Izmail Ivanovich Sreznevsky (russian: Измаил Иванович Срезневский; 13 June 1812,
Yaroslavl – 21 February 1880,
St. Petersburg) was a
Russian philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
,
Slavist
Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was prim ...
,
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
,
paleographer
Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...
,
folklorist
Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...
and
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, pla ...
.
Life
His father,
Ivan Sreznevsky, was a prolific translator of
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...
who taught at the
Demidov Lyceum
The Yaroslavl Demidov State University ( Russian: ''Ярославский государственный университет имени П. Г. Демидова'') is an institution of higher education in Yaroslavl, Russia. In 1918, Yarosl ...
in
Yaroslavl before moving to
Kharkov University
The Kharkiv University or Karazin University ( uk, Каразінський університет), or officially V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University ( uk, Харківський національний університет імені ...
. It was in Kharkov that Sreznevsky graduated in
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...
(in 1829) and gained a professorship (in 1842). He was a notable figure in the Ukrainian literary revival and compiled several multi-volume anthologies of local folklore, including ''Zaporozhian Antiquities''.
In 1839–1842 he undertook a tour through every major library of Central and Eastern Europe with a view toward consulting the oldest extant Slavic manuscripts.
In 1847 Sreznevsky moved to St. Petersburg, where he applied himself to the task of preparing a comprehensive dictionary of the
Old East Slavic
Old East Slavic (traditionally also Old Russian; be, старажытнаруская мова; russian: древнерусский язык; uk, давньоруська мова) was a language used during the 9th–15th centuries by East ...
. This work spanned several decades and involved the study and publication of numerous obscure medieval texts and codices, including
Codex Zographensis (in 1856),
Codex Marianus (in 1866), and
Kiev Fragments (in 1874). Sreznevsky's ''
pièce de résistance'', ''The Materials for a Dictionary of the Old Russian Language'', though incomplete, was published posthumously in three volumes (1893–1903) and was reprinted with an addendum in 1912, 1958, and 1988. It was superseded only with the publication of a 24-volume academic dictionary in 1975–1999.
[''The Encyclopaedia of The Lay of Igor's Campaign'', vol. 1–5. St. Petersburg, 1995. Volume 5. Pages 46-47.]
Sreznevsky was the founding father of the Russian Language Department of the
St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (of which he was elected a member in 1851) and the St. Petersburg academic school of Slavic studies. As early as 1849, he delivered a series of lectures on the history and evolution of the
Russian language, the first such work of a scholarly type. His influential outline of Slavonic
palaeography
Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...
was published in 1885. A long list of his students at
St. Petersburg University includes
Alexander Pypin,
Nikolai Chernyshevsky,
Nikolay Dobrolyubov
Nikolay Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov ( rus, Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Добролю́бов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ dəbrɐˈlʲubəf, a=Nikolay Alyeksandrovich Dobrolyubov.ru.vorb.oga; 5 February Old_Style_a ...
, and
Vladimir Lamansky (who published his biography in 1890).
Family
*
Vyacheslav Sreznevsky (1849–1937) was the founder and chairman of the St. Petersburg Society of Ice Skating Amateurs (1877–1923) and the first ever chairman of the
Russian Olympic Committee
The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC; russian: Олимпийский комитет России (ОКР), Olimpiyskiy komitet Rossii (OKR); Full name: All-Russian united social union "Olympic Committee of Russia", russian: Общероссий� ...
(1911). He helped organize the first
World Figure Skating Championship (1896, St. Petersburg) and authored the first Russian reference book on photography (1883).
*
Boris Sreznevsky (1857–1934) was a leading Russian/Ukrainian climatologist and meteorologist of his generation who taught at Yuryev University (now
Tartu University) in 1894–1918 and was in charge of the
Kiev Meteorological Observatory in 1919–1934.
*
Vsevolod Sreznevsky (1869–1936) was an authority on Slavic paleography that scoured Russia's northern regions in search of manuscripts and drew up a detailed account of the manuscripts held by the
Russian Academy of Sciences Library (1910–1930, vol. 1–3).
References
External links
*
Sreznevsky's Materials for the Dictionary of the Old Russian Language on the Basis of Written Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sreznevsky, Izmail
1812 births
1880 deaths
People from Yaroslavl
Philologists from the Russian Empire
Slavists
Russian palaeographers
Russian lexicographers
Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
National University of Kharkiv alumni
Researchers of Slavic religion
19th-century lexicographers