Jakov Mikalja (
PeschiciPeschici is a town and comune in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of southeast Italy.The lexicographer Jakov Mikalja was born in Peschici....
, March 31, 1601 -
LoretoLoreto is a hilltown and comune of the Italian province of Ancona, in the Marche. It is mostly famous as the seat of the Basilica della Santa Casa, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site.-Location:...
, December 1, 1654) was a
Croatian Molise Croats live in the Molise region of Italy in the villages Acquaviva Collecroce , San Felice del Molise , Montemitro and elsewhere. In these three villages they are a majority. There are about 5,000 speakers of the Molise Croatian dialect...
linguistLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
and lexicographer, born in the
Kingdom of NaplesThe Kingdom of Naples is the modern day name for a polity which existed on the southern part of the Italian peninsula. Also known contemporaneously, and somewhat confusingly, as the Kingdom of Sicily, this kingdom was founded after the secession of the island of Sicily from the old Kingdom of...
.
Mikalja was born in
PeschiciPeschici is a town and comune in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of southeast Italy.The lexicographer Jakov Mikalja was born in Peschici....
(in
CroatianCroatian is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Croatian minorities in some neighbouring countries, in the Italian region of Molise, and parts of the Croatian diaspora....
:
Pještica), at that time a Croat settlement , on the Gargano peninsula in the
ApuliaApulia is a region in southeastern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its southern portion known as Salento, a peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy...
region of the
Kingdom of NaplesThe Kingdom of Naples is the modern day name for a polity which existed on the southern part of the Italian peninsula. Also known contemporaneously, and somewhat confusingly, as the Kingdom of Sicily, this kingdom was founded after the secession of the island of Sicily from the old Kingdom of...
. He stated he considers himself an Italian of Slavic language . After completing the studies in
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
in 1628, he became a
JesuitThe Society of Jesus is a Catholic religious order of clerks regular whose members are called Jesuits.Jesuits are the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church, with 18,815 members—13,305 priests, 2,295 scholastic students, 1,758 brothers and 827 novices—as of January 2008, although the...
.
Because of his knowledge of the
Croatian languageCroatian is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Croatian minorities in some neighbouring countries, in the Italian region of Molise, and parts of the Croatian diaspora....
, Mikalja was dispatched to the
Republic of RagusaThe Republic of Ragusa, or Republic of Dubrovnik, was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from the 14th century AD until the year 1808...
by the
Jesuit orderThe Society of Jesus is a Catholic religious order of clerks regular whose members are called Jesuits.Jesuits are the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church, with 18,815 members—13,305 priests, 2,295 scholastic students, 1,758 brothers and 827 novices—as of January 2008, although the...
.
Jakov Mikalja (
PeschiciPeschici is a town and comune in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of southeast Italy.The lexicographer Jakov Mikalja was born in Peschici....
, March 31, 1601 -
LoretoLoreto is a hilltown and comune of the Italian province of Ancona, in the Marche. It is mostly famous as the seat of the Basilica della Santa Casa, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site.-Location:...
, December 1, 1654) was a
Croatian Molise Croats live in the Molise region of Italy in the villages Acquaviva Collecroce , San Felice del Molise , Montemitro and elsewhere. In these three villages they are a majority. There are about 5,000 speakers of the Molise Croatian dialect...
linguistLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
and lexicographer, born in the
Kingdom of NaplesThe Kingdom of Naples is the modern day name for a polity which existed on the southern part of the Italian peninsula. Also known contemporaneously, and somewhat confusingly, as the Kingdom of Sicily, this kingdom was founded after the secession of the island of Sicily from the old Kingdom of...
.
Life
Mikalja was born in
PeschiciPeschici is a town and comune in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of southeast Italy.The lexicographer Jakov Mikalja was born in Peschici....
(in
CroatianCroatian is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Croatian minorities in some neighbouring countries, in the Italian region of Molise, and parts of the Croatian diaspora....
:
Pještica), at that time a Croat settlement , on the Gargano peninsula in the
ApuliaApulia is a region in southeastern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its southern portion known as Salento, a peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy...
region of the
Kingdom of NaplesThe Kingdom of Naples is the modern day name for a polity which existed on the southern part of the Italian peninsula. Also known contemporaneously, and somewhat confusingly, as the Kingdom of Sicily, this kingdom was founded after the secession of the island of Sicily from the old Kingdom of...
. He stated he considers himself an Italian of Slavic language . After completing the studies in
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
in 1628, he became a
JesuitThe Society of Jesus is a Catholic religious order of clerks regular whose members are called Jesuits.Jesuits are the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church, with 18,815 members—13,305 priests, 2,295 scholastic students, 1,758 brothers and 827 novices—as of January 2008, although the...
.
Because of his knowledge of the
Croatian languageCroatian is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Croatian minorities in some neighbouring countries, in the Italian region of Molise, and parts of the Croatian diaspora....
, Mikalja was dispatched to the
Republic of RagusaThe Republic of Ragusa, or Republic of Dubrovnik, was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from the 14th century AD until the year 1808...
by the
Jesuit orderThe Society of Jesus is a Catholic religious order of clerks regular whose members are called Jesuits.Jesuits are the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church, with 18,815 members—13,305 priests, 2,295 scholastic students, 1,758 brothers and 827 novices—as of January 2008, although the...
. It was the time of
Counter-ReformationThe Counter-Reformation denotes the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648....
and the Catholic Church wished to restore its power in the
BalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
as well. For four years (1630-1633) Mikalja taught grammar at the Jesuit College in
Ragusa=* Ragusa , a city in Sicily.* Ragusa Ibla, historic quarter of the sicilian city.* Marina di Ragusa, a village and frazione of the comune of Ragusa.* Province of Ragusa, Italy, one of the administrative division of Sicily....
(Dubrovnik). There he wrote
"Latin grammar for Illyrian (Croat)
students" after Emanuel Alvares (
De institutione grammatica pro Illyricis accommodata, 1637).
A few years later, in 1636, Mikalja sent a letter to the
Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the FaithThe Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples is the congregation of the Roman Curia responsible for missionary work and related activities. It is perhaps better known by its former title, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith...
, proposing a reform of the
Latin alphabetThe Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, and was initially developed by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.During the...
for the needs of the Croatian language.
He discussed the same issue in the chapter
"On Slavic OrthographyThe orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example for Kurdish, there can be more than one orthography. Orthography is derived from Greek ὀρθός orthós and γράφειν...
" of his work in Croatian
"God-Loving Thoughts on the Lord's PrayerThe Lord's Prayer, also known as the Our Father or Pater noster, is perhaps the best-known prayer in Christianity. On Easter Sunday 2007 it was estimated that 2 billion Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox Christians read, recited, or sang the short prayer in hundreds of languages...
Taken from the Books of St Thomas AquinasSaint Thomas Aquinas, O.P. was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Order from Italy, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis...
, the Angelic Doctor" (
BratislavaBratislava is the capital of the Slovak Republic and, with a population of about 429,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River...
, 1642).
From 1637 to 1645 he was a missionary among the Catholics in
TimişoaraTimişoara , also known as "The City of Athletes", is a city in the Banat region of western Romania...
in the
BanatThe Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in Romania , the western part in Serbia , and a...
(present day
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
). He came back to Italy, where he was the Croatian confessor in
LoretoLoreto is a hilltown and comune of the Italian province of Ancona, in the Marche. It is mostly famous as the seat of the Basilica della Santa Casa, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site.-Location:...
, from 1645 till his death.
Dictionary
Mikalja's greatest work is
"Thesaurus of Slovinian (Croatian)
Language and Slovinian (Croatian)
Dictionary (where Croatian words are translated in Italian and Latin)". It was first printed in
LoretoLoreto is a hilltown and comune of the Italian province of Ancona, in the Marche. It is mostly famous as the seat of the Basilica della Santa Casa, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site.-Location:...
in 1649, but a better printing press was needed, so it was completed in
AnconaAncona is a city and a seaport in the Marche, a region of central Italy, population 101,909 . Ancona is situated on the Adriatic Sea and is the center of the province of Ancona and the capital of the region....
in 1651. The dictionary was a Jesuits project, an instrument to fight the
Protestant ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
in the Balkans.
It was the first
Croatian dictionary, with Croatian (under name of "Illyric" or "Slovinian") as the starting language (in the very same dictionary, he treats the terms Croatian, Slovinian and Illyric as synonyms ). An Important thing to note is that Mikalja names in his dicionary Croatian language as "
Illyric" or "Slovinian", Italian as
"Latin", which he names as the
"students' language" (diacki). The introduction to the dictionary has a "Latin" dedication, a note to the reader in Italian (
Al benigno lettore), a presentation of the alphabet and orthography in Latin and Croatian (
Od ortographie jezika slovinskoga ili načina od pisanja), and an Italian grammar in Croatian (
Grammatika Talianska).
Mikalja explains in the foreword that he chosen the "Bosnian" dialect, because "everyone says that the Bosnian language is the most beautiful one" ("Ogn'un dice che la lingua Bosnese sia la piu bella"). "Bosnian" is identified as the
Shtokavian dialectShtokavian or Štokavian is the main dialect of the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages.The Štokavian dialect is spoken in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the southern part of Austria’s Burgenland, and in part of Croatia. The Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian standard languages are all...
of the local
South SlavicThe South Slavs are a southern branch of the Slavic peoples that live mainly in the Balkans. Geographically, the South Slavs are native to the southern Pannonian Plain, the eastern Alps and the Balkan peninsula and they speak South Slavic languages...
languages. The dictionary, intended primarily to teach students and young Jesuits, has around 25,000 words. It belongs to the corpse of dictionaries in Shtokavian dialect, with some Chakavian parts, and even Kaykavian lexic as entry or synonym. Mikalja's dictionary is regarded as a
Croatian dictionary by mainstream lexicographers and linguists.
From the cultural point of view, Mikalja's work was influenced by earlier works of
Faust VrančićFaust Vrančić was a Croatian and Venetian bishop, humanist, philosopher, historian, diplomat, linguist, lexicographer, and inventor....
and
KašićBartol Kašić was a Croatian linguist. He wrote the first Croatian grammar and translated the Bible and the Roman Rite into Croatian...
, and it influenced the
CroatianCroats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 5 million Croats living in the southern Central Europe region, along the east bank of the Adriatic Sea and an estimated 9 million throughout the world...
circle of lexicographers (among them Franciscans
DivkovićMatija Divković was a Croatian writer, the founder of the Croatian literature in Bosnia.-Life:Divković was born in Jelaške near Vareš in Bosnia. He probably joined the Franciscans in the nearest monastery in Olovo and was schooled there. He continued his studies in Italy, but then returned to...
and Tomo Babić), both in Croatia and in
Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( or (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula...
. His work is an integral part of development and standardization of Croatian modern language.
Works
- Bogoljubno razmiscgljanje od ocenascja Pokupgljeno iz kgniga Svetoga Tomme od Aquina Nauciteglja Anghjelskoga (God-Loving Thoughts on the Lord's Prayer Taken from the Books of St Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, Bratislava, 1642)
- Blago jezika slovinskoga ili Slovnik u Komu izgovarajuse rjeci slovinske Latinski, i Diacki. Thesaurus linguae Illyricae sive Dictionarium Illyricum. In quo verba Illyrica Italice, et Latine redduntur, Romae: et sumptibus Sacrae congregationis de propaganda fide impressum, Loreto, apud Paulum et Io. Baptistam Seraphinum, 1649 (Thesaurus of Croatian language or a Croatian Dictionary, where Croatian words are translated in Italian and Latin) (Ancona, 1651).
Printing of the "Blago..." was started by Serafini brothers in Loreto in 1649, and finished by O. Beltrano in Ancona in 1651.
External links