Stojan Novaković - Scholarly Career

Scholarly Career

Stojan Novaković was the first Serbian-educated scholar of the 19th century that obtained international renown. After finishing his secondary education in Belgrade (1860), he studied law and philosophy until 1863 at the Belgrade Lyceum (Licej) that was eventually transformed into the Belgrade's Grande école (Velika škola). In 1865 he became a professor in this Belgrade institution of higher learning. By 1872 he was the librarian of the National Library and curator of the National Museum in Belgrade.

As a young scholar he was founder and editor of the journal Vila (Fairy Lady) that was published from 1865 to 1868. In the early years of his scholarly engagement, Novaković translated into Serbian Leopold von Ranke's monumental work Die Serbische Revolution, as well as its revised and updated edition (1864–1892) as well as the equally famous Histoire de Charles XII by Voltaire (1897) and Joseph Scherr, General History of Literature from German (1872–1874). An admirer of Adam Mickiewicz, Novaković translated into Serbian his famous poem Gražyna in 1886 and famous poem "The Captive of the Caucasus" by Alexander Pushkin. Stojan Novaković was one of the founders and first president of Serbian Literary Company (Srpska književna zadruga) in 1892, a prestigious publishing house for the most important literary and historical works.

He was strongly influenced by internationally renowned professors of Slavic philology and literature, in particular by Pavel Jozef Šafárik, who was living and working in Serbia at the time, and Djura Daničić, the translator of the Bible into the vernacular. Under the influence of Daničić, Novaković wrote The History of Serbian Literature (Istorija srpske književnosti) in 1867 (revised in 1871), and compiled the first Serbian Bibliography (1741–1867) in 1869, which resulted in him becoming a corresponding member of the Yugoslav Academy in Zagreb in 1870. He prepared simplified, but complete manuals for Serbian grammar that were widely published and used in various schools.

In 1865 Novaković was elected member of Serbian Learned Society (Serbian: Srpsko učeno društvo) in Belgrade, the precursor of the Serbian Royal Academy (Serbian: Srpska Kraljevska Akademija), officially founded in 1886. When the Serbian Royal Academy was founded Novaković was made one of its 16 initial members, while in 1906 he became President of the Academy, a position he held until his death in 1915. It was at the initiative of Novaković that the Serbian Royal Academy started comprehensive research and collection of various materials available throughout the Serb-inhabited Balkans for the Great dictionary of Serbian literary language. Although a disciple of Djura Daničić, who was concentrated primarily on linguistic issues, Novaković managed to expand the field of research, establishing a multi-disciplinary approach in treating all the social sciences related to national history, culture and tradition.

The early works of Novaković were mainly on poetry and literature, including his own early poetry (Pevanija, 1862) and attracted minor interest, as did his early novels (Nesrećni andjelak, Kob, Lepa Nerećanka, Vampir, Kaludjer) written between 1862 and 1865. Novaković was the Serbian counterpart to the prominent Slavist scholars, philologists such as Czech Dobrovský or Šafárik among Slovaks, Jernej (Bartholomeus) Kopitar and Franc Miklošič among Slovenians, and Vatroslav Jagić among Croats.

A scholar of renaissance knowledge and interest, Novaković was able to use sources published in a dozen Slavic languages, as well as the growing literature in French, English and German. After learning Latin and Greek, Novaković, already established as a promising scholar in Slavic literature and linguistics, was able to use medieval sources for his extensive historical research on medieval Serbia and the Balkans.

His first major study on historic geography, published in 1877, covered the reign of Stefan Nemanja (Zemljište radnje Nemanjine). His major work on medieval Serbia, the monograph on late Nemanjić period (Serbs and Turks in 14th and 15th centuries), was published in 1893, while his other important works based on unused documents including the studies of pronoia (Pronijari i baštinici) from 1887, village life in the medieval epoch (Selo), a comprehensive social and historical study, from 1891, and The Old Serbian Army (Stara srpska vojska), from 1893, as well as a study on medieval Serbian capitals in Rascia and Kosovo (Nemanjićke prestonice: Ras, Pauni, Nerodimlje), published in 1911, were considered as chapters of the comprehensive, multi-volume monograph The People and the Land in the Old Serbian State (Zemlja i narod u staroj srpskoj državi) which was never fully completed.

The comprehensive volume of medieval documents under the title Legal Documents of Serbian Medieval States (Zakonski spomenici srpskih država srednjeg veka), from 1912, still stands as the main source on the subject for medieval Serbia (Rascia), Bosnia, and Dioclea (Zeta). Another major volume is a scholarly edition of the Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan’s Code (Zakonik Stefana Dušana cara srpskog), based on the manuscript found in Prizren, and a work on the Byzantine legal sources of Serbian medieval law (Matije Vlastara Sintagmat), a subject he treated on several occasions.

His other studies, also based on primary sources and available literature in various languages, covered the modern period, prior and during the Serbian revolution (1804–1835): The Ottoman Empire prior to the Serbian Insurrection, 1780-1804 (Tursko carstvo pred srpski ustanak 1780-1804), The Resurrection of Serbia (Vaskrs države srpske) in 1904 (translated into German and published in Sarajevo in 1912), as well as the detailed analysis of first phase of Serbian Revolution (Ustanak na dahije 1804). In 1907, equally important was the analysis of the struggle between “supreme and central government” in insurgent Serbia: The Constitutional Question and the Law under Karageorge (Ustavno pitanje i zakon Karadjordjeva vremena).

Apart from scholarly work, Novaković published political analysis mostly under the pseudonym "Šarplaninac". These studies on contemporary politics, ethnographic questions, religious strife and national propaganda of various Balkan states, were published as a collection of papers under the title Balkan Questions (Balkanska pitanja) in 1906. In addition to political works, Novaković published several travelogues, on Constantinople (Pod zidinama Carigrada), Bursa (Brusa) and Turkey-in-Europe (S Morave na Vardar).