Faust Vrančić was a humanist, Latin and Croatian writer, polyhistor, scientist, physicist, inventor, philologist and philosopher, one of the greatest Croatian minds of his time.
Vrančić compiled the first larger dictionary of the Croatian language as part of a dictionary that contained the five most renowned European languages - Latin, Italian, German, Dalmatian (now called Croatian) and Hungarian.
His researches were published in the Machinae novae (New Devices), a work that describes 56 different devices in five languages, constructions, of which the most famous is the suspension bridge and the parachute.
Based on Leonardo da Vinci's sketch, Vrančić created a more detailed drawing of a parachute entitled Homo Volans and also constructed the earliest known version of the parachute.
He was buried in Prvić Luka where today the Memorial Center Faust Vrančić was built in his honour.