Andrija Jambrešić (20 September 1706 – 13 May 1758) was a

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n writer, lexicographer and linguist. He is best known for his dictionary ''Lexicon Latinum'', which he created in collaboration with Franjo Sušnik (1686 – 1739) and published in 1742,

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

Biography

He was born in Cesarska ves on 20 September 1706. He attended schools in

Varaždin Varaždin ( or ; , also known by #Name, alternative names) is a city in Northern Croatia, north-east of Zagreb. The total population is 46,946, with 38,839 in the city settlement itself (2011). The city is best known for its baroque buildings, ...

and Zagreb, becoming a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

in 1727. Following his studies of philosophy in Trnava, he became a professor at the Zagreb gymnasium, a post he held for a year in 1729. He subsequently became a professor in Varaždin. From 1731 to 1735, he studied theology in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

, and subsequently enrolled at the Zagreb

faculty of philosophy A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

. From this point on, he held various posts, teaching philosophy at Jesuit seminaries. Apart from his most known work, a Croatian dictionary published in 1742, he is also known for his suggestion for Croatian

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

(1732), which was later adopted as a school standard in 1778. Dealing with legal issues, he also wrote a manual dealing with Croatian laws and legal interpretations, ''Municipale Croatiae jus, commentario illustratum''.

Lexicon latinum

The multilingual dictionary, ''Lexicon Latinum interpretatione Illyrica, Germanica et Hungarica locuples & index illirico sive croatico-latinus'' represents an important monument in studies of linguistics, lexicography, comparative Slavistics and dialectology. The Croatian counterpart, named Illyrian, is written in the

Kajkavian Kajkavian is a South Slavic languages, South Slavic supradialect or language spoken primarily by Croats in much of Central Croatia and Gorski Kotar. It is part of the South Slavic dialect continuum, being transitional to the supradialects of Č ...

dialect, but with elements of

Shtokavian Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige supradialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin stand ...

and

Chakavian Chakavian or Čakavian (, , , proper name: or own name: ''čokovski, čakavski, čekavski'') is a South Slavic supradialect or language spoken by Croats along the Adriatic coast, in the historical regions of Dalmatia, Istria, Croatian L ...

. The linguistic purism is reflected in numerous translated, and newly coined words, particularly in scientific terminology. The dictionary was released only two years after a similar dictionary by Ivan Belostenec was published by the Paulines, which would indicate competition between them and the Jesuits.

Works

*Andrija Jambrešić - Franjo Sušnik: Lexicon Latinum interpretatione Illyrica, Germanica et Hungarica locuples & index illirico sive croatico-latinus, Typis Academicis societatis Jesu, Zagrabiae, 1742. *Manuductio ad Croaticam orthographiam, 1732 (''Introduction to Croatian orthography'') *Municipale Croatiae jus, commentario illustratum

References

N. Raos, Kemijski pojmovi u Jambrešićevom Lexicon Latinum (1742), Prirodoslovlje 20(1-2) (2020) 59-78. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jambrešić, Andrija 1706 births 1758 deaths 18th-century Croatian Jesuits Linguists from Croatia Croatian lexicographers 18th-century lexicographers 18th-century Croatian writers 18th-century linguists Croatian male writers