Jovan Pačić (November 6, 1771, Baja - December 4, 1849

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

) was a Serbian soldier, painter and poet. Jovan Pačić went to school in

Kalocsa Kalocsa (; or ''Kalača''; or Калоча; ) is a town in Bács-Kiskun county, Hungary. It lies south of Budapest. It is situated in a marshy but highly productive district, near the left bank of the Danube River. Historically it had greater ...

. In 1792 or 1793, he joined the army and fought against the French. In 1812 he suffered an injury when a sword cut through his mouth. He retired after a year of recuperation. As a retired cavalry captain, he moved to

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; #Name, see below for other names) is the List of cities in Serbia, second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannoni ...

, and soon after settled in

Győr Győr ( , ; ; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia region, and – halfwa ...

in 1838. Jovan Pačić turned to painting and poetry in his leisure. He primarily painted landscapes and

genre art Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, work, and street scenes. Such representations (also called genre works, ...

. He was praised by his contemporaries.

Works

Pačić published a lot of verses in the '' Letopis Matice Srpske'', ''Peštansko Budimsko skoroteča'', ''Srpski narodni list'' and other periodicals, journals and magazines. In 1827, he printed three volumes of ''Sočinenija pjenoslovska'' in

Buda Buda (, ) is the part of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that lies on the western bank of the Danube. Historically, “Buda” referred only to the royal walled city on Castle Hill (), which was constructed by Béla IV between 1247 and ...

. In addition, he left behind numerous manuscripts, which later disappeared. Jovan Pačić's poems are about love, wine, military, odes, elegies and epigrams. Their external form is modeled after the contemporary German romantics. In 1828, Pačić, in cooperation with Jan Kolar, published the ''Imenoslov, ili, Rečnik ličny imena razny naroda slavenski'' (Nomenclature or dictionary of personal names of various Slavic peoples). A copy of the first edition of ''Imenoslov'' is now part of the Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

.https://guides.loc.gov/serbian-collections/special-collections-rare-books Jovan Pačić spoke and read a dozen languages (among others, Latin, ancient Greek, Hebrew and Arabic), and was considered a rarely educated Serb, a nationalist, who had sympathy for the

Illyrian movement The Illyrian movement (; ) was a pan-South-Slavic cultural and political campaign with roots in the early modern period, and revived by a group of young Croatian intellectuals during the first half of the 19th century, around the years of 1835 t ...

, although he did not want to approach

Vuk VUK or Vuk may refer to: *Vuk (name), South Slavic given name ** Vuk, Ban of Bosnia (), a member of the Kotromanić dynasty ** Vuk Karadžić (1787–1864), Serbian language reformer and folklorist, often referred to simply as Vuk * ''Vuk'' (film) ...

's reform. At the beginning of the 19th century, Buda and Pest were the center of Serbian literature, since Jovan Pačić, Sima Milutinović and

Milovan Vidaković Milovan Vidaković (; 1780–1841) was a Serbian novelist. He is referred to as the father of the modern Serbian novel. Today, his novels are mostly forgotten, and he is best remembered as a strong opponent of Vuk Karadžić's language reform and ...

, as an authoritative literary triumvirate, developed their activity here in the community. Pačić is the first South Slavic writer who started translating

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

References

Sources

* Jaša Ignjatović, ''Tri spisatelja Srpska'' (Danica, 1860) * Vlad. Nikolić, Jovan Pačić (Brankovo Kolo, 1902) Serbian painters 1771 births 1849 deaths Serbian male poets People from Baja, Hungary Translators of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Painters from the Austrian Empire Poets from the Austrian Empire {{Serbia-painter-stub