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Giacomo Micaglia (Croatian: Jacopo Mikalia, Jacov Mikaglja, Jakov Mikalja, Latin: Jacobus Micalia) (Peschici, March 31, 1601 - Loreto, December 1, 1654) was an Italian linguist of South Slavic origin.

Life

Micaglia was born in Peschici on the peninsula of Gargano in the Napoli ruled Apulia. Peschici was one of the Slavic settlement growth in that time in South Italy. He said about himself to be an Italian of Slavic language . After completing the studies in philosophy in 1628, he became a Jesuit.
Because of his knowledge of the Croatian language, Micaglia was sent in the Republic of Ragusa by the Society of Jesus. It was the time of the Counter-Reformation and the Catholic Church wished to restore its power also in the Balkans. For four years (1630-1633) Micaglia taught grammar at the Jesuit College in Ragusa (in Republic of Ragusa). There he wrote "Latin grammar for Croat students" after Emanuel Alvares (De institutione grammatica pro Illyricis accommodata, 1637).
Few years later, 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 work in Illyric 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 in the Banat (present day Romania). He came back to to Italy, where 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, as instrument to fight the Protestant Reformation in the Balkans.
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" language, 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. It belongs to the corpse of dictionaries in Shtokavian dialect, with some Chakavian parts, and as limited, even Kaykavian lexic as entry or synonym.

Controversy

Micaglia's Dictionary today is often presented as a "Croatian" dictionary, even if the therm "Serbocroatian" should be a better descriptor.
In fact the mainstream of linguistics consider Serbo-Croatian language as a genetically single language. Anyway, today Croats, Serbs, Bosniacs and some Montenegrins regard their languages as separate standard languages (Ausbausprache) (Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian internationally recognized). These four ethnic groups of former Yugoslavia overlap in some dialects (not to be confused with the standard languages).

Micaglia collected words of different South Slavic dialects, inside and outside the present day Croatia (mainly in Bosnia), centuries before the standardization of languages; for these reasons, the word Illyric could refer to all the so called "Central South Slavic diasystem" (or Serbocroatian) and not only to the Croatian language.
However, from the cultural point of view, Micaglia's work was influenced by earlier work of Faust Vrančić (Fausto Veranzio) and it influenced the circle of lexicographers (among them Kasic (Bartolomeo Cassio) and Divkovic), both in Dalmatia, Croatia and Bosnia&Herzegovina. Micaglia himself put equal sign between Illyrian and Croat. 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 an 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.

References

External links

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