Franz Miklosich (1813‒1891)

The book describes the life and work of Franz Miklosich, the founder of Slavic studies at the University of Vienna. He was a Slovene by nationality, born in Lower Styria, studied philosophy and law in Graz, but, guided by his fellow-countryman Jernej Kopitar in Vienna he became more and more interested in Slavonic studies. He had a brilliant career as a librarian, professor at the Vienna University, member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and life-time member of the Herrenhaus of the Austrian Parliament. He received numerous academic honours and was knighted by the Austrian Emperor. The book reports in 34 chapters on the external circumstances which fostered and favoured his career with the Imperial Library, the Academy of Sciences, and the University of Vienna, and presents the first survey of his research which covers a wide range of topics, from Old Slovenian (i. e. Old Church Slavic) and comparative Slavic grammar, Slavic lexicography including etymology, language contacts with Modern Greek, Hungarian, Rumanian, Albanian, and Turkish, up to his extensive research on the language of European Gypsies, and the edition of Byzantine documents. Miklosich’s efforts concerning language policy are also described, among others the creation of the legal-political terminology for the Slavic languages in Austria, or the introduction of the Slovene language into secondary education, or his stressing the importance of the study of modern languages, and the necessity of language contact research. Material from archives will in some respect shed new light upon Miklosich’s personality as a human being and scholar.