Ivan Ančić

Who was Ivan Ančić?

Ivan Ančić was a Croatian theological writer.

He was born in Lipa near Tomislavgrad, and likely finished his basic education at the Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena monastery in Rama where he was ordained as a priest in 1643. He attended gymnasium in Velika and finished his philosophy-theology studies in Cremona, Brixen and Naples.

In Assisi he began his work Vrata nebeska i život vični in 1676 and finished it in Loreto in 1677. That same year he printed his work Ogledalo misničko in Rome. He wrote in the "Duvno style" of the Shtokavian dialect using the Latin alphabet in which there are noticeable elements of bosančica. His translations from Latin are still articulate examples of a good understanding of the language.

Apart from his printed works, two handwritten pieces have been preserved. The first is an autobiography, while the second is a report about the Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena from 1680.

He died in Ancona.