Hristifor "Risto" Kovačić (
Risan
Risan ( Montenegrin: Рисан, ) is a town in the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro. It traces its origins to the ancient settlement of Rhizon, the oldest settlement in the Bay of Kotor.
Lying in the innermost portion of the bay, the settlement was prot ...
, 22 May 1845 – Risan, 22 April 1909) was historian and teacher. Kovačić's most important writings were on Serbian antiquities. There is much that is striking and original in his history of Serbs in Italy (''Gli Slavi Serbi dell' Italia'', 1885). H
Biography
Kovačić was baptised Hristifor (hence "Risto") in
Risan
Risan ( Montenegrin: Рисан, ) is a town in the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro. It traces its origins to the ancient settlement of Rhizon, the oldest settlement in the Bay of Kotor.
Lying in the innermost portion of the bay, the settlement was prot ...
in the tradition of his ancestral
Herzegovinian adherents of the
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodox Church#Constit ...
. His patron saint was
St. John the Baptist
John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...
. After completing his high school education in Kotor, Dubrovnik and Zadar, he studied philosophy in Zagreb and Vienna. Upon graduation, he became a professor at a
gymnasium in
Kotor
Kotor (Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Котор, ), historically known as Cattaro (from Italian language, Italian: ), is a town in Coastal Montenegro, Coastal region of Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Bay of Kotor. The city has ...
and at a Serbian Naval School in
Herceg Novi
Herceg Novi (Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Херцег Нови, ) is a town in Coastal Montenegro, Coastal region of Montenegro located at the Western entrance to the Bay of Kotor and at the foot of Mount Orjen. It is the administrative center of ...
, from 1867 until 1871 and again from 1880 to 1881. In 1883 he moved to Rome where he taught
Slavistics
Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics, is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic peoples, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was ...
until the end of his life.
He visited
Molise
Molise ( , ; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. Until 1963, it formed part of the region of Abruzzi e Molise together with Abruzzo. The split, which did not become effective until 1970, makes Molise the newest region in Ital ...
in 1884 and wrote a report to Serbian Learned Society about Serbian settlements. In his report, published in 1885, he emphasized that there were nine Serbian settlements of as many as 16,000 people. In three settlements about 4,000 people still spoke
Serbian
Serbian may refer to:
* Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular
**Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans
** Serbian language
** Serbian culture
**Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...
and kept tradition of
badnjak as their legacy.
The writings of both Risto Kovačić and
Graziadio Isaia Ascoli
Graziadio Isaia Ascoli (; 16 July 1829 – 21 January 1907) was an Italian linguist.
Life and work
Ascoli was born in an Italian-speaking Jewish family in the multiethnic town of Gorizia, then part of the Austrian Empire (now in Italy). Alrea ...
concur with writer
Giovanni de Rubertis who considered the Schiavoni (Slavs) or Dalmati (Dalmatians) of Molise in Italy to be the Serbs that were brought there by
Skanderbeg
Gjergj Kastrioti (17 January 1468), commonly known as Skanderbeg, was an Albanians, Albanian Albanian nobility, feudal lord and military commander who led Skanderbeg's rebellion, a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in what is today Albania, ...
during his Italian expedition in 1460—1462 along with the Albanians who settled in
Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
.
He was a member of
Serbian Learned Society
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (; , SANU) is a national academy and the most prominent academic institution in Serbia, founded in 1841 as Society of Serbian Letters (, DSS).
The Academy's membership has included Nobel laureates Ivo ...
since 30 January 1883.
He died at Risan on 22 April 1909.
See also
*
Medo Pucić
*
Ignjat Job
*
Ivan Stojanović
References
* Biographical data was adapted and translated from
the article on Serbian Wikipedia
External links
Biography on the website of SANU
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovacic, Risto
1845 births
1909 deaths
Historians from Austria-Hungary
Immigrants to Italy
Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
19th-century Serbian historians
People from Kotor
Slavists