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Giacomo Micaglia (Croatian: Jacopo Mikalia, Jacov Mikaglja, Jakov Mikalja, Latin: Jacobi Micalia) (March 31, 1601 - December 1, 1654) was an Italian linguist and lexicographer from Kingdom of Naples. He was the author of an early dictionary of Illyric (formerly referred to the Serbocroatian vernaculars), prior to the defintion of their standard languages in XIX century.
Life
Micaglia was born in Peschici on the peninsula of Gargano in the Napoli ruled Apulia, 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 Slavic language, Micaglia was sent in Ragusa by the Society of Jesus. It was the time of the Counter-Reformation and the Catholic Church wished to restore its power even in the Balkans. For four years (1630-1633) Micaglia taught grammar at the Jesuit College in Ragusa. There he wrote "Latin grammar for Illyric 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 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 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" (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
Micaglia's Dictionary is often presented as a Croatian dictionary . The dictionary, anyway, is better described by the word Serbocroatian, because the present days ethnic groups of former Yugoslavia share the same dialects and because Micaglia collected words of different South Slavic dialects, outside the present day Croatia (mainly in Bosnia).
Furthermore the therm Illyric formerly described to the all the Serbocroatian and Slovenian dialects.
All these dialects were still vernacular during Micalglia's time, and not already developed into a Croatian or Serbian standard language.
This definition was still in use the mid of 19th century. It is interesting that in this time, the Dalmatian and the Bosnian dialects were not classified as Croatian, but as 'Servian' dialects. In fact the therm 'Croatian dialect' was referred only to the the small Kingdom of Croatia, around Zagreb .
For all this reasons, the word Illyric shall be referred to all the former Yugoslavian dialects; it can consequently be properly described by the therm Serbocroatian (or "Central South Slavic diasystem").
After the breakdown of Yugoslavia, the therm Serborcroatian has anyway became unpopular in Croatia.
A similar problem regard Micaglia himself, often presented as the Croatian linguist Jakov Mikalja . Thus Micaglia himself declared to be Italian (and Mikalja is a translation of the Italian name).
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)-
References
- http://www.bookmaps.de/lib/ruc/g/r/gra_55.html
- http://www.bookmaps.de/lib/ruc/b/l/bla_21.html
- ^ Sir John Gardner Wilkinson; Dalmatia and Montenegro:...; London, 1848; vol. 1, pp.30-31
- Map of the Serbocroatian dialects
- http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/documentation.asp?id=hbs
External links
- Matica hrvatska - Kolo - Jubileji hrvatskih leksikografa by Vladimir Horvat (lot of data and analysis) Template:Hr icon
- A page about Jakov Mikalja in Croatian
- "Quando a Peschici gli slavi ... erano di casa" Template:It icon
- Jubileji leksikografa Mikalje Template:Hr icon