First edition of the first great Croatian dictionary

Micalia, Jacobus [Jakov Mikalja, Giacomo Micaglia]. Blago jezika slovinskoga illi slovnik ú komu izgovarajuse rjeci slovinske Latinski i Diacki. Thesaurus linguae Illyricae sive dictionarium illyricum in quo verba Illyrica Italicè & Latinè redduntur.

€ 12.500,00

The principal achievement of the Italian linguist and lexicographer Giacomo Micaglia (1601-54): a "Thesaurus of the Croatian Language and Croatian Dictionary, in which Croatian words are rendered in Italian and Latin". Micaglia, by his own description a "Slavic-speaking Italian", was of Slavic ancestry and used the name Jakov Mikalja in his native language. Publication of his "Thesaurus" began in Loreto in 1649, but a better printing press was needed, and so it was completed in Ancona in 1651.

Intended primarily to teach students and young Jesuits, the dictionary contains some 25,000 words. It is generally a (Serbo-)Croatian dictionary, principally in the Shtokavian dialect of Bosnia but with some Chakavian parts, and even Kaykavian lexics as entries or synonyms. Micaglia's thesaurus forms a trilingual dictionary in which the entry column is organised as a monolingual dictionary: with a sequence of synonyms founded on dialectical contrasts, as well as definitions, and hyperonyms as explanations. Thus Shtokavian-Cakavian terms are accompanied by Bosnian Franciscan words, Turcisms, Raguseisms and Croatian words. It has thus been said to illustrate the lexical wealth of the South Slavic dialect continuum.

The dictionary was a Jesuit project, devised as an instrument to fight both the Reformation and the progression of the Muslim faith in the Balkans. It was the first Croatian dictionary, with Croatian - under the name of "Illyric" - as the starting language (the dictionary treats the terms Croatian, Slovenian and Illyric as synonyms). 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 nacina od pisanja"), and an Italian grammar in Croatian ("Grammatika Talianska"). Micaglia explains in the foreword that he chose the Bosnian dialect because "everyone says that the Bosnian language is the most beautiful one" ("ogn'un dice che la lingua Bosnese sia la più bella").

Micaglia's work was influenced by the earlier works of Fausto Veranzio and Bartolomeo Cassio, and it influenced the Croatian circle of lexicographers (among them the Franciscans Divkovic and Tomo Babic), both in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His work is an integral part of development and standardization of Croatian modern language.