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 = Croatian.

The book is a result of collaboration between Faust Vrancic and Loderecker, which represents the earliest known lexicographic collaboration in Central Europe. Loderecker’s dictionary has 578 pages: the first 200 pages consits of Latin vocabulary translated into Italian, Croatian, Czech, Polish, German and Hungarian (in this order), while the remaining 378 pages consist of vocabularies of Italian, Croatian, Czech, Polish, German and Hungarian translated (in this order) into Latin.

Faust Vrančić was at the court of the Roman-German Emperor and Croatian-Hungarian King Rudolph II, who was crowned by Antun Vrančić, Faust’s uncle. Now doubt, these are some of the reasons why in the chruch of st. Vitus in Hradčani Cathedral in the Prague, we can see fantastic Croatian Coats of Arms. Karl of the Stier (Karlo Štajerski), brother-in-law of King Rudolph II, was in charge of the Croatian Military Frontier, where in 1578 he made the foundations of the new very strong fortress of Karlovac, which was important in the struggle of Croatia against the Turkish Ottoman Empire onslaughts. Among numerous great artists and scientists at the Royal Court in Hradčani, Faust Vrančić, the Royal Secretary, was in close contact with Tyho de Brahe and Johannes Kepler.

Lit.: Vladimir Muljević: Hrvatski znanstvenici Faust i Antun Vrančić, Encyclopaedia Moderna, 2(42) (1993), pp.122-136.