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Faust Vrančić (1551, Sibenik - January 17 1617, Venice) also known as Faust Verantius was a humanist, philosopher, historian, lexicographer, and an inventor.

Family history

The family of Vrančić came to Šibenik, (Dalmatia), from today's Bosnia, where member of the family was mentioned for the first time in 1360. His grandfather, Antun Vrančić, (1504 - 1573), diplomat and high civil was servant and in touch with Dutch philosopher, humanist, writer Erasmus, (1465-1536), and German philosopher, theologist and reformer, Melanchtonom, (1497 - 1560), with Nikola Zrinski (1508 - 1566), Croatian ban, statesman and soldier.

Activities

Since the youth interested in science, attended the schools in Padua - Padova and Venice, particulary interested in mathematics, engineering and mechanics. Vrančić was admistrative official on Hungarian Court as well that one of the king Rudolf the II in Hradchany in Prague wher he was in contact Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe. After wife's death, he left for Hungary and later for Venice to join the brotherhood of St. Paul in 1609 where he commited himself to the science.

Language

The author of a five language dictionary Dictionarium quinque nobilissimarum Europeae linguarum; Latinae, Italicae, Germanicae, dalmaticae et Hungaricae published in Venice in 1595, with 5 000 entries for each particular language. The term Dalmatian was at that time used to define the Slavic language spoken from the Adriatic coast to as far Danube and Drava rivers. Language was called Croatian since the second edition of it appeared in Prague, eddited by Peterus Lodereckerus and is how it is called today. (NB: Not to be confused with a minor Romance Dalmatian language.) In an extension of the dictionary called Vocabula dalmatica quae Ungri sibi usurparunt there is a list of Croatian words that entered the Hungarian language. The book had a great influence on the formation of both Croatian and Hungarian orthography, (Hungarian language accepted his suggestions - usage of ly, ny, sz, cz). It was also the first dictionary of Hungarian language, printed four times, in Venice, Prague 1606, Pozun 1834 what is nowdays Bratislava in Slovakia and in Zagreb, Croatia in 1971. Work was important source of inspiration for other European dictionaries among them:

• Hungarian and Italian written by Bernardino Bali
• German Thesaurus polyglottus by humanist and lexicographer Hieronim Megister
• Multilingual Dictionarium septem diversarum linguarum by Peterus Lodereckerus of Prague in 1605 in Latin, Italian, Dalmatian, Bohemian, Polish, German, Hungarian. The author eddited the second eddition of Vrancic's work and renamed the Dalmatian language for the first time into "Croatian".

Technical

He wrote mostly abouth technical inventions among which the parachute, which he tested in Venice in 1617 jumping from the tower was the most famous. The fact of that is explicitly and precisely stated in the book written by John Willkins, (1614 - 1672), the secretary of the Royal Society in London, just 30 years after it happened. The book mentioning it is Mathematical Magic of the Wonders that may be Performed by Mechanical Geometry, Part I: Concerning Mechanical Powers Motion, Part II, Deadloss or Mechanical Motions, London 1648. Leonardo da Vinci had a similar idea but only in form of a rough sketch which he never materialized.

Vrančić's sketch of his own, today famous Homo volans, appeared in his book on mechanics Machinae novae, (Venice 1595). It contained 40 pictures of the big format depicting 56 different machines, devices and technical concepts. Sensational book was soon translated into Italian, Spanish, French, German. Area of his interest in engineering and mechanics was broad. Mills were his maint point of research where he created 18 different designs. He envisioned windmills with both vertical and horizontal axis, different wing construction to improve its efficiency. The idea of the mill powered by tides would incorporated accumulation pools filled with water by high tide and releasing it when tide is low, using the simple gravity, the concept just recently engineered and used. Ordered by the Pope, he envisioned and made projects needed in the process of the river regulations since the Rome was often flooded by the Tiber river. He also tackled the problem of the wells and water supply of Venice which is surounded by see. Devices to register the time using water, fire or else were envisioned and materialized. His own sunclock was effective in reading the time, date and month, but was functioning only around the midday hours. Construction method of building the metal bridges, the mechanic of the forces in the area of statics were also part of his research. The last area was described when further developed in separate book by mathematician Simon de Bruges, (Simon Stevin) in 1586.

History and philosophy

In his works related to history, just few of them remained - Regulae cancellariae regni Hungariae and De Slavinis seu Sarmatis in Dalmatia in the manuscript form while Scriptores rerum hungaricum was published in 1798. In Logica nova and Ethica christiana, in single Venetian edition in 1616 , he delt with the problems of theology regarding the ideological clash between the movement of Reformation and Catholicism. Tommaso Campanela, (1568 - 1639 and Archbishop, of Split and Senj Dominis, (1560 - 1624) were his intellectual counterparts.

Lost works

Some of his works Vrancic published under the name Veranzo. Many of them has not been printed, left in the form of manuscripts. Some were sold to stay in big archives in capitals of Austria or Hungary while some were lost for ever.