dialect was prevalent in Croatian works, though it now shifted towards the Shtokavian. Kašić opted for Shtokavian as it was the most common dialect among his South Slavic (Illyrian) people. The first Illyrian grammar It qualified Kašić for further work in Illyrian. Since the Jesuits took care of the Christians in the Ottoman Empire and tried to teach in the local language, they needed an adequate textbook for working among the Croats. In 1582 Marin Temperica wrote a report to general Claudio Acquaviva in which he emphasized the importance of the Slavic language understandable all over the Balkans. In this report of Temperica requested publishing of the Illyrian language dictionaries and grammars. Based on this request, Kašić provided such a textbook: he published Institutionum linguae illyricae libri duo ("The Structure of the Illyrian Language in Two Books") in Rome in 1604. It was the first Slavic language grammar. In almost 200 pages and two parts ("books"), he provided basic information on Illyrian and explained the Illyrian morphology in great detail. The language is basically Shtokavian with many Chakavian elements, mixing older and newer forms. For unknown reasons, the grammar was not accompanied by a dictionary, as was the practice with Jesuit dictionaries and grammars of Illyrian. In periods 1612–1613 and 1618–1620 Kašić visited various regions of Ottoman Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia. After 1613 Kašić published several works of religious and instructive content and purpose (the lives of the saints Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, the lives of Jesus and Mary), a hagiographic collection Perivoj od djevstva (Virginal Garden; 1625 and 1628), two catechisms etc. In the late 1627 he completed the spiritual tragedy St Venefrida, subtitled triomfo od čistoće (a triumph of purity), which remained in manuscript until 1938. Translation of the Bible In 1622, Kašić started translating the New Testament into the local Slavic vernacular – more precisely, the Shtokavian dialect of Dubrovnik (Dubrovnik subdialect). In 1625, he was in charge of translating the entire Bible. He submitted the entire translation in Rome in 1633 to obtain the approval for printing, but he encountered difficulties because some Croatians were against translations in that vernacular. The translation was eventually forbidden (non est expediens ut imprimatur). Considering the fact that the translations of the Bible to local languages had a crucial role in the creation of the standard languages of many peoples, the ban on Kašić's translation has been described