The Lithuanian Dictionary is a handwritten lexicographic relic kept at the Department of Manuscripts and Early Printed Books of the Czech National Museum Library (shelfmark IV A 11). This work spanning 30 sheets of a large format (21.5 × 35.5cm) represents a unified and finalized philological study (ordered alphabetically from A to Ž). It is a transcript (created approximately in the years 1850-1851) of the original work which was being created continuously throughout the first half of the 19th century. The first mention of “Letawský Slownjk” (The Lithuanian Dictionary) of F. L. Čelakovský can be found in the fragment of a letter from J.V. Kamarýt from 1827.

The premise that the author of this lexicographic work could have been František Ladislav Čelakovský was first introduced in the article of Ilja Lemeškin Františeko Ladislavo Čelakovskio lietuvių kalbos žodynas [1] z roku 2010 (LEMEŠKIN 2010). In it, I. Lemeškin brought attention to a faulty identification of The Dictionary on the part of the assistant of the Czech National Museum Library, F. M. Bartoš in Soupis rukopisných památek Národního muzea v Praze (Inventory of Handwritten Relics of the National Museum in Prague) (BARTOŠ 1926), where this work was characterized as a description of a significant lexicographic work from the middle of the 19th century, G. H. F. Nesselmann’s Wörterbuch der littauischen Sprache (Königsberg, 1850–1851). I. Lemeškin established a series of questions relating to the intent and nature of The Dictionary, determined a likely time of its creation as well as offered a number of arguments which made it possible to suggest F. L. Čelakovský as the author. The Lithuanian Dictionary was referred to as the work of this Czech revivalist, philologist, and man of letters in a number of other works (see below).

Arguments that serve as the basis for adjudicating the authorship of the aforementioned relic to F. L. Čelakovský are rooted namely in the analysis of literary and scientific works and the preserved correspondence of this scientist, as well as the professional handwriting analysis from 2017-2018.

1. Extensive correspondence of this revivalist, in which his interest in Baltic study is demonstrable and visible, particularly worthy of attention is a fragment of a letter from J. V. Kamarýt addressed to F. L. Čelakovský, directly mentioning a “Lithuanian dictionary”;
2. Other typologically similar lexicographic activities of F. L. Čelakovský which align with The Lithuanian Dictionary very well (worth mentioning is for example The Dictionary of the Polabian Language);
3. The thought identity notable in The Lithuanian Dictionary, as well as other works by F. L. Čelakovský (specifically meaning the opinions expressed in Čtení o počátcích dějin vzdělanosti a literatury národúv slovanských which directly relate to the question of a common Balto-Slavic origin);
4. The exclusion of other persons (for example Karel Jaromír Erben, whose name is written in pencil on the title page of The Dictionary) which could have written The Lithuanian Dictionary from being considered a possible author;
5. The professional handwriting analysis performed as part of the grant project GA UK (n. 520317), in which F. L. Čelakovský was established by JUDr. Jiří Straka, a forensic expert in the field of handwriting analysis, as the writer of the relic The Lithuanian Dictionary at medium probability (according to the Czech handwriting analysis convention).

Based on the data from the correspondence and considering the placement within the context of Čelakovsky’s translational interests and his further lexicographic activity, a postulate was formed that the author began working on The Lithuanian Dictionary around the year 1825 and was finishing his work in the following years. We are led to believe this specifically by the dating (further considered in relevant studies) of a fragment of the pivotal letter from J. V. Kamarýt set to 1827 and a quote placed in the second volume of Slovanské národní písně from 1825, in which Čelakovský directly mentions his search for Lithuanian and Slavic words with the same roots.

The analyzed (and published) version of The Lithuanian Dictionary was compiled in the years 1850-1851 and it represents the transcript of the original work which is unfortunately not available. The establishment of this dating is legitimized by the orthographic norm used in the analyzed work as well as the interpretive insert (the excerpt of related terms), which was, according to Nesselman’s dictionary, included in 1851 at the earliest.