Wikipedia:WikiProject Serbia/drafts

Sava Petrović

Sava Petrović (Vlase, Vranje, old name Poljanica, 9 January 1792-Belgrade, 3 June 1861) was a Serbian priest, professor and minor writer.

He was among the early Serbian professors who taught the the University of Kharkiv in Imperial Russia (today's Ukraine). He was baptized Stevan (Stephen) and the name Sava was adopted when he entered the celibate priesthood after graduating from university in Pest. As a qualified educator he moved to Kharkiv in Imperial Russia. There he became a professor of Theology at the Unversity of Kharkiv.

We know about him through the writings of Vasyl Karazin, Atanasije Stojković, Gligorije Trlajić, Teodor Filipović and Đorđe Koritar. He was also an honorary member of the Serbian Learned Society.

References

• Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts: http://www.sanu.ac.rs/English/Clanstvo/IstClan.aspx?arg=429,

Kosta Ruvarac

Kosta Ruvarac (1837-1864) was a Serbian writer and literary critic.

One of four brothers, Kosta Ruvarac knew his calling early. He wrote prose and verse and translated works of talented young writers of his day. Today Jan Palarik stands among the classics of Slovak dramatic literature, not only in Slovakia but in other South Slav countries, thanks to Ruvarac. In Palarik's plays, "Inkognito" he condemns the renegades and alcoholics and praises patriots. The play was translated into Serbian by Kosta Ruvarac and, as early as 1861, was performed by Serbian amateur theatrical groups in Pest. Later it was performed in Serbia with equal success.

Kosta Ruvarac proved his knowledge in the Literature of Dubrovnik by taking a critical look that immediately found followers among the new generation of literary critics, including Jovan Skerlic, Pavle and Bogdan Popovic, Slobodan Jovanovic, Branko Lazarevic. He is remembered as the literary critic and theoretician of the "United Youth of Serbia". His writing style can best be described as simply elegant.

References

• Jovan Skerlic, Isotrija nove srpske knjizevnosti (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) pages 346-349.

Đorđe Maletić

Đorđe Maletić (Jasenovo, 13 March 1816-Belgrade, 13 January 1888) was a Serbian poet, translator, aesthetic, and theoretician.

Biography

Đorđe Maletić was born at the Serbian Military Frontier of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in a town Jasenovci in the Banat region (formerly known as Raska/Rascia) on the first of March 1816. In his place of birth and in Bela Crkva he received his early education in Serbian and in German and in the gymnasiums (high schools) of Oraovci and SremskinKarlovci under teachers who inspired him with an enduring love of contemeporary literature, as we see from his translation of Gotthold Ephrain Lessing's Nathan the Wise into Serbian, published when he had reached middle age. He went to Segedin as a student of philosophy and natural sciences. It appears that Đorđe Maletić's studies were governed by a distinct interest. That was his aesthetical and artistic interest, which was developed under the care of Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic who often corresponded with him. The other person who influenced Maletić was Jovan Hadzic (1799-1869). To the former he owes his appreciation for the great circle of ideas which had been diffused by the teachings of Hagel, Fichte and Schelling, while to the other latter an equal admiration for his poetical inspiration and philological polemics with Vuk. Each of these influences, which early in life must have been familiar to him, tempered and modified the other.

He was uncertain at first which profession to choose, and vacillated between diplomatic service, teaching, and literature. In 1839 Maletic, who had mingled little in party politics was appointed by Prince Milos (Obrenovic) assistant to the Court Secretary at Kragujevac. The following year he was appointed City Hall secretary of Belgrade. He cared little for such work, regarding it simply as a distasteful means of livelihood, yet his experiments in wiriting did not encourage him to trust to this for support. After a change in the dynasties in 1842, he was dismissed, and went to live in Zemun. There he became a professor at a Lycee and an editor of a magazine called Podunav, from 1856 to 1858. He was appointed director of a gynmnasium in 1858 in Belgrade, where Maletic and Vladimir Vujic, a colleague, co-edited the Rodoljubac Magazine.

Đorđe Maletić first began writing poems in 1837 and having them successfully published in various magazines and almanachs. In 1844 Maletić collected his poems in two volumes entitled "Tri pobratima," which almost immediately secured a wide circle of readers. To almost every new edition he added some fresh poems, all influenced by contemporary German models. Literary critic Jovan Skerlic wrote:

".... ostaje cak nemackih pesnika ciji je cesto i rado prevodio...."

He remainsed a student of German poets who he (Maletic) often and gladly translated.

He wrote two dramatic works -- "Apoteoza Velikom Karadjordju" and "Peodnica srbske slobode, ili srbski aiduci" -- the former published in 1850 in Belgrade, the latter in 1863 in Karlovci. These, however, are unimportant in comparison with his "Tri pobratima" (The Three Bloodbrothers) and Pesme (Poems) in two volumes. As a lyric poet, Maletić must be classed with the poets and writers of the rationalist period who soon joined the romantic school, for, like them, he found in the Serbian Uprsing of 1804, led by Karadjordje, the subject which appealed most strongly to his imagination. Maletić wrote manly poems in defence of freedom, and in the diplomatic service he played a distinguished part as one of the most vigorous and consistent of staff members.

Đorđe Maletić was not only a poet and a diplomat he was also an ardent student of the history of literature. In 1854 he published "Teorija poezije" (Theory of Poetry) and the following year Retorika (Rethoric). He loved the theatre as well. Maletić was also the author of "Gracu za istoriju srpskog narodnog pozorista." The distinguished Serbian composer Kornelije Stankovic (1831-1865) composed music for Đorđe Maletić's drama "Percursor of Serbian Liberty" or "Serbian Highwayman" (1856).

As a literary historian Maletić holds a very high place. He approached history as a diplomat and confined himself to the periods and characters in which great political problems were being worked out: above all, he was a patriotic historian, and he never wandered far from Serbia.

==References==

• Jovan Skerlic, Istorija nove srpske knjizevnosti (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) page 192-194.
• Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts: http://www.sanu.ac.rs/English/Clanstvo/IstClan.aspx?arg=303

Milovan Vidaković (Nemanikuca, May 1780-Pest, 28 October 1841) is referred to as the father of the modern Serbian novel.

Milovan Vidaković was born in May 1780 in the village of Nemanikuca, in the Kosmaj area of Serbia. For generations the ancestors of Vidakovic had been Serbian soldier (haiduks), and he himself would have joined armed freedom-fighters if his father hadn't given him to the care of Momir Vidakovic, an uncle in Irig. When he was nine, his father took Milovan to Irig in the Srem region of the Vojvodina, because of the outbreak of hostilities between the Austro-Russian alliance and the Turks in the war of 1788-1791, and then returned to Nemanikuca to rejoin with his comrades-at-arms. Milovan started school in Irig and then continued to further his education at Temesvar, Novi Sad, Seged, and Kezmarok. He studied at the Piarists' Gymnasium (high school) in Seged, the capital of the county of Csongrad in Hungary. His education involved the traditional study of Old Slavonic, Greek and Latin classics together with philosophy and philology in a modern atmosphere of rationalism. Later, at the Piarist college in Kezmarok in Hungary he made rapid progress, especially in jurisprudence, though preferring the study of languages (Latin, German, French), history, literature, judicial science and philosophy.

Public education was the career which seemed to lie open to Vidakovic after he graduated from the Evangelical Lyceum in Kezmarok. His education was much the same as Hungarian language reformer Ferenc Kazinczy, physician and botanist Samuel Genersich before him and Slavist Pavel Josef Safarik and poet Pavol Orszagh Hvezdoslav after him.

In 1814 in Budapest, Vidakovic published Ljubomir u Elisiumu, Part I, inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile (a treaise on education). Like his previous novels, this was an adventure story, with the usual sentimental, moral-didactic digressions. The volume is remarkable, however, for the twenty-page introductory essay, "Observation on the Serbian Language," dated October 1813. The opening statement suggests that the author was not unaware of the articles on the Serbian literary language published by Jan Kopitar in the German press. "Now we who begin to write a little for our people find ourselves in rather unpleasant times; they criticize us more for our language than for our work, but they are right too; it is the duty of the translator, as well as the writer himself, to pay as much attention to his language as to the thing he is expressing in it."

Vidakovic has been generally described as a solitary figure, out of harmony with the spirit of his time and often directly opposed to it. Yet a closer look into social conditions of Vidakovic's time, and of the studies then flourishing, shows him to have been thoroughly in touch with them.

The new spirit among the Serbs of Vojvodina that took hold then was known as "Dositejism," coined after Dositej Obradovic, who became popular among his people for criticizing the Serbian Orthodox Church hierarchy for their old fashioned ways. His views had been espoused by most intellectuals but were bitterly opposed by the caesaro-papal Orthodox hierarchy, especially after the accession of Stefan Stratimirovic as metropolitan in 1790. Serbian literary critic Pavle Popovic outlines Dositejism thus:

"What he (Dositej Obradovic) preached became common property, the spirit of the times. With his common sense writings he opened the way of enlightenment, literature, and, national education, and the whole Serbian society in the Hungary and Austria of that time followed the slogans he gave. 'Education, education, that is what we need,' was the constant motto from then on; education in all its forms: schools, printing houses, books.... Literature is the most important, it needs the most help, it spreads education more freely, and directly than the public school; especially the Latin schools that Serbian students were attending at the time.... Every educated man and patriot must help literature, everyone can write carefully must write, because that is what the people especially need." (Pavle Popovic, Milovan Vidakovic, pp. 9-10, 23, 24).

The desire to help the Serbian people was the motive that Milovan Vidakovic gave for writing his first work, a biblical adaptation called "Istorija o prekrasnom Iosife" (The Story About Beautiful Joseph). In the deduction to this novel in verse, first published in 1805, the Kosmaj peasant's son wrote:

"It being that common sense demands from us that each one, as much as his God-given strength and talent permit, should be of use, in some way to his fellow-man, and especially to his race, from such an obligation I, loving my Serbian race, compose for the youth this 'Story About Beautiful Joseph' in verse."

Vidakovic, though always as a kind of outsider, attached himself more or less to the Romantic movement during that transitional period of Rationalism towards Romanticism and the years immediately preceeding and following it, and was stimulated by this movement both to drama and to novel-writing.

Even Atanasije Stojkovic (1773-1832), who was seven years Vidakovic's senior, and his predecessor in novel writing, seems rather to have been guided by Vidakovic than Vidakovic by him. Vidakovic's eight novels, which at least equalled the poems of Lukijan Musicki in popularity, will hardly stand the judgement of posterity so well. It had in its favour the support of the Serbian reading public, the immense vogue of the novels of Walter Scott, on which it was evidently modelled, the advantages of an exquisite style, and the taste of the day for the romance as opposed to the novel of analyses. It therefore gained a great name both in Serbia and among the Slavic reading public abroad. No one can read "Usamljeni junosa" or "Ljubomir" without seeing that the author had little to learn from any of his Serbian contemporaries and much to teach them.

In 1836, Vidakovic published his translation "Djevica iz Marijenburga" (Das Madchen von Marienburg), a drama, in five acts, from the German of Franz Kratter (1758-1830), dedicated to Marko Karamata, one of the students he was tutoring. The main character Chatinka, the maid of Marienburg, or Molbork, came originally from Poland, but she had been abducted by Russian troops and now found herself at the summer palace of Peter the Great, the Peterhof, outside of St. Petersburg. In the play -- Kratter's most successful drama, originally performed in Manihein and Vienna in 1793 -- Peter fell in love with the virtuous maid, and, though tempted to wield his arbitrary power finally resolved to respect her virtue, marry her, and make he his czarina. Peter had to struggle against "fanaticisim that fear the light of day -- ancient barbarity -- and bloody insatiable oppression," laboriously striving "to bring barbarous people from the yoke of superstition and savage customs to obedience through his wise laws." This was absolutely consistent with the celebration of Peter in the age of Enlightenment, most famously by Voltaire, but it was also strikingly similar to the rhetoric in which Emperor Joseph of Austria had been celebrated by his admirers for his efforts in Serbian Vojvodina. Kratter himself had been one of the most ardent advocates of Josephinism, like Dositej Obradovic among the Serbs in Austrian- and Hungarian-occupied Serbian territorries. And it would have been obvious to the readers in 1836, that the drama's reflections on Peter the Great were also relevant to the people under the Habsburgs. Vidakovic's translation of Kratter's drama suggests how dear Vidakovic held his tenets of freedom for all people, not only the Serbs. Vidakovic often read Kratter's well-publicized quotation: "Absolute monarchies are but one step away from despotism. Despotism and Enlightenment: let anyone who can try to reconcile these two. I can't."

Milovan Vidakovic's fame rests on the first Serbian novel, Usamljeni junosa (A Forlorn Youth), which he modeled after German romances and the philosophico-pedagogical novels then extremely popular throughout the Austrian Empire and Germany. Coming under the influence of Romanticism, Vidakovic took an interest in the history of his people whose lands were then occupied by two empires (Habsburg Germans and the Ottoman Turks) and by so doing gave an historical framework to all his subsequent works. Literary critic Jovan Skerlic wrote,

"All his novels have many historical elements, and his contemporaries called him 'the Serbian Walter Scott.'"

A Language Reformer?

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Serbian people, like the rest of the Slavs, Hungarians, Italians, Romanians living under the Habsburg yoke, became engaged in a dual struggle for political and cultural independence. Our early political leader was Karadjordje, who with his chieftains were able to lift the Turkish burden that had been oppressing their countrymen for four long centuries. Our chief cultural revolutionary was Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic (1778-1864), a minor government official in the Karadjordje Administration who had fled to Vienna in 1813 after the Turks reconquered the territories which were liberated for almost a decade (1804-1813). Vuk argued a campaign to free Serbian writing from its thralldom to Russian Slavonic (Rusko-slovenski), based on Church Slavonic (the classical language of all Slavdom), an important idiom that Serbs had been using in their secular and religious works for a century. There were few extremists at both sides such as Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic himself advocating a purely popular language and Pavle Kangelac favoring a completely acceptance of Rusko-slovenski, but most writers seem to have been moderate, who sought to improve and standardize their spoken language by retaining the particular features of Russian Slavonic (Rusko-slovenski) that they individually espoused. Their mixed but predominantly vernacular language was called Slavo-Serbian. A very popular writer of the Slavo-Serbian school was Milovan Vidakovic, known as the father of the Serbian novel. Vidakovic, however, wanted a slower transition from Slavo-Serbian unlike Vuk Karadzic who proposed a simplified alphabet and a new literary language based exclusively on spoken Serbian. Vuk's program was first derided and then bitterly opposed by Church-led conservatives and others who wished to preserve some bond between the new Serbian literary language and Slavo-Serbian. The ensuing struggle became so fierce that Djuro Danicic named it "The War for a Serbian Language and Orthography." In the midst of it all were writers Milovan Vidakovic who had the misfortune to put their theories on language into print at about the same time that Vuk and Danicic were beginning their reforms.

Works

Istorija o prekrasnom Josifu (spev; Budim, 1805) Usamljeni junoša (roman; Budim, 1810)

Velimir i Bosiljka (Budim, 1811)

Ljubomir u Jelisijumu (u tri knjige; Budim, 1814, 1817, 1823)

Mladi Tovija; pripovetka u stihovima (Budim, 1825)

Kasija Carica (Budim, 1827)

Siloan i Milena Srpkinja u Engleskoj (Budim, 1829)

Ljubezna scena u veselom dvoru Ive Zagorice, pripovetka iz srpske istorije (1834)

Putešestvije u Jerusalim (spev; Budim, 1834)

Gramatika srpska (Pešta, 1838)

Pesan istoričeska o Sv. Đorđu, u stihovima (Novi Sad, 1839)

Selim i Merima (nedovršeni roman; Novi Sad, 1839)

Smesice: 10 raznih članaka (Pešta, 1841)

Istorija srpskog naroda, po Rajiću (u 4 knjige; Beograd 1833-37)

Avtobiografija Milovana Vidakovića, Glasnik Srpskog učenog društva 1871,30

Translations

Ljubav k mladoj Muzi Srpskoj (s latinskog; Pešta, 1812) Djevica iz Marijenburga (s nemačkog; 1836)

Blagodarni otrok (s nemačkog; Budim, 1836)

References

Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia: http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%92%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B Translated and adapted from Jovan Skerlic's Istorija nove srpske knjizevnosti / A History of the New Serbian Literature (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) p. 149

Jevrem Grujić (Darosava, 8 November 1827-Belgrade, 15 September 1895) was a Serbian politician and minor writer.

His elementary schooling was irregular owing to the duties and chores he had to perform on his family property. Later, in his writings, memories from childhood came to have center stage. In 1841 he enrolled in the Gymnasium in Belgrade and in 1846 in the Lyceum. As a student in Belgrade, he actively participated in the founding -- in 1847 -- of the youth organization "Druzina mladezi srpske" (Association of Serbian Youth), a group which nurtured and transmitted ideas of liberal nationalism and Slavic unity. . In 1849 he obtained a scholarship from the Serbian government and went to Hidelberg to study law. A year later he moved to Paris to continue his studies. There, together with another student from Serbia, Milovan Jankovic, he wrote and published a book called "Slaves du Sud," that so enraged the Serbian authorities that they eventually cancelled his stipend. He nevertheless finished law school in 1854 and returned to Belgrade. He was now among the first generation of Serbian students who studied abroad, and returned home bringing the European ideals of democracy, constitutionalism and civic liberties. In 1858 he entered politics as a secretary of the "St. Andrew's National Assembly" (Svetoandreska skupština). Together with poet Jovan Ilic and his Paris friend, Milovan Jankovic, Grujic played an important role in the skupstina when the call for a parliamentary check on monarchic power for the first time gained support. Prince Alexander Karadordević was forced to abdicate.During the rule of the Obrenovic dynasty Grujic held several important position, such as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs (1859) and Minister of Justice (1860). His outspoken liberalism, however, brought him harassment and imprisonment. Grujic was one of the founders in 1867 and first president of the "United Serbian Youth" (Ujedinjena Omladina Srpska). He also featured among the founders of the Liberal party and served as its leader between 1868 and 1878. During the Serbo-Turkish war (1876-1878) he held the post of Prime Minister. He ended his political career as the Serbian ambassador to Paris in 1892. He is considered as one of the most important representatives of liberalism, parliamentarianism and constitutionalism in Serbia.

Main Works

Slaves du Sud (Paris, 1853) Uspomena / Memories (1864) Zapisi / Writings, 3 volumes (posthumously published, Belgrade, 1922-1923)

References

• Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts: http://www.sanu.ac.rs/English/Clanstvo/IstClan.aspx?arg=124,
• Biography of Jevrem Grujic and Milovan jankovic: http://books.google.ca/books?id=TpPWvubBL0MC&pg=PA155&dq=milovan+jankovic&hl=en&sa=X&ei=O9TtUe2pOpLA4APB_4D4Cg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=milovan%20jankovic&f=false

Konstantin Peičić (Borovo, 1802-Pest, 25 May 1882) was a prominent Serbian physician, health educator and minor writer. He dedicated himself to eradicate malaria.

Konstantin Peičić studied science and medicine at Pest, where he graduated with a degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1830. He was a practitioner for a short while in Pest and Sremsa Kamenica before opening a practice in Sombor during which time he wrote and published his dissertation "Razglagolstoije uvencatelno lekarno-politicko" (Serbian translation of his original dissertation in Latin entitled "De medela pauperum", published in Buda, 1830), and "How (Not) to Lose One's Health" (Buda, 1834). He also practiced medicine in Pancevo and was the personal physician of Metropolitan Stevan Stratimirovic (1758-1836). He was a colleague and associate of Vincenz Priessnitz (1799-1851), whom he visited in Greifenburg in 1838 to do research on how to treat malaria. He played an important role in the Serbian movement -- May Assembly -- on the 1st of May 1848 in Vojvodina. He was deputized by Stevan Supljikac to represent the Serbs in their dialogue with the Austrian crown.

Konstantin Peičić died in Pest as a supervisor of Tekelijanum (Collegium Tökölyanum), founded by Sava Tekelija in 1838 for Serb students studying in the city.

References

• Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts: http://www.sanu.ac.rs/English/Clanstvo/IstClan.aspx?arg=416,
• De medela pauperum: http://books.google.ca/books/about/Razglagolstoije_uvencatelno_lekarno_poli.html?id=BXRQAAAAcAAJ&redir_esc=y
• Visit to Vincenz Priessnitz of Greifenburg: http://www.worldcat.org/title/dr-konstantin-peicic-kod-vincenca-prisnica-u-grefenburgu-1838-godine/oclc/440751677

Ilija Ognjanović also had a 'nom de plume': Abukazem (Novi Sad, 12 May 1845-Budapest, 21 August 1900) was a Serbian physician and satirist.

Born on the 12th of May 1845 at Novi Sad into a prominent Serbian family, Ilija Ognjanović was baptized in the Serbian Orthodox Church there, like his forefathers before him. He attended Serbian and German schools in Sremska Kamenica, Novi Sad, Petrovaradin, Sremski Karlovci, and Pecs before entering the universities of Budapest and Vienna in 1867, in order to study medicine. He was a colleague of physician-poets Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj (1833-1904) and Jovan Grcic-Milenko (1846-1875). In 1872 he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine, and after a residency in surgery in Vienna he returned to Novi Sad in 1873. There he set up practice, for a time was a personal physician to the wealthy Serbian benefactor Marija Popovic-Trandafil (1816-1883), and in 1875 he became the chief surgeon at a new hospital in Novi Sad.

He married Darinka Lemajic in 1883, and the couple had three children (Djordje in 1884; Dobrila in 1888; and Zarko in 1889), however, their first-born died when he was only two-years-old. In Novi Sad, Ognjanovic continued his medical practice and wrote for literary and medical journals. When Panta Popovic retired as editor of "Glas naroda" (Voice of the People) Ognjanovic took over at a time when the paper was under severe criticism. He brought the secular journal closer to the church with the focus on educating the common folk in science, medicine and legal issues, avoiding polemics of any kind.

The years as a practicing physician and writing and editing literary (Javor) and medical journals and books under constant pressure damaged his health, and in 1897, suffering from asthma and a heart condition, he spent three years abroad in search of a beneficial climate. He died in Budapest on the 21st of August 1900.

Works

• Vesele pripovetke (1889)
• Zanimljive price I beleske iz zivota zvaneminitih Srba (1900)
• Grobovi znamenitih Srba: sto su im kosti u Novom Sadu ukopane (1890)
• Javor (1891)

Medical reference book:

• Imena bolest sto mogu smrt da nanesu: naucki nazivi, protumaceni nemackim, madjarskim I srpskim jezikom (1895)

References

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts: http://www.sanu.ac.rs/English/Clanstvo/IstClan.aspx?arg=390,

Jovan Berić

Jovan Berić (also Berics János in Hungarian; Backi Brestovac, 1786-Buda, 1845) was a Serbian poet, translator and philologist who collaborated with Vuk Karadzic and Jovan Hadzic. Jovan Berić is the translator of Imre Szalay's Hungarian grammar into Serbian, among others.

Jovan Berić was born in Backi Brestovac, a village situated in the Odzaci municipality, in the West Backa District, Vojvodina (then part of the Habsburg Monarchy, now Serbia) in 1786. Beric studied in Subotica, Buda, Pozun (Bratislava), and the University of Pest, from where he graduated in 1810 with a degree of Doctor of Literature. He translated Hungarian authors into Serbian and Serbian authors into Hungarian. "Predrag and Nenad" was sent to Vuk by Jovan Berić who was living in Buda.

1. Oda na smert Joanua Joannovica episk. Bačkago. Buda, 1805. (Oda Joannovics János bácsi püspök halálára.) 2. Oda tezoimenitstva g. Pav. ot Asi-Markoviča. U. ott, 1804. (Oda Asi-Markovič Pál névünnepére.) 3. Zitie Isusa Christa. U. ott, 1812. (Jezus Krisztus élete. Uj kiadás. U. ott, 1831.) 4. Serbska muza g. Urosu Nestoroviču. U. ott, 1813. (Szerb muzsa Nestorovič Uros kir. tanácsos tiszteletére.) 5. Naciu naslavlenia. U. ott, 1832. (Kis Pál Nevelési szabályainak szerb fordítása.) 6. Magyar nyelvtudomány. U. ott, 1833. (Szalay Imre munkájának megbővítése, szerb nyelven.) Ifjusági kisebb iratokat és iskolakönyveket írt szerb nyelven, melyek címei az illető bibliographiákban feltalálhatók.

References

Berics János from Hungarian Wikipedia: http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berics_J%C3%A1nos

Pavle Popović

Pavle Popović (Belgrade, 16 April 1868-Belgrade, 4 June 1939) was a Serbian writer and one of the most influential Serbian literary critics in the period from just before World War I and just before World War II. He is the brother of Bogdan Popović, also a literary critic.

Pavle Popović was born at Belgrade on the 16th of April 1868. He studied philosophy and literature in Belgrade and Paris. He was professor of Serbian literature at the University of Belgrade for three decades. He was also the secretary of the Srpska knjizevna zadruga (Serbian Literary Society) from 1911 to 1920, its vice president from 1920 to 1928, and president from 1928 to 1937.

Pavle Popović was French-oriented, like his brother Bogdan. Pavle complimented Jovan Skerlic's work by publishing an overview of Serbian literature (1913) that emphasized early literary history and the oral tradition that followed. His method of literary history combined archival research, philosophical polemics, and comparative perspective, discourse, inspired by other contemporary European literatures, gave a touch of elegant and witty lightness to anecdotal narratives, and soon influenced a younger generation of critics and essayists. Pavle grew into an authoritarian figure in Serbian academia but was less present in public than his brother. His literary history and his numerous specialized studies on nineteenth-century Serbian theater and other matters were considered a standard for more than 60 years, along with Skerlic's work, which was, to be sure, ideologically more attractive.

Pavle Popović corresponded with the following scholars Milivoy S. Stanoyevich, Professor of Slavonic Languages, Columbia University; George Rapall Noyes, Professor of Slavic Studies, University of California, Berkeley; John Dyneley Prince, Professor of Slavonic Languages, Columbia University; R. W. Seaton Watson (United Kingdom); Watson Kirkconnell (Dominion of Canada), and many other academics.

References

Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia: http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B5_%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B Jovan Skerlic, Istorije nove srpske knjizevnosti (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) pages 484 and 485. On-line books by Pavle Popovic: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Popovic%2C%20Pavle%2C%201868-1939

Branko Lazarević

Branko Lazarević ( Vidin, 25 November 1883-Herceg Novi, 6 October 1963) was a Serbian literary critic at the same time as Jovan Skerlic, Pavle and Bogdan Popovic, and Slobodan Jovanovic.

One of the most important events of cultural life in exile was the renewed publication of "Srpske novine." The first issue appeared on the seventh of April 1916 at Corfu, Greece, and the second issue introduced a weekly supplement, "Zabavnik" (Entertainment) Magazine. Branko Lazarevic, the literary critic and former desciple of Bogdan Popovic, was called to serve as the editor-in-chief. Lazarevic reminded readers that more than 100 years ago, in 1813, the daily paper first came to life under Karadjordje's rule. A rare example of production in the later years of his life, rare, but not absolutely unique. The case of Branko Lazarevic bears witness to this, the once well-known essayist and critic Lazarevic continued to make a name for himself as a well-known essayist and critic. Although very young and just at the start of his career, even before the Great War, he became an authoritative figure in Serbian literature later on.

References

• Jovan Skerlic, Istorija nove srpske knjizevnosti (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) page 485
• Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia: http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE_%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B

Jovan Milenko Grčić

Jovan Milenko Grčić (Čerević, Srem, 15 November 1846-Fruska Gora, Beočin monastery, 25 May 1875) was first and foremost a Serbian poet and then a prose writer. The freshness of his lyrical poetry places him in the succession of Branko Radicevic and he is also noted for his power of natural description. Jovan Grcic-Milenko translated Goethe, Schiller and Heine into Serbian, and some of his own poems into German.

Jovan Grčić was born in the village of Čerević in the municipality of Beočin in Srem, Vojvodina (Serbia) on the 15th of November 1846, the oldest of three children (Jovan, Djordje and Katica) of Todor and Ana Grcki, who were of mixed Serbian and Vlach origin. His father Todor, a merchant, died young (1850), leaving his wife to raise the children. Jovan was educated in Serbian in Čerević, German in Petrovaradin, Novi Sad, Segedin and Pozun (Bratislava).

In 1863 Jovan Grcki began his brief but sensational career as a lyric poet -- a career which was over by the time he was twenty-nine. The first five years he wrote five books of verse and three short stories. He began with "Ne boj mi se" (Fear me not), a poem which appeared in the literary periodical Danica in 1863. He was a regular contributor with translations from German from 1864 to 1867.

He left Pozun in his seventeenth year. Instead of proceeding to the university, he went to visit his parents back home, in Čerević. There he fell in love with the stunning young Milena Stefanovic, and through her parents he became acquainted with physician and poet Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj, Milan Kujundzic-Aberdar, Laza Kostic, Antonije Hadzic, and other men of letters of the time.

Milena Stefanovic died suddenly at the age of 16 (1863) while Jovan was away preparing for his medical studies in Pozun. Shocked and horrified by Milena's sudden death, he began seriously writing poems, dedicating an entire cycle of poems to her memory. He wrote,

From your name 'Mileno' .... I baptize myself 'Milenko'.

He would eventually change his surname Grcki to Grčić and add his first love's name to his. It was from then on that he was known as -Jovan Grčić-Milenko In 1867 he moved from Pozun to Vienna, to continue his medical studies at the University of Vienna's School of Medicine. There he became seriously ill and had to drop out before graduating. In 1873 he returned to his native village of Čerević, but his illness -- tuberculosis -- progressed so much so that Abbot German (Jovanovic), a friend of the family, intervened and took Jovan to Beočin monastery, where he could receive better care in the monastery clinic than at home. He died in the Beočin monastery in Fruska Gora on the 25th of May 1875 at the age of 29. He was buried near the entrance of the monastery. The funeral was attended by his medical colleagues, Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj, M.D., Ilija Ognjenovic-Abukazem, M.D. (who became one of the founders of the Serbian medical terminology) and Lazar Stanojevic, M.D.

He is better known for his lyrical poetry than his prose, however, having left us only three but extremely well-written short stories with fantastic elements which need to be looked at. They are: U gostionici kod Poluzvezde na imendanu santavog torbara (Matica, 1868); Sremska ruza (Matica, 1868-1869); and Zmijina kosuljica (Matica, 1868). All three short stories were printed and distributed by the publishing house of Matica srpska in Novi Sad under the supervision of Antonije Hadzic.

Analysing the fantastic stories of Jovan Grcic-Milenko with reference to Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) and E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822), one can find that there are some similar elements in their work. The similarity between Gogol and Grcic is not an essential one. It originates from the imperative of time and the political orientation of Grcic Milenko and especially from the use of similar sources: folk fantastic and folk beliefs. All these similarities are easily noticed, though it is impossible to determine how familiar Grcic was with Gogol's work.

The similarities between Grcic and Hoffmann is more general. It cannot be seen at once, but many components of the fantastic are common to both writers. These are: the protagonists feeling being cut off from the others and being exceptional, the feeling of foreboding, and complete interaction between the plot, the main hero and nature. These similarities are not found in single parts of stories (as with Gogol) but throughout the narrative.

References

• Translated and adapted from Serbian: http://politikin-zabavnik.rs/pz/tekstovi/fruskogorski-slavu%D1%98
• Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia: http://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jovan_Milenko_Gr%C4%8Di%C4%87
• Jovan Skerlic, Istoria nove srpske knjizevnosti (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) pages 338-339

Simeon Piščević

Simeon Piščević received his education in Sid, Novi Sad, Segedin, Osijek and Vienna. During the last two years of the War of the Austrian Succession (1741-1748) Stevan Piscevic took Simeon, his son, along as a volunteer in the Slavonian regiment of the Austrian Army. Being well-educated Simeon became an adjutant in no time. At 17 Simeon was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the Srem Hussar regiment. In 1749 General Sevic gave him the rank of captain and ordered him to prepare to move to Russia. He received his Russian visa four year later (1753), but it would be another three years before he made the move. He first emigrated to Imperial Russia in 1756, ending up in the Russian Imperial Army.

All Serbian settlements were called "retrenchments" in the popular idiom, although only a few of them were fortified. Piscevic wrote that Hlyns'k, Kryliv and Kryukiv were the only fortified places in the Pandur regiment. Simeon Piščević left a most vivid description of General Jovan Horvat's broad use of powers. He refers to the latter as "our absolute and tyrannical ruler" and, sometimes with indignation, sometimes with envy for Horvath's versatility, quotes of many episodes, shocking even to contemporaries, who were accustomed to the crude rule of singular power.

"The Diary of General Piščević (Zapisi Djenerala Piscevica) which first appeared in Russian towards the end of the 19th century, was an example of Serbian eighteenth-century memoir literature, and was ranked equal to the "Memoirs of Prota Mateja Nenadovic" about the Serbian Uprising of 1804. Piscevic tells about the Serbian migration to Russia, Serbian activities there, and his own role in this emigration. He also describes participation of Hungarian Serbs in the war between Austria and France in 1774-1775. He emphasized that the Islamized Turkish subjects in Bosnia are Serbs like all the rest, for they have "jezik I obicaji srpski," Piscevic is using for his time modern terminology, and together with Dositej, but earlier than Stratimirovic, Musicki and Vuk , showing knowledge of the language spoken by the common folk. In the section on the Turks Simeon Piščević refers to the German geographer and scholar Johann Hubner's Kurtze Fregen aus der neuen und eaten Geographie (Regensburg und Wein, 1755). The other work by Simeon Piščević is "Knjiga o naciji srpskoj" (A Book About the Serbian Nation).

References

• Pastrovici: http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D1%88%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B%D0%B8

Milovan Janković (Vlaška, 1 November 1828 - Belgrade, 8 October 1899) was a Serbian minor writer, economist, and politician.

He had been studying philosophy and political science in Germany and France where he met compatriot Jevrem Grujić in Paris. There in 1853 they together wrote and published "Slaves du Sud". In 1854 Jankovic started working as a state employee and in 1856 obtained a position as a teacher of economics. In 1858, together with Grujic, he entered politics, actively participating in the St. Andrew's National Assembly which overthrew Prince Alexander Karadordevic. Jankovic supported Jevrem Grujić who, led the liberal wing of the deputies. Under the regime of Prince Milos Obrenovic, he worked eventually as Milos's secretary, but eventually fell into disgrace and decided to leave the country. Jankovic came back to Serbia only after the death of Mihajlo Obrenovic, Milos's successor. Jankovic once again entered government service, rising to the position of Minister of Finance which he held for a few months in 1875. He continued to hold various positions until 1889, when he retired.

Works

Srbski car -- Stjepane / Stephen - the Serbian tsar (1868) Hoce l' "biti il' nebiti" srpstva? / The 'to be or not to be' of the Serbians? (1891) Sto je cije? / What is whose? (1891)

References

• Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts: http://www.sanu.ac.rs/English/Clanstvo/IstClan.aspx?arg=207,
• Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia: https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%88%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B

Teodor Pavlović (Dragutinovo, now Karlovo, 24 February 1804 - Dragutinovo, 12 August 1854) was a writer, publicist and founder of the Gallery of Matica Srpska, and the Editor-in-Chief of the oldest literary monthly in Europe -- Letopis Matice Srpske (Annals of Matica Srpske).

Teodor Pavlović was born on the 14th of February 1804 in a small village called Dragutinovo, now known as Karlovo, in today's municipality of Novo Milosevo in Banat, Vojvodina. Upon completing grammar school, his father sent him to the best high schools in the region, first to Hatzfeld in former Torontal county, then Temisvar, Velika Kikinda, Sremski Karlovici and finally in Segedin. When he graduated in Segedin he was fluent in Latin, Church Slavonic, German, Hungarian, and Romanian. At the suggestion of a friend, Konstantin Peicic, he then went to Pozun (Bratislava) where he studied law and liberal arts, graduating in 1827 with a law degree. Pavlovic was more devoted to the cause of Serbian cultural development than to his own law practice. As a vehicle to champion human rights, he established the Serbski Narodni List, a Serbian political newspaper, inaugurated on the 1st of June 1835 in Buda. Later, the name of the paper was changed to Serbske Narodne Novine which continued publishing with minor interruptions until 1849 in Hungary. Pavlovic was named editor-in-chief of the Letopis Matice srpske in 1832-1841, and became the first secretary of Matica Srpska in 1837. Thanks to the efforts of Pavlovic, Sava Tekelija, Jovan Nako, Baron Fedor Nikolic of Rudna, Petar Carnojevic, Vladika Platon Atanackovic, Ptince Mihailo Obrenovic, Metropolitan Stefan Stankovic, Bishop Evgenije Jovanovic, Aleksa Simic, and others, joined the venerable institution.

Works

==Reference==

• From Serbian Wikipedia: http://sr.wikipedia.org/sr-el/%D0%A2%D0%B5%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%80_%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B
• Jovan Skerlic, Istorija nove srpske knjizevnosti (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) pages 152 and 153.
• Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences: http://www.sanu.ac.rs/English/Clanstvo/IstClan.aspx?arg=402,

Dimitrije Davidović (Zemun, 12 October 1789-Smederevo, 24 March 1838) was a  Serbian writer, journalist, publisher, historian, diplomatist, and politician.

Biography

Dimitrije Davidovic, born in Zemun on the 12th of October 1789, was the son of Gavrilo and Marija Georgijevic. In 1789 his father, a regiment priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Austrian Army, was transferred to Zemun after the liberation of Belgrade from the Turks. His grandfather, Very Rev. David Georgijevic, was a professor at the famed Latin School (Latinska skola) at Sremski Karlovci, founded by Metropolitan Pavle Nenadovic of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Dimitrije was a sickly child and as such was inclined to read and write instead of playing outdoors. He completed Serbian grammar schools in Zemun and Kežmarok, and his post-secondary education, at Sremski Karlovci, was guided by his professor of Latin, his paternal grandfather Georgijevic. From there he then went to the universities of Pest and Vienna, where he first studied philosophy then switched over to the University of Vienna's prestigious School of Medicine. He was early involved in the political troubles in which Serbia and the Serbian people were then immersed with the authorities. Dimitrije decided one day to take his grandfather's given name "David" as his surname "Davidovic" to avoid detection by the authorities who were looking for him.

The First Serbian Uprising, led by Karadjordje Petrovic, started in 1804 but could not survive beyond 1813. Soon, came the Second Serbian Uprising under Milos Obrenovic in 1815 which gained nominal concessions from the sultan of Constantinople. While stydying medicine in Vienna in 1812, Dimitrije Davidovic wanted to start a Serbian newspaper but could not get a licence which was personally denied by Metternich himself. About 1813, in conjunction with a fellow student, Dimitrije Frusic, he founded and edited the Novine Serbske (Serb News), which was eventually suppressed by the Austrian government in 1821. His talents gained him the favourable notice of Prince Milos, who appointed Davidovic secretary of his offices, and sent him on special diplomatic missions. According to prince Milos's judgement Davidovic was "exceptionally talented in diplomacy." He resided in Belgrade and enjoyed the continued favour of the court. In 1835 he was placed at the head of a committee to draw up a Serbian constitution; and it was, after all, chiefly drawn up by himself. Called "Sretenje Constitution," it was drafted by Dimitrije Davidovic to secure Serbia protection of citizens before the state and transformation of Serbia into a legal state with protected human and property rights for all. But it was not to be expected that such sweeping changes could be affected without opposition, and no sooner the Sublime Porte and Austria brought their grievances against the implemented Sretenje Constitution. Prince Milos yielded to them, but many of Davidovic's followers were not so complaisant, and it was only by threat of force of arms that the new consitution was abolished. Davidovic and Prince Milos sadly parted company under political pressure. Davidovic withdrew from Belgrade to Smederevo, where he died three years later.

Dimitrije Davidovic greatly distinguished himself as one of the most intrepid and influential supporters of the cause of liberalism, in both political and religious matters, until his death at Smederevo, where he died on the 24th of March 1838.

He belongs principally to the same class of writers as Djordje Magarasevic, Teodor Pavlovic, and Danilo Medakovic who worked tirelessly more on a cultural and political plain than literary. Obviously, the circumstances of the times.

References

Translated and adapted from the Serbian Wikipedia: http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%98%D0%B5_%D0%94%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B Translated and adapted from Jovan Skerlic's istorija nove srpske knjizevnosti (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) pages 152-153 Historical Library in Serbian: http://www.istorijskabiblioteka.com/art:dimitrije-davidovic

Jovan Subotić (Dobricini, 30 January 1817 - Zemun, 16 January 1886) was a Serbian poet, writer, playwright, lawyer and politician. He was a corresponding member of both the Society of Serbian Letters and the Serbian Learned Society.

Biography

Jovan Subotić was born at Dobrinci in Srem on the 30th of January 1817. After completing his high school (gymnasium) education in Sremski Karlovci and Segedin, he proceeded in 1833 to the University of Pest (now the University of Budapest). He was among the most popular students of his time, and served as president of the Serbian Students' Union. Before going to the university he had published some verses, and while still at the unversity put forth a book of collected poems under the title of Lira in 1837, and in 1843 another volume of poems entitled Bosilj. In 1840 he left the University of Pest with two doctorate degrees, one in philosophy (1836) and another in laws (1840). He then settled in Pest where he opened a law practice; and began contributing regularly to Srbski narodni list. Ljetopis was by then well established as a quarterly and, because it had only two editors during this period, was much more stable. Teodor Pavlovic remained as editor until he became ill in 1842. He was succeeded by Subotic for the period 1842-1853. Ljetopis improved considerably under Subotic's leadership.

Also, Subotic took additional duties as state censor for Serbian and Romanian publications; and got heavily involved in politics. The private collection of Sava Tekelija's 4,000 books was moved from Arad to Budapest on 30 March 1843, the Library of Matica Srpska became the largest Serbian library outside of Serbia. Subotic directed the Library from 1842 and 1843, and in 1842 he began publishing the first Serbian current bibliography in "Ljetopis." He prepared this bibliography with the idea that the Library should be the book centre for Serbs living in Hungarian-occupied Serbian territory.

He was married to Savka Subotic (1834-1918), a progressive proponent of women's education, and a founding member of several Serbian women's organizations.

Patriot

Subotic was an ardent Serbian patriot, and during the 1848 Revolution he distinguished himself by his steady resistance to Magyar pretentions on Serbian territories. He was actively involved in the 1848 Serbian National Movement as a Budapest delegate, representing the Serbian nation in the Austrian Empire, and then as a member of the Serbian Central Committee in Karlovci. He left in his autobiography a vivid recollection of the historic first Slav congress uniting representatives from many Slav countries, then under the Austrian yoke. In 1848 he was sent as a delegate to attend the Prague Slavic Congress, 1848, a culmination of the initial phase of Pan-Slav cultural collaboration in the Habsburg Empire. The Council of the Serbs in Pest selected their delegates for Prague including Archimandrite Nikanor Grujic, a renowned orator, Archpriest Pavle Stamatovic, who led that delegation, Djordje Stojkovic, and Jovan Subotic. The delegates from Serbia included the dean of Serbian thought, Vuk Karadzic, and the philogist Djura Danicic, Karadzic's ardent supporter. Subotic acted as the secretary.

According to several testimonies, Prague had a festive appearance due to the efforts of all its citizens. Banners were everywhere and all the houses were decorated. Jovan Subotic, a statesman and a member of the Serbian delegation gave his own account of this event. In his writings he commented on the disruption of the Congress in the aftermath of Vidovdan (Saint Vitus Day). The congress itself is not described in much detail, but Subotic includes some interesting recollections and evaluations of the historic meeting by Serbian delegates, and by the indomitable Mikhail Bakunin which illuminate more clearly the central theme of his book. According to Subotic's recollections, the celebration in the street of Prague were monitored and declared unruly by the Austrian authorities.

"We conferred and worked until the Orthodox All Saints Day. On this very day, the Slavic Liturgy was celebrated at St. Wenceslaus Square. Archpriest Pavle Stamatovic and Archimandrite Nikanor Gruijic were officiating....As soon as they (Austrian authorities) realized that the Congress turned against their plans, they became furious....and aimed to disband our Congress and arranged the bombing of Prague by General Alfred Windischgratz...."

In his memoirs, Jovan Subotic recalled that the fateful events of 1848 propelled him irrevocably into the public life. He remembered the revolution in Vienna on March 13th, which was soon followed by the revolution in Budapest on the 15th of the same month. The first demand addressed to the Parliament in Pest was the request for abolition of censorship. Subotic was among the petitioners and he subsequently lost the job that gave him 600 florins yearly.

His zeal for the national cause led him, in 1848 and 1849, to issue several news releases, articles and pamphlets, to which many of the foremost publicists in Serbia and Montenegro contributed, including Ilarion Ruvarac and Peter II Petrovic-Njegos. For some time the Hungarians made it immposible for him to live in Hungarian-controlled Serbian territory, and when, in 1849, he returned to the Hungarian capital he found that his law practice had greatly diminished. Later, he moved to Novi Sad where he was chosen vice-Zupan of Sremska zupanija (the Zupanate of Srem), and in 1862 he became a member of the Appeals Court in Zagreb. In 1865 he was appointed representative to the Zagreb Sabor where he played an important political role. In 1867 Subotic attended the First All-Russian Ethnographic Exhibition and the Pan-Slavic Congress in Moscow, and as a result of it, he lost his government post. From 1870 to 1872 he was the editor of a political journal called Srpski Narod (The Serbian Public) in Novi Sad, and in 1873 he opened a law practice in Osijek. In 1884 he moved to Zemun, where he remained until his death on the 16th of January 1886.

Playwright

As a playwright Jovan Subotic achieved his purpose by encouraging national spirit and slowely developing the public's interest in the theater. As a result, two permanent theaters were built -- Srpsko narodno Pozoriste (the Serbian National Theatre) in Novi Sad (1861) and Narodno Pozoriste (the National Theatre) in Belgrade (1869). Both are still leading institutions in Serbian theater life. He was a corresponding member of the Society of Serbian Letters (7 August 1844) and the Serbian Learned Society (29 July 1864).

Works

1837: "Lira" (poems) 1838: "Potopljena Pešta" 1838: "Uvjenčana Nadežda" (dramatized allegory) 1843: "Bosilje" (lyrical poems and ballads ) 1846: "Kralj Dečanski" (epic poetry) 1862: "Herceg Vladislav" 1863: "Nemanja" (drama) 1868: "Zvonimir" (drama) 1869: "Miloš Obilić" (tragedy) 1869: "Bodin" 1864: "Epilog" 1866: "Apoteoza Jelačića Bana" 1881: "Kaluđer" (roman).

References

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts: http://www.sanu.ac.rs/English/Clanstvo/IstClan.aspx?arg=557, From Serbian Wikipedia: http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%88%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%A1%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%9B Jovan Skerlic, Istorija nove srpske knjizevnosti, Belgrade, 1921, pages 194-196

Simeon Piščević (Šid, 4 September 1731-Imperial Russia, November 1798) was a Serbian memoirist and Russian general.

Originally from the famed Serbian Paštrovići tribe, the Piščević family took their name from their own native village of Pišči. During the Great Migration of 1690 the Piščević family (in question) were soldiers in Austrian service. Simeon's grandfather, Gavrilo Piščević, was a light infantry officer on the Military Frontier dividing the Ottoman and Habsburg empires. Simeon's father Stevan Piščević was also a Military Frontier officer in the service of Empress Maria Theresa.

Simeon Piščević received his education in Šid, Novi Sad, Segedin, Osijek and Vienna. During the last two years of the War of the Austrian Succession (1741-1748) Stevan Piščević took Simeon, his son, along as a volunteer in the Slavonian regiment of the Austrian Army. Being well-educated Simeon became an adjutant in no time. At 17 Simeon was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the Srem Hussar regiment. In 1749 General Jovan Šević gave him the rank of captain and ordered him to prepare to move to Russia. In the mid-eighteenth century, the demilitarization of the Military frontier of the districts encompassing both the Tisza River and Mures River compelled thousands of Serb frontiersmen to immigrate to Russia where they established a number of settlements, notably New Serbia (historical province) and Slavo-Serbia. A reorganization of Serb border militias in Slavonia lead to the immigration of a number of high-ranking officers who distinguished themselves in the Russian military service, Peter Tekeli, Semyon Zorich, Rajko Preradović, Jovan Popović-Horvat, Jovan Šević and, of course, Simeon Piščević, among many others.

Piščević received his Russian visa four year later (1753), but it would be another three years before he made the move. He first emigrated to Imperial Russia in 1756, ending up in the Russian Imperial Army.

All Serbian settlements were called "retrenchments" in the popular idiom, although only a few of them were fortified. Piščević wrote that such districts (oblast) as Hlyns'k, Kryliv and Kryukiv in Imperial Russia were the only fortified places in the Pandur regiment. Simeon Piščević left a most vivid description of General Jovan Horvat's broad use of powers. He refers to the latter as "our absolute and tyrannical ruler" and, sometimes with indignation, sometimes with envy for Horvat's versatility, quotes many episodes, shocking even to contemporaries, who were accustomed to the crude rule of singular power.

"The Diary of General Piščević" (Zapisi Đenerala Piščevića) which first appeared in Russian towards the end of the 19th century, was a model of Serbian eighteenth-century memoirist literature, and was ranked equal to the "Memoirs of Prota Matija Nenadovic" about the Serbian Uprising of 1804. Piščević tells about the Serbian migration to Imperial Russia, Serbian activities there, and his own role in this emigration. He also describes participation of Hungarian Serbs in the war between Austria and France in 1774-1775. He emphasized that the Islamized Turkish subjects in Bosnia are Serbs like all the rest, for they have the "Serbian language and traditions" ("jezik i obicaji srpski"), Piščević is using for his time modern terminology, and together with Dositej Obradovic, but earlier than Stevan Stratimirovic, Lukijan Musicki and Vuk Karadzic, and showing knowledge of the language spoken by the common folk. In the section on the Turks Simeon Piščević refers to the German geographer and scholar Johann Hubner's Kurtze Fregen aus der neuen und eaten Geographie (Regensburg und Wein, 1755). The other work by Simeon Piščević is "Knjiga o naciji srpskoj" (A Book About the Serbian Nation).

References

• Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia: http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D0%9F%D0%B8%D1%88%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B

• Pastrovici: http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D1%88%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B%D0%B

Atanasije Stojković (Ruma, 20 September 1773 - Kharkiv, 2 June 1832) was a renowned Serbian writer and physicist of the late 18th- and early 19th-century..

He was born on the 20th of September 1773 in Ruma, Srem, where he finished the Serbian Grammar School. He lacked resources to complete his education, and for a while he worked as a clerk at Ruma's Geodesic Office, and later as a teacher. When he tried to resume his studies in Szeged and Pozsony (Bratislava), they would not recognize his previous education. On the advise his grammar teacher from Ruma, Vasilije Krstić, he went to Sopron, where he got accepted, and then enrolled in Szeged, where he studied Philosophy. In the spring of 1797 he tried to find a benefactor who would enable him to pursue his studies in Germany. During a short stay in Vienna, he met Dositej Obradović who became his mentor. In the autumn of 1797, he managed to get 300 florints from Metropolitan Stefan Stratimirović to support himself in Göttingen, one of the most prestigious universities in Europe at the time. In the course of the next two years he managed to get a PhD in Philosophy (1799). He became acquainted with Heinrich Heine (archaeologist and philologist) and professor Ludwig Schletzer. After working intensively in different scientific disciplines (physics, mathematics), he went home to Ruma in 1799. Later, he moved to Buda (Budapest) where he finished and published his main work, three volumes entitled “Fisika” (Physics, 1801-1803), mostly completed during his stay in Göttingen. At this stage of his life he also published a philosophical paper with elements of novel “Kandor or The Revelation of Egyptian Secrets” (1800); a sentimental novel “Aristid and Natalia” (1801), a literary novel ”Serbian Secretary” (1802), a collection of letters, a volume of poems called Stihi kakovim obrazom ljubov u braku sohraniti mozno and a hymn entitled On the Death of the Immortal Jovan Rajić(1802). He became a member of the Göttingen Academic Community in 1802.

Since it was difficult for non-Catholics to get state employment in the Habsburg Monarchy, Atanasije tried unsuccessfully to secure his financial status by becoming a monk at a monastery in Kovilj after the death of Jovan Rajić. He also tried to get a position in the Department of Physics at the Pozsony Academy, but no avail. He was invited and elected the first Professor of Physics at the newly-founded Kharkiv University. The invitation came from the famous Count Severin Osipović Potocki (1762-1829), school curator of the Kharkiv County, the future Imperial Russian Minister of Education, whom he met at the home of politician Joseph Maximilian Ossolinski (1748-1826) in Vienna.

Soon, Atanasije Stojković became the dean of the Physics and Mathematics Department, and in two terms (1807-1808 and 1811-1813) also the Chancellor of the Kharkiv University. Apart from that, he was also the founder of the Kharkiv Academic Community, and then the holder of many merits and privileges – he became the member of the Russian Royal Academy of Sciences, he was awarded the medal of Saint Vladimir of the third degree by Emperor Alexander I, he obtained material privileges as well and became a state advisor.

During his stay in Kharkiv, Atanasije Stojković published numerous works, mostly intended for students, written in Russian. Especially prominent is the book titled “O vozdushnih kamnjah i jih proishozdeniji” (On meteors and meteorites and their origin) published in 1807 and emerged as a result of the fact that, being a university professor, Stojkovicć got his hands on an "air stone", which in 1787 fell near the village of Zhygaylovka in the Kharkiv County. This book is considered to be the first ever monograph on meteorites in the world, and its publication influenced the development of Russian meteorite science. In Tunguzija region (where a meteorite exploded on 30th June 1908 and caused huge devastation) there is a hill 150 meters high named after this scientist - Stojković Hill.

Other works by Stojković, written while a professor of physics in Kharkiv, are: "On The Appearance of Hail And Other Things in the Air Called Fata Morgana (Mirage)", 1808; "The Basic Foundations of Abstract and Experimental Physics Until the Latest Discoveries," 1809; "On personal protection from the strike of lightning in all life situations", 1810; "On the Causes Which Make the Air Improper for Inhaling and On Ways of Protection from Complete Damage," 1811; "The Basic Foundations of Physical Geography," 1813; "The Basic Foundations of Physical Astronomy," 1813.

In 1810 Stojković travelled to Austria to visit his mother in Ruma, as well as his friends in Srem and Slavonia, but because of suspicion that he was actually sent on a secret mission by Russia, and due to some public appearances where he glorified Russia and promoted the creation of a country of South Slavs, he was sent back to Russia in October that year following the Emperor's order. After his return to Kharkiv he became the object of an affair which claimed that on his way back from Austria (and later with the help of his friends), he imported large quantities of goods (wine, silk, gems, artifacts) which he sold illegally. The investigation went on for years, and was later extended on Stojković's relationship with his colleagues and other professors. Probably in order to prevent tarnishing the reputation of the University, the investigation was never closed, the charges were never proven, but the affair was most likely the reason for the end of Atanasije Stojković's university career. In May 1813 he was approved a sick leave, when he was relieved of his duty as chancellor, and once he returned from his leave, Stojkovic personally wrote to the Emperor Alexander I requesting to be relived of professorship.

After he left the University, Atanasije Stojković lived in Bessarabia, where in 1815 he received a large estate (15,000 hectares) from Alexander I. In this period Stojković did not practice physics very much. He had the idea of writing or publishing a comprehensive history of Serbia, but he could not come trough with it. Living far away from Serbia, he was also far from the necessary references and sources. He persisted in trying to realise his idea with the help of Metropolitan Stratimirović, who he was constantly corresponding with him.

The final years of his life were spent in Petrograd in close contact with representatives of Russian central authorities, and in 1826 he also became the representative of Montenegro at the Russian court, thanks to his acquaintance with Montenegrin Metropolitan Petar I Petrović Njegoš. He spent most of his time doing translations, one of which is the New Testament in Serbian, published in Petrograd in 1824.

The following are the titles of the works by Atanasije Stojković created in th last decade of his life:

• О саранче и способах истребљенија јеја (On grasshoppers and ways of exterminating them) 1825. • О отводах молниј и града (On coduction – derivation of lightning and hail) 1826. • Зашчишченије градових отводов (Protection of anti-hail conductors) 1826. • Систематическоје изложеније обезводњенија мокрој почви (A systematic presentation of draining waterlogged land) 1827. • Теоретическо-практическоје настављеније о виноделији (Theoretical – practical advice on wine production) translation from French ,1830.

Records show that Atanasije Stojković died in Kharkiv on 2nd June 1832.

Stojkovic spoke several languages: German, Latin, French, Italian, English, Greek, Hungarian, and almost all Slavic languages.

References

Translated and adapted from Jovan Skerlić's "Istorija nove srpske književnosti". Belgrade, 1914, pages 109-112.

Živojin Žujović (Vračević, Serbia, 10 November 1838 - Belgrade, Serbia, 25 April 1870) was Serbian politician, writer, and "first Serbian socialist," a sobriquet given to him by Svetozar Marković.

Žujović graduated from Grande école in Belgrade and pursued further studies in St. Petersburg, {Kiev]], Munich, and Zürich from 1861 to 1867. As a commentator on public affairs and a specialist on the Slavic question, he was influenced by the ideas of the Russian revolutionary democrats. In 1863, together with journalist Pavel Apollonovich Rovinsky, he co-edited the “Slavic Land” section in the newspaper Ocherki and wrote for the journal Sovremenik. In 1864 he headed the Slavic sections of the newspapers Golos and Sankt Peterburgskie vedomosti and held that position on the latter newspaper until March 1866. He championed the brotherhood and friendship of the Slavic peoples.

Upon his return to Belgrade in the mid-1867, he sought a teaching post at his alma mater, however, he was appointed to a clerical position at the Ministry of Finance instead. He was quite ill at the time of his arrival, and lived another three years before he died of consumption.

Legacy

A monograph published in 1974 in Moscow by Viktor G. Karasev has convincingly shown the significance of Živojin Žujović as the initiator of the new movement of the 1870a in Serbian social thought, and as the predecessor of Svetozar Marković who was to take over the struggle against the liberals which Žujović started.

Works

Celokupna dela Živojina Žujovića (Collected Works of Živojina Žujovića (Belgrade, 1892).

References

• Paligorić, L. Živojin Žujović (Belgrade, 1960).
• Adapted in English from Serbian Wikipedia.

Pavle Popović (Belgrade, 16 April 1868-Belgrade, 4 June 1939) was a Serbian writer and one of the most influential Serbian literary critics in the period from 1909 to 1939. He is the brother of Bogdan Popović, also a well-known and equally influential literary critic.

Biography

Pavle Popović was born at Belgrade on the 16th of April 1868. He studied philosophy and literature in Belgrade and Paris. He was professor of Serbian literature at the University of Belgrade for three decades. He was also the secretary of the Srpska knjizevna zadruga (Serbian Literary Society) from 1911 to 1920, its vice president from 1920 to 1928, and president from 1928 to 1937.

Literary Critic

Pavle Popović was French-oriented, like his brother Bogdan. Pavle complimented Jovan Skerlic's work by publishing an overview of Serbian literature (1913) that emphasized early literary history and the oral tradition that followed. His method of literary history combined archival research, philosophical polemics, and comparative perspective, discourse, inspired by other contemporary European literatures, gave a touch of elegant and witty lightness to anecdotal narratives, and soon influenced a younger generation of critics and essayists. Pavle grew into an authoritarian figure in Serbian academia but was less present in public than his brother. His literary history and his numerous specialized studies on nineteenth-century Serbian theater and other matters were considered a standard for more than 60 years, along with Skerlic's work, which was, to be sure, ideologically more attractive.

Pavle Popović corresponded with the following scholars Milivoy S. Stanoyevich, Professor of Slavonic Languages, Columbia University; George Rapall Noyes, Professor of Slavic Studies, University of California, Berkeley; John Dyneley Prince, Professor of Slavonic Languages, Columbia University; R. W. Seaton Watson (United Kingdom); Watson Kirkconnell (Dominion of Canada), and many other academics.

References

Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia: http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B5_%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B

Jovan Skerlic, Istorije nove srpske knjizevnosti (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) pages 484 and 485.

On-line books by Pavle Popović: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Popovic%2C%20Pavle%2C%201868-1939

Vićentije Rakić (Zemun, 29 April 1750-Fenek monastery, 29 March 1818) was a Serbian writer and poet. He founded the School of Theology (now part of the University of Belgrade) when in 1810 he headed a newly-established theological college and in 1812 the first students graduated from it. He was a disciple of Dositej Obradović.

Biography

Born in 1750 into a religious Serbian family, Rakić was baptized Vasilije on the 29th of April that year at Zemun, according to the customs of the Serbian Orthodox Church. After a provincial schooling he married and opened up a business selling merchandise. His marriage was a happy one.

Then tragedy struck, his wife died in 1785. That same year he sold his house, business, and went to the Fenek monastery, where Abbot Sofronije Stefanović gave him his monkish name of Vićentije after being tonsured on the 9th of April 1786. That year he was ordained deacon at Karlovci by Ćirilo Živkovic, and priest by Vladika Stevan Stratimirović, and appointed to a parish at Šabac, where he delivered sermons for which, along with "Zivot Aleksije čoveka Božiega", written in verse, he became recognized as a promising orator and author. He had no leanings towards scholarship at first, however, his curiosity was always wide-ranging and various rather than particular and constant. At any rate his studies supplied him with that fund of general knowledge he was later to say was indispensable for a writer and poet and with fondness and respect for those authors he would later emulate, namely Dositej Obradović.

On the 9th of January 1796 he became the abbot of Fenek monastery, but three years later he left for Trieste. From 1799 to 1810 he lived and worked in Trieste as the parish priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church looking after the spiritual needs of the Serbian and Greek congregation of St. Spiridon. Sometime shortly after his sixtieth year Rakić himself fell under the influence of Dositej Obradović, and thereafter his life in Trieste was never the same. He went to join Dositej Obradović in Karađorđe's Serbia and went to live in the recently-liberated city of Belgrade.

Rakić's first editor and biographer, Dositej Obradović, made ample use of his letters to unfold Rakić's life in a monograph. Obradović, now Minister of Education, summoned Rakić from Trieste to help him establish both a university (Grande école in 1808) and a theological college (in 1810). A letter by Obradovic to the Very Reverend Vicentije Rakic, dated in late 1809, motivated Rakic, a professor of Pedagogy at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Grande école in Belgrade, to fulfill his life's ambition by organizing a newly-founded theological college in Belgrade and preparing students for priesthood. In 1812 the first group of priests educated in the liberated country of Serbia, graduated. It was with great effort that the insurgents restored and reconstructed their destroyed institutions of long ago.

After the reconquest of Serbia by the Turks in 1813, Rakić left Belgrade and went back to Fenek monastery, in Srem, where he died on the 29th of March 1818.

His theological and moral writings were aimed at saving God from the atheists and even desists, and man from the skeptical philosophers.

Bibliography

• Pravilo molebnoje ko presvetoj Bogorodici, i prepodnjoj Paraskevi srpskoj, written and published in Buda, 1798
• Istorija manastira Feneka, written in Trieste in 1798, printed in Buda, 1799
• Žertva Avramova, ili sobesedovanje grešnika s Bogomateriju, s grčkog, printed in Buda, 1799; second printing, Vienna, 1833; III, Belgrade, 1835, IV, 1856, V - 1803
• Cvet dobrodetelji, from Greek (Buda,1800)
• Pravilo Sv Spiridona (Venice, 1802)
• Žitije svetogo velikomučenika Jevstatija Plakide, i svetago Spiridona čudotvorca, written in verse, and printed in Buda, 1803
• Žitije prekrasnoga Josifa, written in verse (Venice, 1804)
• Istorija o razorenju Jerusalima i o vzjatiji Konstantinopolja (Venice, 1804)
• Ljestvica imuštaja pedeset stepnej (Venice, 1805)
• Čudesi presvetija Bogorodici, from Greek, written in Trieste and published in Venice in 1808
• Žitije Vasilija Velikiga, u stihovima (Veneciji, 1808)
• Propovedi za nedelje i praznike (Venice, 1809)
• Besednikov iliričesko-italijanski (Venice, 1810)
• Beseda o duvanu (Venice, 1810)
• Žitije Stevana Prvovenčanog, written in Šabac in 1791, and printed in Buda in 1813
• Pesan istorijski o žitiju Aleksija čeloveka Božiji, written in verse, and printed in Belgrade in 1835

References

• Translated and adapted from a biography of Vićentije Rakić at: http://riznicasrpska.net/knjizevnost/index.php?topic=171.0
• Translated and adapted from Jovan Skerlić's Istorija nove srpske književnosti (Belgrade, 1914. 1921) pages 114 and 115

Avram Mrazović (Serbian: Аврам Мразовић; Sombor, 12 March 1756-Sombor, 20 February 1826) was a Serbian writer, translator, pedagogue, aristocrat and Senator of the Free Royal City of Sombor, part of the Military Frontier of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His first grammar was written on the model of Russian Church Slavonic grammars and adapted by Vuk Karadzžić into modern Serbian.

Avram Mrazović (1756-1826) was the son of Very Reverend and Mrs. Georgije Mrazović, parish priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church of Saint John the Baptist in Sombor. Mrazović is known in literary annals as a Serbian education reformer who lived and worked in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Serb and Romanian territories of today's Serbian Vojvodina and Romanian Banat. He is the founder of the Serb National Primary School Commission. He also founded Norma, a teacher training college in Sombor in 1787 before another school was opened in 1812 in Szentandre called Regium Pedagogium Nationis Illiricae (Preparadija) which eventually moved back to Sombor again in 1816. The first book on logic in the Serbian language was written by Nikola Simić, Avram Mrazović's friend, and was published in Budapest in two volumes, entitled "Logic" (Vol. I, 1808; Vol. II, 1809). Ten years later, Mrazović wrote the second book on logic in Serbian in a similar manner, entitled "Logic, or Reasoning", completed in 1826, but the book was never published since he died.

Aside from Pavle Julinac, remembered as the first to translate from French, other translators of the period were Gligorije Trlajić, Nikola Lazarević, Atanasije Stojković, and Avram Mrazović. Mrazović translated the French work of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, the German philosophers and authors, Friedrich Christian Baumeister, Johann Christoph Gottsched, Christian Wolff (philosopher), Salomon Gessner, Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, and the Latin of Ovid, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, and the Greek of Aristotle.

Works

• Rukovodstvo k slavenstej grammatice: vo upotreblenik slaveno-serbskih narodnyh ucilisc (1794)
• Celovekomerzosti I raskajaniju (1808)
• Epistolarum de Ponto livri V (Buda, 1818)
• Rukovodstvo k slavenskomu krasnoreciju vo upotreblenik ljubiteleij slavenskago jezyka izdano Avraamom ot Mrazović (1821)
• Logic, or Reasoning, completed in 1826, but the book was never published.

References

• Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia.

Dimitrije Davidović (Zemun, 12 October 1789-Smederevo, 24 March 1838) was a secretary to Miloš Obrenović I, Prince of Serbia, writer, journalist, publisher, historian, diplomatist, and founder of modern Serbian journalism and publishing.

Biography

Dimitrije Davidović, born in Zemun on the 12th of October 1789, was the son of Gavrilo and Marija Georgijević. In 1789 his father, a regiment priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Austrian Army, was transferred to Zemun after the liberation of Belgrade from the Turks. His grandfather, Very Rev. David Georgijević, was a professor at the famed Latin School (Latinska škola) at Sremski Karlovci, founded by Metropolitan Pavle Nenadović of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Dimitrije was a sickly child and as such was inclined to read and write instead of playing outdoors. He completed Serbian grammar schools in Zemun and Kežmarok, and his post-secondary education, at Sremski Karlovci, was guided by his professor of Latin, his paternal grandfather Georgijević. From there he then went to the universities of Pest and Vienna, where he first studied philosophy then switched over to the University of Vienna's prestigious School of Medicine. He was early involved in the political troubles in which Serbia and the Serbian people were then immersed with the Turkish authorities in Istanbul (Constantinople).. Dimitrije decided one day to take his grandfather's given name "David" as his surname "Davidović" to avoid detection by the authorities who were looking for him.

The First Serbian Uprising, led by Karađorđe Petrović, started in 1804 but could not survive beyond 1813 without the support of the Great Powers. Soon, came the Second Serbian Uprising under Miloš Obrenović I, Prince of Serbia in 1815 which gained nominal concessions from the sultan of Constantinople, thanks to the intervention of Imperial Russia.

Publishing

While studying medicine in Vienna in 1812, Dimitrije Davidović wanted to start a Serbian newspaper but could not get a licence which was personally denied by Klemens von Metternich himself. About 1813, in conjunction with a fellow student, Dimitrije Frušić, he founded and edited a Serbian newspaper in Vienna called Novine Serbske (Serb News), and Zabavnik (Entertainment), a Serbian almanach, in which many interesting particulars respecting the literature and political history of Serbia was published. Like Stefan Novaković, his predecessor, Davidovice believed that any people who would like to be recognized as enlightened must have its national newspapers and magazines, which are essentially important for the four million Serbs living under the Habsburg yoke at the time. His Novine serbske iz carstvajuscega grada Vienne soon changed its direction from translations of travelogues, biographies and writings on history to national issues (current events) and Serbian literature. Among the contributors in his newspaper and magazine were Lukijan Mušicki, Sima Milutinović Sarajlija, Teodor Pavlović, Georgije Magarašević, Danilo Medaković and other prominent Serbian poets and writers. Both the newspaper and almanach were eventually suppressed by the Austrian government in 1821. He wrote Istorija Serbije, 1813-1815 and what is now considered his best work, Srbijanka (1826), an epic poem in praise of the liberation of Serbia, led by Karadorde Petrovic (1804) and Milos Obrenovic (1813). Serbian historiography at the revolutionary time of pre-romanticism, it is said, has no better representative than Simeon Piscevic, right up to Dimitrije Davidovic.

His "History of the Serbian People", supplemented by lawyer Jovan Hadžić, was reprinted several times. In 1848 the work was translated into French by Alfred Vigneron.

Secretary to Prince Miloš Obrenović of Serbia

His talents gained him the favourable notice of Prince Miloš (Obrenović) of Serbia, who appointed Davidovic secretary of his offices at Belgrade, and sent him on special diplomatic missions. According to prince Milos's judgement Davidovic was "exceptionally talented in diplomacy." He resided in Belgrade and enjoyed the continued favour of the court. He headed the Serbian diplomatic delegation in Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey, from 1829 to 1833. He is considered by Serbian historians as one of the most important diplomats of his era.

In one of Davidović's patriotic appeals on August 3, 1821 he pointed out the need for female children's education. Since the state was technically at war with the Turks and almost unable to concern itself with the opening of a girls' school which at the time was prohibited by Moslem (Turkish) law. He was Minister of Education and Minister for Foreign Affairs from the 8th of June 1834 to the 2nd of December 1835.

Sretenje Ustav/Candlemas Constitution

In 1835 he was placed at the head of a committee to draw up a Serbian constitution; and it was, after all, chiefly drawn up by himself. Called "Sretenje Ustav" (Candlemas Constitution) it was drafted by Dimitrije Davidović to secure Serbia protection of citizens before the state and transformation of Serbia into a legal state with protected human and property rights for all. It was the first step toward power-sharing in modern Serb political history. But it was not to be expected that such sweeping changes could be affected without opposition, and no sooner the Sublime Porte and Austria brought their grievances against the implemented Sretenje. Prince Miloš yielded to them, but many of Davidović's followers were not so complaisant, and it was only by threat of force of arms that the new constiution was abolished after being less than three weeks in force. Davidovic and Prince Miloš sadly parted company under political pressure. Davidović withdrew from Belgrade to Smederevo, where he died three years later.

Legacy

Dimitrije Davidović greatly distinguished himself as one of the most intrepid and influential supporters of the cause of liberalism, in both political and religious matters, until his death at Smederevo, where he died on the 24th of March 1838.

He belongs principally to the same class of writers as Djordje Magarašević, Teodor Pavlović, and Danilo Medaković who worked tirelessly more on a cultural and political plain than literary. Obviously, dictated by the circumstances of the times.

References

Translated and adapted from the Serbian Wikipedia: http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%98%D0%B5_%D0%94%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B Translated and adapted from Jovan Skerlić's Istorija nove srpske knjizevnosti (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) pages 152-153 Historical Library in Serbian: http://www.istorijskabiblioteka.com/art:dimitrije-davidović

Hieromonk Grigorije Vasilije (c. 1530-past 1598) was the scribe of the first and the earliest extant Serbian copy of Josephus's "The History of the Jewish War" and the second historical text , "The Tale of the Capture of Constantinople" (Provest o Tsarigradu).

To date, no one has written specifically about this extraordinary monk. His name is known to us from the colophon from the Serbian manuscript of Josephus (HM.SMS.280) compared to the Russian original (HM.SMS.281). Called Grigorije, he took the name Vasilije when he was tonsured into the Great Schema in the Tower (pirg) of Saint Sava in 1585.

Not only was the hieromonk a noteworthy scribe, he also served as abbot of Hilandar Monastery in 1583, multiple times between 1588 and 1591, and continually from 1591–1597/8 (Fotić 2000: 1 7). However, because of his frequent travels, he had to leave the abbot’s duty to another hieromonk. The Hilandar records indicate that Grigorije Vasilije served as an abbot five times between 1588 and 1591. This is understandable considering the need of the abbot to travel, since the best were chosen to represent the monastery abroad.

In addition to writing the manuscript and serving as abbot, the hieromonk Grigorije Vasilije was well known as the monastery’s representative on foreign missions. Hilandar Monastery sent him on several missions to seek support for the monastery. This type of mission was called pisanije. It takes its name from the word for letter/correspondence because it entailed the carrying of a letter, written usually by the abbot or abbots, which would accompany a representative of the monastery as he traveled and came in contact with potential benefactors and donors. The reason for this type of frequent travel of the Hilandar monks in the second half of the sixteenth century (after 1569) was undoubtedly the confiscation of the monasteries and monastery land by the Turkish rulers (Fotić 1994:49, 221).

The monks had to travel and ask for help in order to get the monastery out of debt. These monks had the written permission of the Turkish authorities, which allowed them to travel and collect donations. It is interesting to note that these monks, in order to protect themselves, often had to resort to disguises in order to avoid robbery.

Hilandar Monastery has preserved five letters addressed to dignitaries that the hieromonk Grigorije Vasilije presented on behalf of the monastery. One of the important journeys that the hieromonk Grigorije Vasilije made was to Imperial Russia in September of 1582. During this trip, the Hilandar monks stayed in Russia for over a year (Fotić 2000: 419). Eventually, Grigorije Vasilije and his delegation were admitted to the tsar’s court on December 6, 1583. During this visit, Grigorije Vasilije handed the Hilandar abbot Makarije’s letter to the tsar asking for monetary help for the building of a tower. On this occasion, Tsar Ivan the Terrible gave him the Josephus manuscript as a gift, and 700 rubles to Hilandar Monastery for prayers for the repose of the soul of his son, Ivan. The tsar donated another 60 rubles, 40 pieces of beaver’s fur (which, at that time, were worth around 20-30 rubles each), and 20 rubles for each monk.

During his stay in Russia, the hieromonk Grigorije Vasilije most probably lived in the residence in Moscow that Tsar Ivan the Terrible had donated to Hilandar Monastery in 1556. The purpose of this residence was to provide accommodation to visiting Hilandar monks.

The manuscript of Josephus’ "The History of the Jewish War" was copied in 1585 by hieromonk Grigorije Vasilije and was written in the Serbian recension of Church Slavonic; folia 73v-126v have different handwriting, which strongly suggests that there was one other scribe besides Grigorije Vasilije who worked on this manuscript. The handwriting suggest that this second scribe could be hieromonk Dionisije, who also was a scribe in Karyes (Athos) on Mount Athos at the time. In addition to Grigorije Vasilije there were seven other Serbian scribes who lived and worked in the Karyes cell at the time. Considering that Grigorije Vasilije had to leave part of the work of his manuscript to another monk-scribe, owing to to some mission outside the monastery, it is likely that one of the scribes was involved as his assistant. The following are the scribes who are known to have lived and copied manuscripts in the Scriptorium at that particular period: Arsenije, Makarije, Varlaam, Dionisije, Jefrem, Lavrentije and Antonije.

The “Russian” manuscript is the parent of the Serbian copy and was used as the source of what the hieromonk Grigorije Vasilije calls his translation into the Serbian recension, where this is explicitly stated: “Српски препис са руског извода XVI века сачуваног у Хил. 281” (“A Serbian Copy from a Russian Source of the 16th century preserved in Hilandar 281”).

The original manuscript is located in the manuscript library of Hilandar Monastery, on Mount Athos, Greece. A microfilm of the manuscript forms part of the Hilandar Monastery Slavic manuscript collection housed at the Hilandar Research Library, a special collection of the Ohio State University Libraries. It was microfilmed in 1971 by the Hilandar Research project of Ohio State University (Joković 2007: 2 -57).

References

• Hieromonk Grigorije Vasilije's profile:http://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crossingover/5thCrossingOver/SessionA/8/

Sofija Škorić is a Serbian Canadian writer, editor, translator, publisher, activist and initiator-founder of The Serbian Heritage Academy of Canada, based in Toronto.

She came to Canada at an early age to take her post-graduate degrees in Library Science and become one of the principal librarians at Robarts Library of the University of Toronto, retiring as librarian emerita.

Škorić concerns herself with three main fields of inquiry -- the interrelations of philosophy and science, the philosophy of law, and the social and political problems of the Serbs. She edited some of the books of George Vid Tomashevich, Danko Popović, Meša Selimović, Dushan R. Kosovich, Vasa D. Mihailovich; wrote several comprehensive chapters in the East European Quarterly, Serbian Studies and other learned Slavic periodicals; and translated Epiphany by Matija Bećković the poet laureate of Serbia. She also served as president of the The North American Society for Serbian Studies, president of the Serbian-Canadian Unity Congress, and vice-president of the Serbian Unity Congress.

Škorić's eminence among her contemporary Serbian writers was not generally recognized until the appearance of the Serbs in Ontario, Serbian Academy After A Century: An Institution at Risk (see Source at Memorandum SANU), Stress In the Vortex of Global Anomie, Dream and Shadows, A World As A Metaphor, The Bloodblossoms of Kossovo: A Chronicle About the Serbian Holy Land, Jewish Portraits in the Work of Ivo Andrić, and many other titles.

Her earlier work in publishing received recognition of the Canadian and Serbian governments alike and the 2004 The Karić Brothers Award; but it was her determination to initiate and found the Serbian Heritage Academy of Canada which established her position in the front rank of the Serbian activists in Canada.

The Serbian Heritage Academy of Canada was founded in 1981 and has been active ever since. The academy invites scholars, authors and speakers on various subjects pertaining to Serbian society in general and culture in particular, in the past and present, and across all fields and disciplines.

Founded in 1981, to act as a central cultural institution within the Serbian Diaspora in Canada, supporting preservation and development of Serbian language, education, literature, history, music, folklore, including all other activities in the social sciences field in connection with Serbian cultural heritage; it collects, archives and offers to public all available written materials from history and culture of the Serbian nation.

The Serbian Heritage Academy is the result of a lengthy and careful evolution. Its development began in the late 1970s with a working group of Serbian intellectuals in Toronto, Canada; it concluded with the founding of the Academy by librarian Sofija Škorić of the University of Toronto; lawyer Nikola Pašić, the grandson of World War I statesman by the same name; art historian Dušan Bijelić, civil engineer Nikola Alexeichenko and teacher and vice-principal Paul Pavlovich. Soon others joined the Board, including Mrs. Rosa Somborac, Gojko Protich, Nikola Bogdanovich, Michael (Mihailo) Petrovich, Jana Dzeletović, Rade Dodić, Dr. Žika Davidovac, Mirijana Simić, Jelena Petričić, Braca Divić, Dr. Velimir Ristić, Nada Stegnajic, Gordana Tomić, Dragan Todorović (known as Charles Todd).

With her vision of an academy, Sofija Škorić aimed for a clearly-defined goal: with the help of a close-meshed network of Serbian historians, scientists, professors, writers, poets and artists, the problems and questions facing the Serbian nation in the Balkans should be examined from different perspectives and ultimately answered. The Serbian Heritage Academy in Toronto and Hamilton had a total of 14 chapters in fourteen cities in North America at the height of their activity The guests of the academy were invited speakers in all the SHA chapters.

References

• The Karić Brothers Award Laureates of 2004: http://www.karicawards.com/The-Karic-Brothers-Award-Laureates-in-2004/892/For-humanitarian-work-strengthening-of-peace.shtml
• List of books edited and published by Sofija Škorić: https://www.library.yorku.ca/find/Author/Home?author=Skoric%2C%20Sofija.
• Serbian Heritage Academy of Canada: https://www.atbcares.com/causes/124-119253730RR0001

Dragutin Ilić

Dragutin Ilić (Belgrade, 14 February 1858-Belgrade, 1 May 1926) was a Serbian novelist, poet and journalist. His father was Jovan Ilić, the celebrated poet and politician.

The son of Jovan Ilić (1824-1901), Dragutin's poems did not reach the same level of popularity as his younger brother Vojislav Ilić (1860-1894), though he was a remarkable writer. His best works were his plays and novels.

Works

• Vukašin (1882), drama
• Jakvinta (1883), drama
• Pesme (1884) poems
• Pribislav i Božana (1887), drama
• Otmica (1887), jednočinska drama
• Poslednji borac (1889), epic poem
• Posle milijon godina (1889), drama
• Ženidba Miloša Obilića (1898), drama
• Za veru i slobodu (1890), drama
• Tri deputacije (1906), drama
• Novel (1892)
• Lihvarka (1895), comedy
• Poslednji prorok (1896), biography of Mohammed
• Saul (performed 1900, published 1906), drama
• Hadži Đera (1904), novel
• Ženik slobode (1904), drama
• Viđenje Karađorđevo (1904), drama
• Uspomene iz Rumunije (1904, 1905), memoir
• Neznani gost (1907), drama
• Hadži Diša (1908), novel
• Zaječarska buna (1909), memoir
• Osvećeno Kosovo (1913), zbirka poema
• Pesma jednog života (1916), novel, released as an autobiography in 1994 by Sava Damjanov
• Sekund večnosti, istočnjački novel (1921)
• Smrt kralja Vladimira (1925), epic poem

References

• Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia:

Simeon Piščević

Simeon Piščević (Šid, 4 September 1731-Imperial Russia, November 1798) was a Serbian memoirist and Russian general.

Originally from the famed Serbian Pastrovici tribe, the Piščević family took their name from their own native village of Pišči. During the Great Migration of 1690 the Piščević family (in question) were soldiers in Austrian service. Simeon's grandfather, Gavrilo Piščević, was a light infantry officer on the Military Frontier dividing the Ottoman and Habsburg empires. Simeon's father Stevan Piščević was also a Military Frontier officer in the service of Empress Maria Theresa.

Simeon Piščević received his education in Sid, Novi Sad, Segedin, Osijek and Vienna. During the last two years of the War of the Austrian Succession (1741-1748) Stevan Piščević took Simeon, his son, along as a volunteer in the Slavonian regiment of the Austrian Army. Being well-educated Simeon became an adjutant in no time. At 17 Simeon was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the Srem Hussar regiment. In 1749 General Jovan Šević gave him the rank of captain and ordered him to prepare to move to Russia. In the mid-eighteenth century, the demilitarization of the Military frontier of the Tisza River and Mures River districts compelled thousands of Serb frontier men to immigrate to Russia where they established a number of settlements, notably New Serbia and Slavo-Serbia. A reorganization of Serb border militias in Slavonia lead to the immigration of a number of high-ranking officers who distinguished themselves in the Russian military service, Peter Tekeli, Semyon Zorich, Rajko Preradović, Jovan Horvat, Jovan Šević and Simeon Piščević, among many others.

Piščević received his Russian visa four year later (1753), but it would be another three years before he made the move. He first emigrated to Imperial Russia in 1756, ending up in the Russian Imperial Army.

All Serbian settlements were called "retrenchments" in the popular idiom, although only a few of them were fortified. Piščević wrote that such districts (oblast) as Hlyns'k, Kryliv and Kryukiv in today's Ukraine were the only fortified places in the Pandur regiment. Simeon Piščević left a most vivid description of General Jovan Horvat's broad use of powers. He refers to the latter as "our absolute and tyrannical ruler" and, sometimes with indignation, sometimes with envy for Horvat's versatility, quotes many episodes, shocking even to contemporaries, who were accustomed to the crude rule of singular power.

"The Diary of General Piščević" (Zapisi Djenerala Piščevića) which first appeared in Russian towards the end of the 19th century, was a model of Serbian eighteenth-century memoirist literature, and was ranked equal to the "Memoirs of Prota Matija Nenadović" about the Serbian Uprising of 1804. Piščević tells about the Serbian migration to Imperial Russia, Serbian activities there, and his own role in this emigration. He also describes participation of Hungarian Serbs in the war between Austria and France in 1774-1775. He emphasized that the Islamized Turkish subjects in Bosnia are Serbs like all the rest, for they have the "Serbian language and traditions" ("jezik i obicaji srpski"), Piščević is using for his time modern terminology, and together with Dositej Obradović, but earlier than Stevan Stratimirović, Lukijan Musicki and Vuk Karadžić, and showing knowledge of the language spoken by the common folk. In the section on the Turks Simeon Piščević refers to the German geographer and scholar Johann Hubner's Kurtze Fregen aus der neuen und eaten Geographie (Regensburg und Wein, 1755). The other work by Simeon Piščević is "Knjiga o naciji srpskoj" (A Book About the Serbian Nation).

References

• Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia: http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D0%9F%D0%B8%D1%88%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B
• Pastrovići: http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D1%88%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B%D0%B8

Sava II Branković (Ineu, Principality of Transylvania, 1620-Alba Iulia, Principality of Transylvania, 24 April 1683) was a hierarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church who was canonized for fighting against the oppression of the Roman Catholic Church, the Calvinists, and the Ottoman Empire. His brother was Đorđe Branković (count). Today Sava II Branković is venerated as the Metropolitan of Ardeal (Transylvania), and Confessor of Romania, his feast day is on the 24th of April.

Biography

Simeon Branković was born in 1620 in the town of Ineu (Serbian: Jenopolje) in Arad County, at the western border of the Principality of Transylvania, which was a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. The Branković family owned large estates, and it had produced several notable soldiers and ecclesiastics since the end of the 16th century, becoming the most prominent among the Serb families of Arad County.

Young Simeon was tutored at home, then his studies took him to Orthodox monasteries in Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria. After visiting his uncle, Metropolitan Longin at the Comana Monastery, south of Bucharest, he decided to stay there to complete his education. Simeon had an opportunity to obtain an excellent education there. The Metropolitan tutored him in religious and secular subjects. Simeon read widely and avidly, primarily historical and biblical works, which he first discovered in the rich library of his uncle. After completing his studies, Simeon returned home and got married at the age of thirty. He was ordained to the holy priesthood, but his wife prematurely died soon after. At the same time, Simeon, the oldest of four brothers, lost his father Jovan and two of his brothers to the plague. His mother Mara then became a nun and retreated to a monastery, leaving her youngest son Đorđe who was ten years old. Simeon immediately took charge of his youngest brother. Father Simeon continued to serve in the Lord's vineyard for ten years, converting many Moslems, and reconverting Christians who had embraced Islam.His brother Đorđe received an enviable education, becoming a polyglot like his older brother who wrote in Serbian-Slavonic, Church Slavonic, Hungarian, Romanian, and Latin; he also knew Greek, Bulgarian, Turkish, Italian and German.

In 1656, a council of clergy at Alba Iulia elected the widowed Father Simeon as Metropolitan of Ardeal. He traveled to the Saint Nicholas-Geartoglu Church of Targovishte in Wallachia, and there he received monastic tonsure with the name Sava. On September 16, 1656 he was consecrated by metropolitan Stephen of Wallachia. Metropolitan Sava II moved to the capital of the principality, Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia) taking his brother Đorđe with him. Sava's episcopal service was plagued by the missionary activities of the Calvinists who tried to convert the Orthodox, and who were supported by the prince of Ardeal (Prince Apafi). In addition, frequent wars threatened the stability of the area during his first years as Metropolitan. Sava, however, proved to be equal to the task, being a faithful defender of the Church. He always showed little interest in yielding to the demands of the political authority to establish Calvinism among the ranks of the Orthodox, let alone unity with the Roman Catholics. He corresponded with metropolitan bishops Dosoftei and Varlaam Motoc.

In the face of these difficulties, Sava set up a printing house in Alba Iulia where he published service books, manuals of instruction for clergy and laity, and a catechism. He also preached sermons based on the writings of the Early Fathers, and using the Lives of the Saints as models for his flock.

For more than two decades, Sava played a leading role in Ardeal's book printing. He was one of the first to print in the Romanian language. Sava and his followers at Alba Iulia made the first steps in formulating the fundamentals of the modern Romanian and Serbian languages. The proliferation of the Romanian language in print was part of a wider effort of what would eventually become Romania's struggle for sovereignty and cultural self-preservation a century and a half later. Sava wanted to preserve the Romanian identity that had been experiencing enormous pressure from the Hungarians, Austrians and Turks. He initiated the publication of sermons for the laity in Romanian, Biblical texts in Church Slavonic, and scientific books in Serbian-Slavonic, Romanian, Greek, and Latin. Sava wrote several books which were distributed in Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia, now extant. Sava was driven from his See between 1660-1662 because of his labours to strengthen his flock in Orthodoxy. Although he returned to his duties, more determined than ever, and served without interruption until 1680, Metropolitan Sava was often harassed because of his refusal to cooperate with the prince of the realm -- Michael I Apafi -- and the Calvinists, who took root in Ardeal (Transylvania) a century earlier, the 1550s. Among the Hungarian-speakers in Transylvania, the Calvinist branch was the dominant religion of the upper class, though Transylvania and Banat at the time had a large Romanian and Serbian population respectively.

Sava concocted to the idea that the Brankovići of Arad County descended from the medieval Branković dynasty, which was not improbable, being the last ruling dynasty in Serbia before the Ottoman conquest. He passed this idea to Đorđe, with whom it would resonate all his life. The metropolitan planned a diplomatic and political career for his younger brother, who learned Turkish, Hungarian, Romanian, and Latin. In 1663, during the government of Prince Michael I Apafi, Đorđe was employed as dragoman for the kapı kâhyası (agent) representing the ruler of Transylvania at the Ottoman Porte. After the agent died in December 1663, Đorđe served as the acting kapı kâhyası until October 1664. He remained at the Porte until 1667, participating in several diplomatic missions.

In 1668, Metropolitan Sava II travelled to the Russian Empire accompanied by eleven men, Đorđe Branković among them. The journey was planned to seek help from the Emperor for the Orthodox population in Ardeal. The metropolitan had an audience with Tsar Alexis, and informed him that the Orthodox Serbs, Bulgarians, and Wallachians were ready to liberate themselves from the Turks, with Russia's military help.

Shortly after their return from Russia, the journey made Sava problems with the authorities. This led to Sava's persecution by Prince Apafi and the Protestant leadership, who did not appreciate the metropolitan's fierce opposition to their attempts to convert the Orthodox faithful of transylvania and their constant want to be free from the Turks. In February of 1669 Apafi issued a decree imposing many duties and restrictions on Sava and consequently on the majority of the Orthodox flock. Because Sava had contacts with political opponents of Prince Apafi (the Russians), he also became the target of the Calvinist Superintendent Peter Kovasznai, the Reformed bishop of Transylvania, who saw Sava as an obstacle towards the intended conversion of the Orthodox into Calvinism. The latter denomination was dominant political class in Transylvania at the time while the Romanian majority was subjected to the Calvinizing pressure from the authorities. Đorđe Branković was briefly imprisoned for having the same contacts of which his brother was accused.

Still, Apafi made occasional concessions to Sava, on the other hand, he insisted on compliance with the so-called fifteen points of his predecessors and on unconditional subordination of the Orthodox clergy to the Reformed superintendent Kovasznai. Despite Apafi's disagreements with Sava, Đorđe Branković was again in his service. Prince Apafi even entrusted Đorđe with diplomatic and intelligence assignments. Đorđe continued to serve as the Transylvanian kapı kâhyası at the Porte from 1675 to 1677. Sava apparently navigated shrewdly through these obstacles, since he remained the hierarch of Ardeal until 1680, and despite repeated criticism from the leaders of the Reformed Church that, regarding the fifteen points, he "adhered to some of them, but not to others." In 1680, Metropolitan Sava II, however, was suddenly imprisoned. Among the possible reasons for the charges were the nomination of a new Calvinist superintendent in the person of Mihaly Tóföi and -- much more seriously -- the apparent participation of Đorđe and Sava Branković in a recently discovered plot to raise a revolt against the Turks, which would jeopardize Apafi position in Ardeal.

Sava was taken to Blaj castle as Apafi's prisoner, and Đorđe Branković lost no time to contact his friend, Șerban Cantacuzino, who acted on their behalf. He helped Metropolitan Sava to retain his metropolitan chair compelling the Habsburg to observe the tradition in force ever since Michael the Brave and Starina Novak, that the metropolitan of Alba Iulia be elected by the synod of Wallachia, which also consolidated the unity of the Romanians and other Orthodox on both sides of the Carpathians.

After he was released, Sava died on April 24, 1683, the result of injuries he had sustained during the time in Apafi's castle in Blaj where he was seriously whipped. Much later, his brother would be incarcerated for almost three decades by Leopold I for attempting to unite the Serbs in the Balkans against the Ottoman Empire.

References

Adaptation of an Orthodox Church of America (OCA) biography: https://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/04/24/101201-st-sava-brancovici-the-metropolitan-of-ardeal-and-the-confessor

Emanuilo Kozačinski

Emanuilo Kozačinski (Kiev, 1699-Russia, 1775) was one of many Russian teachers who came from Imperial Russia and settled in Serbian lands (in the Austrian Empire) with credentials in Latin and Slavic studies. He was one of the earliest educators and dramatists.

In the late 17th century Serbs turned to "co-confessional" Russia to seek help. The first regular schools were founded by Russian teachers, and they used Russian books, written in Russian Church Slavonic, which then became the language of the liturgy and of the entire culture. Other innovations came with the Russians too: the domination of verse over the former rhetorical prose (the basic verse was the so-called Polish 13-syllable verse), Baroque ornamentation and drama. The scholastic gymnasium in Sremski Karlovci (1733-1739), whose founders were former students of the Kiev Religious Academy, was the first centre of the new Baroque literary culture. From that constitutive phase of the new style, besides religious poems, patriotic poems and poems written for special occasions, there are also two larger works in verse: the Baroque drama Traedokomedija (performed in 1734) by Emanuel Kozačinski and a collection of coats of arms and heraldic poems, Stematografija (1741) by Hristifor Žefarović. In both works, the vision of Serbian history is brought into concord with the national aspirations and needs of that time.

What Kazačinski found was very few elementary and secondary schools and no Latin being taught in Serbian schools. Before him came another Russian educator, Maxim Suvarov, who not only founded the first Slavo-Latin school but also taught and disseminated among the Serbian intellectual majority in Vojvodina Russian books and scholarly texts, written in highly normalized and codified Russian Church Slavonic language, which was cultivated by the latter until the first decades of the 19th century (prior to Vuk Karadžić's revolutionary language reforms). The conservative Serbian Orthodox prelates adopted Church Slavonic (the lingua franca of the Slavs), leaving the traditional language of their people, known as Slavo-serbian, the language which best reflected Serbian phonetic and morphological developments, to professional teachers and writers.

Other innovations came with the Russians, the domination of verse over the former rhetorical prose (the so-called Polish 13-syllable verse), and Baroque ornamentation and drama, which culminated in Slavo-serbian language being reformed.

Russians teachers, Maxim Suvarov and Emanuel Kazačinski, brought the Latin-script poetics and rhetorics while establishing the new Slavo-Latin Schools in Sremski Karlovci, Belgrade and other places. These poetics and rhetorics include the notion, definitions of emblem, symbol and hieroglyph. Although there are no original ideas in them, they mark the characteristic, theoretical way of thinking brought by the Russian paragons. The most important source of the emblematic learning in those days, was the famous "Itika Jeropolitika," a miscellany of emblems, first printed in Kiev in 1712, expressly for the use of the Serbian reading public. (The same book was reprinted by Atanasije Demetrović Sekeres, in Vienna in 1774.)

The first recorded theatrical performance -- "The Death of Tsar Uroš IV" -- was presented in the Latin School of Emanuel Kozačinski in Sremski Karlovci in 1716. Written by Kozačinski it remained in manuscript and waited 62 years to reappear, now published and adapted by Jovan Rajić, the author's disciple and successor rector of the Latin School known as Slavensko-latinska škola (Collegium slaveno-latino carlovicense).

The death of Metropolitan Vićentije Jovanović in 1738 saw the departure of Emanuel Kozačinski and other Russian teachers.

The last decade of the 18th century saw the first modern Serbian grammar school established in Sremski Karlovci with the support and donations of the Serbian parish in Trieste and other donors.

References

Jovan Skerlić, Istorija nove srpske književnosti (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) pages 37-42

Jovan Stejić

Jovan Stejić (Stari Arad, 1803-Belgrade, 23 November 1853) was a Serbian physician, philologist, translator and writer of moralistic, didactic and philosophical stories.

Biography

He studied philosophy and medicine at the universities of Pest and Vienna, graduating at the latter place (University of Vienna's School of Medicine) in 1829. His attention was also directed towards the philological peculiarities of the Serbian language. He was greatly influenced by his illustrious contemporaries, German philosophers and physicians of the late 18th- and mid 19th- century, specifically Kant, Fichte, Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (1762-1836) and Samuel Hahemann (1755-1843). Stejić, like most of the Serb intellectuals of the period, was also influenced by the writings of Dositej Obradović, Pavle Solarić, Vuk Karadžić, Jovan Hadžić, and many others.

In 1829, Jovan Stejić left Vienna for Šabac, (Serbia). There he held the office of physician in ordinary to Jevrem Teodorovic Obrenović (1790-1856), the brother of Miloš Obrenovic I, Prince of Serbia, and even treated Miloš on two occasions when he moved to Belgrade in 1830. To Jevrem Obrenović he also dedicated his first original work Zabava za razum i srce (the first part was published in 1828 in Vienna). The book contains moralistic, didactic and philosophical thoughts. From Šabac he moved to Belgrade to take the post of Royal Physician to Prince Miloš. His third book forms the third part of a series, and numbers 232 pages. Besides moral instructions, it contains 1564 lines of folk poetry. The book was dedicated to Milan Obrenović, Miloš's son.

A disagreement of sorts provoked eccentric Milos Obrenović's anger and in 1832 Jovan Stejić was forced to leave Belgrade for Zemun. Stejić stayed in Zemun for the next eight years. During this period he wrote and published two more books (the fourth and fifth of his Zabave) and collected maxims and epigrams.

In 1836, Jovan Stejić was requested to return, but preferred to stay in Zemun and worked there as a doctor until 1840. He did, however, allow the printing of his Sabor istine u nauki in Belgrade.

From 1840, during Mihailo Obrenović's administration and after, Jovan Stejić headed the Department of Quarantine and Sanitation in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Belgrade while pursuing his literary and cultural work as well.

Up until 1840, Stejić had remained passive on the question of a Serbian language, only occasionally publishing statements on the issue in his works dealing, primarily, with other matters. However, in the 1840s, he became an activist, proposing at the first session of the Society of Serbian Letter in 1842 that a Serbian orthography should be prepared.

The evolution Stejić's treatment of Slavonic lexical material shows a marked tendency towards its vernacularization. In the final stage of his literary career, the recurrence of recognizable marked Slavonicisms is minimal, when compared with their usage in his very first works.

He joined the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts as a member in 1842, and became its secretary in 1844 and its vice-president in 1852. In 1846 he presented his memorandum on saving historical data from oblivion, naming Avram Petronijevic to develop a plan for collecting archival material. Stejic was president of the medical society of the Serbian capital and an honorary member of many foreign societies.

At the time of his death, Stejić had gained the respect of his contemporaries, so much so that Archimandrite Popovic at Stejić's funeral compared him to France's Hugues-Felicite Robert de Lamennais.

Literary Work

Jovan Stejić's literary work begins early (1823). Already as a student he wrote several book, mostly translations of foreign works. In Vienna, 1826 he released his translation of German physician Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland's "Makrobiotik oder Die Kunst das menschliche Leben zu verlängern" under the Serbian title "Makrobiotika, ili nauka o probuzenio zivota coveceskog", published in two volumes (a total of 684 pages). Although the treatise is basically a translation, it does contain extensive comment from Stejić. He also included a lenghty foreword, stating his viewpoint in the language question. At the same time the term microbiotic as well as other scientific words were entering into the lexicon of world languages. At the beginnings of the standardardization process, Stejić stated that Linguistic typology should be studied without "Vuk's burden"; they should be studied as a synchronic phenomenon produced by external evolution within Serbian literature and culture.

On Serbian literature the maxims of Stejić have exercised no slight influence. Stejić does not merely lay down rules for the language of prose and poetry, but analyses carefully the various kinds of verse composition, and enunciates the principles peculiar to each. Based on the analyses of his complete opus (the five books of approximately 2,200 printed pages), they deal seperately with graphemics and orthography, phonemics, grammar, vocabulary and word foundation. Stejic's graphemic structure was not different from that used by his conservative contemporaries, although his last publication show a clear drift toward a synchronically motivated orthography. The phonemic structure of Stejic's language does not violate the phonemic structure of Serbian vernacular. Stejić criticism of Vuk's translation of the New Testament can be found in the article entitled "Ezvikoslovne primetbe ka predgovor Gospodina Vuka Stefanovica Karadžića k prevodu Novog zavta", published in the Glasnik. This article provides a clear statement of Stejić's already crystallized view of the Serbian literary language. In 1852, in the fourth issue of Glasnik, he proposed an orthography to be used in the publication of Serbian Literature.

He also translated parts of Lucian of Samosata, August von Kotzebue (1761-1819), Hugues Felicite Robert de Lamennais (1782-1854), and some of Rabnera's brilliant German satires. He read Sir Walter Scott and recommended him to dramatist Joakim Vujic and novelist Milovan Vidakovic.

Philosophy

In philosophy Stejić is classed as a Kantian synthetist, along with Kosta Branković, Mihailo Ristić and Mihailo V. Vujić.

He represents a noteworthy step forward in the analysis of the socio-linguistic history of the Serbian standard language. He was also a physician and a distinguished researcher and writer on medical topics such as the 1827 article titled "Inebriation" which appeared in the Chronicle of the Serbian Registry. In the article, in a very picturesque manner, he gives his views on the causes and consequences of alcoholism, as well as the way of it's treatment. He translated Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland's seminal work on macrobiotics.

Stejić's literary career as a writer and translator dates from 1823 until 1853. This was a significant era in the cultural history of the Serbs for several reasons. Above all, during this period the Serbs acquired the standard Serbian orthography, modernized from the antiquated Slavoserbian and Church Slavonic widely used until the mid-eighteenth century especially among the bourgeoisie. The beginnings of the standardization process was attributed to Vuk Karadžić, Djuro Daničić, and others, including Jovan Stejić himself.

Bibliography

• "Zabava za razum i srce", published in two-volumes, one in Vienna in 1828; the other in Buda in 1831
• "Sabor istine i nauke" (Belgrade, 1832, 1866)
• "Ogledi umne nauke (Novi Sad, 1836)
• "Novi irilog za busevnu zabavu" (Novi Sad, 1839)
• Antropologia, ili nauka o coveku (Belgrade, 1853)

Major Translation from German into Serbian:

• Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, Makrobiotika, ili nauka o probuzenio zivota coveceskog

References

• Translated and adapted from Jovan Skerlić, Istroija nove srpske književnosti (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) pp. 187-189
• Translated and adapted from Jovan Stejić : http://www.sanu.ac.rs/english/Clanstvo/IstClan.aspx?arg=545