Jakov Mikalja

Mikalja's dictionary

Giacomo Micaglia (in Croatia called Jakov Mikalja) (March 31, 1601 - December 1, 1654) was an Italian linguist and lexicographer, the author of an early dictionary of Illyric (formerly reffered to the Serbian and Croatian dialects).

Life

Micaglia was born in the Slavic settlement of Peschici on the peninsula of Gargano in South Italy. He said about himself, that he was Slavic by language, and Italian for nationality[1]. After completing the studies in philosophy in 1628, he became a Jesuit. Because of his knowledge of the languages, Micaglia was sent in Ragusa by the Jesuits, it was the time of the Counter-Reformation, and the Church wished to restore his power even in the Balkans. For four years (1630-1633) Micaglia taught grammar at the Jesuit College in Ragusa. There he made a "Latin grammar for Illyric students" after Emanuel Alvares (De institutione grammatica pro Illyricis accommodata, 1637).

In 1636, Micaglia sent a letter to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, proposing a reform of the Latin alphabet for the needs of the Illyric language. He discussed the same issue in the chapter "On Slavic Orthography" of his Illyric work God-Loving Thoughts on the Lord's Prayer Taken from the Books of St Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor (Bratislava, 1642).

From 1637 to 1645 he was a missionary among the Catholics in Timişoara (Romania). He was the Illyric confessor in Loreto from 1645 till his death.

Dictionary

Micaglia's greatest work is Thesaurus of Illyric Language and Illyric Dictionary (where Illyric words are translated in Italian and Latin). It was first printed in Loreto in 1649, but a better printing press was needed, so it was completed in Ancona in 1651. The dictionary was a project of the Jesuits, to have a mean to fight the effect of the Protestant Reformation in Dalmatia. It was the first Illyric dictionary with Illyric as the starting language.

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 Illyric (Od ortographie jezika slovinskoga ili načina od pisanja), and an Italian grammar in Illyric (Grammatika Talianska). Micaglia explains in the foreword that he chosen the "Bosnian" (today recognized to be the Shtokavian dialect) because "everyone says that the Bosnian language is the most beautiful one" (Ogn'un dice che la lingua Bosnese sia la piu bella). The dictionary, intended primarily to teach students and young Jesuits, has around 25,000 words, mostly in the Ijekavian variant, with some Shtokavian and Chakavian Ikavian forms.

Controversy

Croatian sources usually present the Micaglia's Dictionary as one of the first Croatian dictionaries. The claim is baseless: a standard Croatian language was developed only in XIX century. Micaglia himself wrote that his work were mainly based on the Bosnian dialect.
Furthermore Croatians wrote often about the 'Croatian' Jakov Mikalija. Not only this last name is not historically deprived of fundaments (being just a recent translation of 'Giacomo Micaglia'), but Micaglia himself declared to be Italian. He spent all his life in Italy, with just six years travelling in the Balkans, to write his dictionary.

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)
• Thesaurus of Illyric Language and Illyric Dictionary (where Illyric words are translated in Italian and Latin) (Ancona, 1651)-

External link

• A page about Jakov Mikalja in Croatian
• "Quando a Peschici gli slavi ... erano di casa" Template:It icon