The first Croatian Linguist Bartol Kašić and his »Ritual rimski«

The presentation ceremony of the reprint of Kasic\u27s »Ritual rimski« /Roman Ritual/ took place on March 3,1993 in the former Jesuit church, St. Cathe¬rine\u27s, in Zagreb, on the occasion of the exhibition »Jesuit Heritage of the Croats. « The author presents a brief survey of Kasic\u27s life /Pag 1575 - Rome, 1650/ mentioning the most important of his numerous works: the Conversation Manual /1595/, the First Croatian Dictionary /1599/, and the First Gram¬mar/Rome, 1604/, The Translation of the whole Bible /1622-1636/, and the »Ritual rimski« /1640/, besides about twenty works in Croatian, three in Latin, and several in Italian. The author also presents the contemporary views of the time on the Croatian literary language expressed by IvanAgatié and Franjo Glavinic, the Ukrainian Basilians Nikola Novak and Bishop Terlecky with whom Rafael Levakovic had carried out the ruthenization and russification of glagolitic liturgical books. He presents KaSié\u27s solution: choice of the Stokavic/ikavic/ijekavic idiom, and his struggle for the Croa¬tian translation of the Bible in »Apologia.« Kasic failed in his attempts to annull the interdiction concerning the publication of his Bible translation, so that it is only now that the first edition is being prepared. Anyhow, Kasic succeeded to convince the Secretary of the Propaganda, F. Ingoli, of the correctness of his views so that in 1634 he was commissioned by him to translate the »Rituale Romanum« into the living Croatian language. »Ritual rimski« appeared in 1640 and has remained in official use for nearly three centuries, the text being up to the present day only very slightly modified. Conseqently, the question arises of Kasic\u27s influence on the development of the Croatian literary langage. According to socio-linguistic criteria, the au¬thor wishes to prove that it was Kasic who laid the foundations for the standardization of the Croatian literary language