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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 (Croatian, in the frame of Central South Slavic diasystem). His work is integral part of development and standardization of Croatian modern language.

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 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 (today Dubrovnik in Croatia). 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

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Micaglia's Dictionary is regarded as a Croatian dictionary by mainstream lexicographers and linguists. There is also the minority opinion that the dictionary 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), and that 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").
However, from the cultural point of view, Mikalja's work was influenced by earlier work of Faust Vrančić and it influenced Croatian circle of lexicographers (among them Kasic and Divkovic), both in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His work is 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)
• Thesaurus of Illyric Language and Illyric Dictionary (where Illyric words are translated in Italian and Latin) (Ancona, 1651)-

References

1. http://www.bookmaps.de/lib/ruc/g/r/gra_55.html
2. http://www.bookmaps.de/lib/ruc/b/l/bla_21.html
3. Map of the Serbocroatian dialects
4. 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

• 1601 births
• 1654 deaths
• People from the Province of Foggia
• Italian linguists
• Jesuits