- Vatroslav Jagić
Vatroslav Jagić (
July 6 ,1838 -August 5 ,1923 ) was aCroatian language researcher and a famous expert in the area ofSlavic languages (Slavistics ) in the second half of the 19th century.Life
Jagić was born in
Varaždin where he attended the elementary school and is the place where he started his middle school education. He finished that level of education at the Gymnasium inZagreb . Having a particular interest inphilology , he moved toVienna where he was lectured in Slavistics under the guidance ofFranc Miklošič . He continued his studies and defended hisdoctoral dissertation "Das Leben der Wurzel 'dê in Croatischen Sprachen" inLeipzig (Germany ) in 1871.Upon finishing the studies Jagić returned to Zagreb where in the period between 1860–1870 he held the position of
Professor at Gymnasium (Croatian High School).In 1869, Jagić was elected a full member of the
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (at that time named the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts), and a correspondent member of theRussian Academy of Sciences inSaint Petersburg . Next year, 1871, he became a professor of Slavistics inOdessa and worked also inBerlin where he moved in 1874 to become the very first professor of Slavistics at the prestigious Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin. Jagić held the mentioned post until 1880 when he moved again and became teacher at theUniversity of St Petersburg .In 1886 he returned to Vienna where his studies started to be a replacement for retiring former lecturer Miklošič at the
University of Vienna . Here he educated, researched, published and worked until his own retirement in 1908.Jagić died in Vienna but was put to rest in native Varaždin.
Works
Works on
literature and language written by Jagić started to be published for the first time in the reports of the Gymnasium where he worked. In 1863, with his fellow researchersFranjo Torbar and Franjo Rački he initiated a journal named "Književnik". Within, he published several articles regarding the problematic of the grammar, syntax, as well that one of history of the language used byCroats . His works were noticed within the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (JAZU) founded in Croatia in 1866. His works and polemics were mainly related to verbs, itspaleography ,vocalization of the language, folk poetry and its sources. At that time he also initiated publishing the collection of the works written by old Croatian writers.In Berlin, he initiated publishing "Archive fuer slavische Philologie" ("Archives for Slavic Philology"), and kept editing it for 45 years. The periodical focused the attention of scholars and ordinary people to
Slavs , increased their interest in the Slav language and their culture. It also confirmed the importance of Slavistics, its methodology and validity as a scientific discipline.While in Vienna, his intention was to write an encyclopedia related to the philology of the Slavs. This idea caused him to write "Istorija slavjanskoj filologii" ("History of Slavic philology"). This book was published in Petrograd in 1910 and contains the retrospective on the development of [lavistics since the beginning to the end of 19th century.
Jagić's work is impressive in scope and quality: Croatian linguist Josip Hamm has remarked that Jagić's collected works would, put together, number more than 100 volumes of large format.
Among his most famous students were the Polish Slavist,
Aleksander Brückner , and the Ukrainian poet and scholar,Ivan Franko .Interests
He was very interested in the language of the old Slavs ("staroslavenski jezik",
Old Church Slavonic ), concluded and proved that it did not originate in the central plains ofPannonia as most experts claimed, but in southern Macedonia. Jagić was interested in the life and work ofJuraj Križanić (1618-1683), a Dominican priest who had shown considerable interest inPan-Slavism and the cooperation of Catholicism and Orthodoxy.He spent the greater portion of his life out of
Croatia but promoted it through his lecturing and was always in touch with events relating to the language and culture at home. Politically, he was a person often criticized for being insensitive and lacking in action and involvement politically beneficial for the Croats. However, this opinion, although not without foundation, when dispassionately analyzed, has lost much of its edge: Jagić's numerous articles and books on the Croatian language, its grammatical structure and historical morphology recorded in earliest written works had done much to ascertain and chart the continuity of modern Croatian standard language with its medieval andRenaissance vernacular origin.External links
* [http://www.moljac.hr/biografije/jagic.htm Jagić's biography] in Croatian
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/93051314@N00/2541783673/ The grave of Vatroslav Jagic in Varazdin cemetery. on Flickr - Photo Sharing! ] at www.flickr.com
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/93051314@N00/2541956531/ A Portrait of Vatroslav Jagic (1838-1923) by Ivan Mestrovic in Varazdin town museum. on Flickr - Photo Sharing! ] at www.flickr.com
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