Bartol Kai

This article is about Croatian linguist. For the ferry, see experts believe it is one of three dictionaries made by
MF Bartol Kai.
Kai and that the other two are archived in Perugia and
Oxford.
Kai's native dialect was Chakavian.[3] In the 16th century, the Chakavian dialect was prevalent in Croatian
works, though it now shifted towards the Shtokavian.[4]
Kai opted for Shtokavian as it was the most common
dialect among his South Slavic (Illyrian) people.[5]

Bartol Kai (Latin: Bartholomaeus Cassius, Italian:

Bartolomeo Cassio; August 15, 1575 December 28,
1650) was a Jesuit clergyman and grammarian during
the Counter-Reformation, who wrote the rst Croatian
grammar and translated the Bible and the Roman Rite
into Croatian.

2.1 The rst Croatian grammar

Life

Kai was born on the island of Pag, in the Republic of

Venice (in modern Croatia). His father died when he was
a small child, so he was raised by his uncle Luka Deodati
Bogdani, a priest from Pag, who taught him to read and
write. He attended the municipal school in the town of
Pag. After 1590 he studied at the Illyric College in Loreto
near Ancona, in the Papal States (in modern Italy), managed by the Jesuits. As a gifted and industrious pupil,
he was sent to further studies in Rome in 1593, where
he joined the Society of Jesus in 1595. Kai continued propaganda activities of Aleksandar Komulovi after his death, being even greater Pan-Slav then Komulovi
was.[1] Kai censored and edited Komulovi's 1606 work
(Zrcalo od Ispovijesti).[2]
Kai was made a priest in 1606 and served as a confessor in the St. Peters Basilica in Rome. He lived in
Dubrovnik from 1609 to 1612. In 1612/13, disguised as a
merchant, he went on a mission to the Ottoman provinces
of Bosnia, central Serbia and eastern Slavonia (Valpovo,
Osijek, Vukovar), which he reported to the pope. From
1614 to 1618 he was the Croatian confessor in Loreto.
He went on his second mission in 1618/19. In old age, he
described both missions in his incomplete autobiography.
His second stay in Dubrovnik lasted from 1620 to 1633.
Then he returned to Rome, where he spent the rest of his
life.
The rst edition of Kai's grammar in Rome in 1604.

It qualied Kai for further work in the area of Croatian

language. Since the Jesuits took care of the Christians
in the Ottoman Empire and tried to teach in the local
language, they needed an adequate textbook for working among the Croats. In 1582 Marin Temperica wrote a
report to general Claudio Acquaviva in which he emphasized the importance of the Slavic language understandable all over the Balkans.[6] In this report of Temperica

Literary activity

Already as a student, Kai started teaching Croatian in

the Illyric Academy in Rome, which awakened his interest in the Croatian language. By 1599 he made a
Croatian-Italian dictionary, which has been preserved as
a manuscript in Dubrovnik since the 18th century. Some
1

3 WORKS

requested publishing of the Illyrian language dictionaries 2.3

and grammars.[7] Based on this request, Kai provided
such a textbook: he published Institutionum linguae illyricae libri duo (The Structure of the Illyrian Language in
Two Books) in Rome in 1604. It was the rst Slavic
language grammar.[8]

The Roman Rite

In almost 200 pages and two parts (books), he provided

the basic information on the Croatian language and explained the Croatian morphology in great detail. The language is basically Shtokavian with many Chakavian elements, mixing older and newer forms. For unknown reasons, the grammar was not accompanied by a dictionary,
as was the practice with Jesuit dictionaries and grammars
of Croatian.
In periods 16121613 and 16181620 Kai visitied
various regions of Ottoman Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia.[9]
After 1613 Kai published several works of religious
and instructive content and purpose (the lives of the saints
Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, the lives of Jesus
and Mary), a hagiographic collection Perivoj od djevstva
(Virginal Garden; 1625 and 1628), two catechisms etc.
In the late 1627 he completed the spiritual tragedy St
Venefrida, subtitled triomfo od istoe (a triumph of purity), which remained in manuscript until 1938.

Ritual rimski, 1640

Ritual rimski ("Roman Rite"; 1640), covering more than

400 pages, was the most famous Kai's work, which was
used by all Croatian dioceses and archdioceses except for
In 1622, Kai started translating the New Testament the one in Zagreb, which also accepted it in the 19th ceninto the local Slavic vernacular more precisely, the tury.
Shtokavian dialect of Dubrovnik. In 1625, he was in
charge of translating the entire Bible. He submitted the Kai called the language used in Ritual rimski as naki
entire translation in Rome in 1633 to obtain the approval (our language) or bosanski (Bosnian). He used the
for printing, but he encountered diculties because some term Bosnian even though he was born in a Chakavian
Croatians were against translations in that vernacular. region: instead he decided to adopt a common language
The translation was eventually forbidden (non est expe- (lingua communis), a version of Shtokavian Ikavian, spoken by the majority the speakers of Serbo-Croatian.
diens ut imprimatur).
He used the terms dubrovaki (from Dubrovnik) for
Considering the fact that the translations of the Bible the Ijekavian version used in his Bible, and dalmatinski
to local languages had a crucial role in the creation of (Dalmatian) for the Chakavian version.
the standard languages of many peoples, the ban on
Kai's translation has been described by Josip Lisac
as the greatest catastrophe in the history of Croatian
3 Works
language.[10] The preserved manuscripts were used to
publish the translation, with detailed expert notes, in
Razlika skladanja slovinska (Croatian-Italian dictio2000.
nary), Rome, 1599
The great linguistic variety and invention of his trans Institutionum linguae illyricae libri duo (The Struclation can be seen from the comparison with the King
ture of the Illyrian (Croatian) Language in Two
James Version of the Bible. The King James Version,
Books), Rome, 1604
which has had a profound impact on English, was published in 1611, two decades before Kai's translation. It
Various hagiographies; collection Perivoj od djevstva
has 12,143 dierent words. Kai's Croatian translation,
(Virginal Garden; 1625 and 1628) *Two catechisms
even incomplete (some parts of the Old Testament are
Spiritual tragedy St Venefrida, 1627, published in
missing), has around 20,000 dierent words more than
1938
the English version and even more than the original Bible!

2.2

Translation of the Bible

4.1

Sources

The Bible, 1633

Ritual rimski (Roman Rite), 1640

References

3
Hrvatska biblija Bartola Kaia (Croatian Bible of
Bartol Kai), Slobodna Dalmacija, December 5,
2000
Zasluni jezikoslovac Bartol Kai (Bartol Kai, the
Great Linguist), Vjesnik, May 28, 1999
Bartol Kai

[1] Zlatar, Zdenko (1992). Between the Double Eagle and

the Crescent: The Republic of Dubrovnik and the Origins
of the Eastern Question. East European Monographs. p.
64. ISBN 978-0-88033-245-3. After his death his propaganda activities were continued by an even greater PanSlav: Bartol Kasic.
[2] Church, Catholic; Kai, Bartol; Horvat, Vladimir (1640).
Ritval Rimski: po Bartolomeu Kassichiu od Druxbae
Yesusovae. Kranska sadanjost. p. 457. Ujedno je
1606. bio cenzor i redaktor djela Aleksandra Komulovia
Zarcalo od ispovijesti, koje je objavljeno u Rimu 1606.
i(li) 1616, pa opet u Veneciji 1634.
[3] Harris, Robin (January 2006). Dubrovnik: A History. p.
236. ISBN 9780863569593. Kasic hailed from the Dalmatian island of Pag and so, like Komulovic, he spoke the
Croatian variant known as cakavski (or cakavian).
[4] rnja, Zvane (1962). Cultural History of Croatia. p. 280.
[5] Sugar, Peter F (1977). Southeastern Europe Under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804. p. 260. ISBN 9780295803630.
[6] Franievi, Marin (1986). Izabrana djela: Povijest
hrvatske renesansne knjievnosti. Nakladni zavod Matice
hrvatske. p. 190. Osnivanje Ilirskih zavoda u Loretu
i Rimu, spomenica koju e Marin Temperica, poto je
stupio u isusovaki red, uputiti generalu reda Aquavivi,
o potrebi jedinstvenoga slavenskog jezika koji bi mogli
razumjeti po cijelom Balkanu (1582), ...
[7] Franievi, Marin (1974). Pjesnici i stoljea. Mladost. p.
252. Tako se dogodilo da je isusovac Marin Temperica
ve u XVI stoljeu pisao spomenicu o potrebi zajednikog
jezika, traei da se napie rjenik i gramatika.
[8] Istoricheski pregled.
Blgarsko istorichesko druzhestvo. 1992. p. 9. ...
,
,
.

[9] O'Neill, Charles E.; Domnguez, Joaqun Mara (2001).
Diccionario histrico de la Compaa de Jess: Infante de
Santiago-Piatkiewicz. Univ Pontica Comillas. p. 2899.
ISBN 978-84-8468-039-0.
[10] Neizdavanje Kaieve Biblije najvea katastrofa
hrvatskoga jezika (in Croatian). Zadarski list. Retrieved
February 6, 2014.

4.1

Sources

In Croatian:

Bartol Kai i Biblija

5 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1

Text

Bartol Kai Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartol_Ka%C5%A1i%C4%87?oldid=743561209 Contributors: Charles Matthews,

Mir Harven, Joy, Zmaj~enwiki, Gene Nygaard, Je3000, GregorB, Rjwilmsi, The Rambling Man, Jlittlet, RussBot, SmackBot, OrphanBot, Iridescent, Cydebot, Travelbird, JamesAM, BokicaK, CommonsDelinker, Ivan T., Factanista, TXiKiBoT, Ivan tambuk, Admiral
Norton, Addbot, Tassedethe, Lightbot, Yobot, Sisyph, Anonymous from the 21st century, Silverije, Full-date unlinking bot, RjwilmsiBot,
Antidiskriminator, In ictu oculi, ZroBot, Zoupan, Petrb, BattyBot, Redsky89, 23 editor, VIAFbot, Dumuzid, KasparBot, Lule123, Bender
the Bot and Anonymous: 7

5.2

Images

File:Bartol_Kasic_Institutiones_linguae_Illyricae.jpg
Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
0/06/Bartol_Kasic_Institutiones_linguae_Illyricae.jpg
License:
Public
domain
Contributors:
http://www.ihjj.hr/
oHrJeziku-bartol-kasic-Institutiones-linguae-lllyricae.html Original artist: Bartol Kai, Romae: Apud Aloyzium Zannettum
File:Commons-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Ritual_rimski.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Ritual_rimski.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Text_document_with_red_question_mark.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Text_document_
with_red_question_mark.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Created by bdesham with Inkscape; based upon Text-x-generic.svg
from the Tango project. Original artist: Benjamin D. Esham (bdesham)

5.3

Content license

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