Dositej Obradović Доситеј Обрадовић | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of Education of Serbia | |
| In office 1807–1811 | |
| Prime Minister | Mateja Nenadović |
| Preceded by | Post established |
| Succeeded by | Ivan Jugović |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Dimitrije Obradović 17 February 1739 (1739-02-17) |
| Died | 7 April 1811 (1811-04-08) (aged 72) |
| Nationality | Serbian |
| Signature |  |
Dositej Obradović (Serbian Cyrillic:Доситеј Обрадовић,Serbian pronunciation:[dɔsǐtɛːjɔbrǎːdɔʋitɕ]; 17 February 1739 – 7 April 1811) was aSerbianwriter,biographer,diarist,philosopher,pedagogue, educational reformer,linguist and the first minister of education ofSerbia.[1] An influential protagonist of the Serbian national and cultural renaissance, he advocatedEnlightenment andrationalist ideas, while remaining a Serbianpatriot and an adherent of theSerbian Orthodox Church.
Dositej Obradović was born Dimitrije Obradović, probably in 1739, in theBanat village ofČakovo, in the thenHabsburg monarchy, nowCiacova, in present-dayRomania. From an early age, he was possessed with a passion for study. Obradović grew up bilingual (inSerbian andRomanian) and learned classical Greek, Latin, modern Greek, German, English, French, Russian, and Italian.[2]
On 17 February 1757 he became amonk in theSerb Orthodox monastery ofHopovo, in theSrem region, and acquired the nameDositej (Dositheus).[3] He translated intoSerbian manyEuropean classics, includingAesop's Fables. Having devoured the contents of the monastery library, he hungered for further learning. On 2 November 1760, he left the monastery of Hopovo, bound forHilandar,Mount Athos.[4]
In 1761, he went toZagreb, where he studied Latin. From 1761 to 1763, he was a teacher in a Serbian school inKninsko Polje. For a brief period, he taught at a monastery in theBay of Kotor before he was ordained as a priest byVasilije Petrović. After falling ill, he returned to teach in Dalmatia in the village of Golubić near Knin.[4] He then went toCorfu, where he studied Greek before going to Venice and then coming back to Dalmatia, where he became a teacher again, inPlavno. He enrolled at theUniversity of Halle in 1782, where he studied philosophy.[5]
In 1783, he transferred to theUniversity of Leipzig and published his first work.[6] He was a student ofJohann Eberhard who himself was a disciple ofChristian Wolf. More than a third of his life was spent in Austria where Obradović became influenced by the ideas ofJoseph II and the German Enlightenment. Additionally, he was anAnglophile and influenced by English educators, seeing England as the land of spiritual freedom and modern civilization.[7] In 1785 Obradović presented his books printed in Leipzig to theBritish Museum Library in London. These were the first modern Serbian books acquired by the British Museum Library.[8] Besides these countries, his forty-year travel journeys across Europe and Asia Minor also took him toGreece,Hungary,Turkey,Romania,France,Russia,England, andPoland.
At the time of theFirst Serbian Uprising (1804) Obradović was in Italy, where he published his pivotal poemRise O Serbia (Vostani Serbije) in honor ofKarađorđe Petrović and the insurgents. In Dositej's song, Serbia is pictured as a ‘sleeping Beauty’, asleep for centuries. The verses call upon her to wake up and give an example to her ‘sisters’, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Montenegro.[9] In 1807 Obradović moved toBelgrade[10] at the invitation ofKarađorđe Petrović, to become, in the newly organized government, Serbia's first minister of education.[11] In 1809, he foundedHigher School, the first higher education institution in Serbia that later developed into a university. The school was located in a two-story building in Zajrek, one of the oldest parts of Belgrade. The building now serves as theMuseum of Vuk and Dositej.[12]
Obradović wrote, first individual biographies, and quickly the genre expanded to the form of biographical collection modelled on examples ofNepos,Suetonius,Plutarch, orDiogenes Laertius.
Obradović helped introduce to theSerbs the literature of certainwestern European countries.[13] He andVuk Karadžić, whom Obradović influenced,[14] are recognized as the fathers ofmodern Serbian literature. Because the Serbian populace often sufferedfamine, Obradović also introducedpotato cultivation to Serbia.
Dositej Obradović died inBelgrade,Serbia, in 1811. He was honored with a large funeral procession and buried inSt Michael's Cathedral.[15] Amonument to Obradović was erected by theKalemegan park entrance in 1914. It was moved in 1930 to a prominent spot at the newly openedAcademic Park, close to theUniversity of Belgrade administration and governance building, where it still stands.[16][17]
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| Government offices | ||
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| Preceded by Post established | Minister of Education of Serbia 1807–1811 | Succeeded by |
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