I Pervye načatki latinskago jazyka di Zaharija Orfelin

In 1767 the Greek printer Demetrio Teodosio published in Venice the Pervye Naatki latinskago jazyka, a Latin handbook written in slaveno-srpski, especially conceived for a Serbian audience. Although published anonymously, there is sound evidence that it was compiled and edited by Zaharija Orfelin, one of the greatest Serbian intellectuals of the 18th century. The handbook consists of 448 pages, divided as follows: the first part provides the basics of Latin grammar, taken from Johannes Rhenius’ edition of the classic Donatus, followed by a shortened version of Christoph Cellarius’s Latin dictionary entitled Liber Memorialis and, finally, by a translation of Ioakim Lange’s Colloquia Scholastica. Each section is based on works which were largely employed as teaching materials in Serbian schools. All texts were derived from Russian editions, translated into slaveno-srpski and adapted for the Serbian audience, at times relying also on the so called narodni jezik (“popular language”). This paper aims to draw a brief presentation of the Pervye Naatki latinskago jazyka, analyzing its structure, contents and sources, as well as trying to define the reasons which led Orfelin to work on it.