dizionario italiano, latino, illyrico) in 1728, with the grammar of the Croatian language.

Andrija Jambresic (1706-1758), who wrote an important lexicographic work Lexicon latinum interpretatione illyrica, germanica et hungarica (illyric = Croatian), published in Zagreb (1742). Jambresic called himself Croata Zagoriensi, as can be seen on the front page of the book. The book contains many valuable historical comments and is imbued with a deep patriotic feeling.

Ivan Belostenec (born in Varazdin, 1594-1675), who wrote “Gazophylacium seu Latino-Illyricorum onomatum aerarium” published in Zagreb in 1740. It provides a lexical wealth of three Croatian dialects: kajkavian, stokavian and chakavian. This monumental book which has 2000 pages and more than 40,000 words is important not only for Croatian but also for European cultural history: at that time a similar dictionary existed only in Florence, prepared under uncomparably better conditions. Belostenec was a Paulist monk in Lepoglava, who spent part…

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Related to the famous Paulist convent in Lepoglava is Hilarion Gasparotti (1714-1762), born in the lovely town of Samobor near Zagreb. As a Lepoglava Paulist he wrote an encyclopaedic masterpiece Czvet Szveteh (The Flower of Saints) in 4 books on as many as 3,800 pages (982+923+987+896), published in Graz (written as Gradecz there, which reveals the Croatian origin of the name of Graz: grad – town) in 1752, and in Vienna in 1756, 1760 and 1761. In these books he…

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In 1999 a new jewel of Croatian lexicography was discovered: Ljudevit Lalic (17th century) and his handwritten Latin-Italian-Croatian dictionary, Blago jezika slovinskog…Thesaurus linguae illyricae sive Dictionarium Illyricum…, prepared in the period between 1680 and 1696. The book has about 1900 pages, and Croatian words are written in two old scripts: Croatian Cyrillic and Croatian Glagolitic. Ljudevit Lalic was a Franciscan, and the oldest known Herzegovinian lexicographer. For more details see an article by Andrija Nikic in Hrvatsko Slovo.