Konstantinas Sirvydas - Works

Works

At the same time, he began his career as a preacher, writer and scientist. First edition before 1620 - fifth in 1713, he published his tri-lingual Polish-Lithuanian-Latin dictionary Dictionarium trium linguarum in usum studiosae juventutis, one of the first such books in Lithuanian literary history. It has been printed in at least five editions since that time. First and later editions slightly differed. Editions Until the 19th century, it was the only Lithuanian dictionary in print. Sirvydas' lexicon is often mentioned as a milestone in the standardization and codification of the Lithuanian language. The first edition contained approximately 6000 words, the second was expanded to include almost 11,000 words. It also had a lot of newly created Lithuanian words - for example mokytojas (teacher), taisyklė (rule), kokybė (quality).

A decade later, in 1629, he published the first volume of a collection of his sermons entitled Punktai Sakymų, and he later translated them into the Polish language as Punkty kazań. The Lithuanian version of this work was often used as a primer to teach the Lithuanian language. However, it was not until 1644, that the second volume was finally published. Around 1630, he compiled the first book of grammar of the Lithuanian language (Lietuvių kalbos raktas – Key to the Lithuanian Language), which however did not survive to our times. He died from tuberculosis on August 8, 1631 in Vilnius.