Maksimilijan Vrhovac

Maksimilijan Vrhovac (23 November 1752 in Karlovac – 16 December 1827 in Zagreb) was the bishop of Zagreb. He was one of the ideological architects of the Croatian national revival. He is notable for founding the Maksimir Park in 1787[1], regarded the first large public park in Southeast Europe.[2] Vrhovac was a member of Freemasons.[3]

Maksimilijan Vrhovac
Born(1752-11-23)November 23, 1752
Karlovac, Kingdom of Croatia, Habsburg Monarchy
DiedDecember 16, 1827(1827-12-16) (aged 75)
Zagreb, Kingdom of Croatia, Austrian Empire
NationalityAustria-Hungary
Other namesMaximilianus Verhovacz
OccupationCatholic bishop
Known forone of the ideological architects of the Croatian national revival

Family

His father Aleksa[4] was captain of frontier-guards near the Austrian-Ottoman border. For his merit he was awarded with noble title by Austrian empress Maria Theresia.

Education

After he graduated in school in Graz, Vrhovac joined the army but soon left it when he realized that he does not qualify for this occupation, and instead joined Zagreb seminary.[5]

Vrhovac studied in Vienna and Bologna, and then became a vice-rector, and later rector, at the seminary in Zagreb, as well as a professor of dogma at the Academy in Zagreb. Emperor Joseph II promoted him to rector of the seminary in Pest, before he returned to Croatia as a bishop.

Promoter of Ilyrian language

In 1808 he went to the Croatian Parliament, requesting his library be opened to the public. In the 1810s, Vrhovac tried to translate the Bible into Kajkavian Croatian language. Other contributors in the program were: Antun Vranić, Ivan Nepomuk Labaš, Ivan Gusić, Ivan Birling, Stjepan Korolija, and Tomaš Mikloušić. In 1810 Vrhovac visited Vienna and during this visit Jernej Kopitar asked him to organize collection of the local songs, but this attempt was not successful.[6]

To promote Ilyrian language Vrhovac established printing house and printed books on kajkavian and štokavian.[7] Vrhovac sent this books to Jernej Kopitar who disagreed with Vrhovac and emphasized that štokavian dialect belongs to Serbian language, kajkavian to Slovenian and only čakavian to Croatian language, underlining that štokavian literature published in Croatia is actually a literature of Catholic Sloveno-Serbs.[8] The ambition of the movement centered in Zagreb was to promote štokavian dialect as language of most of Croats and Serbs.[9]

Vrhovac continued to pursue his own perception about the language and people and after Napoleon captured the territory of Austria-Hungary, he issued a proclamation in 1813 to "natives across Sava" (Serbo-Croatian: prekosavskim domorocima) emphasizing with triumph that there are no more borders between Croats in Croatia, Dalmatia and the Coastal region.[10] After the defeat of Napoleon in Russia and return of Austria-Hungary to its borders from 1806, the court in Vienna resented Vrhovac for his earlier behavior.[11] Vrhovac was distinuished oponent of the expansion of Hungarian influence to South Slavs.[12] Vrhovac was most determined and open oposition to establishing a journal on Serbian language in Vienna.[13] Under influence of Vuk Karadžić, Vrhovac instructed his clergy to start with collection of poetry sang by population of the region.[14]

To defend his perception of the "Croatian language" Vrhovac raised against Kopitar and visited him in 1914 to present him his arguments that Croatian language encompass štokavian and kajkavian dialect.[15] Vrhovac and two of his canoniks, Korolija and Mahanović, failed to convince Kopitar that kajkavian and štokavian dialects belong to Croatian language.[16] In 1814 Vrhovac's cannon Mahanović, based on the instructions of Vrhovac, published a work titled Observationes circa croaticam ortho-graphiam without taking in consideration position regarding čakavian being only dialect of Croatian language presented by Jernej Kopitar.[17] Nevetheless, Mahanović did somewhat follow idea of Kopitar to develop unified orthography for all South Slavic languages.[18]

Footnotes
  1. http://www.enciklopedija.hr/natuknica.aspx?id=65481
  2. Patrick Taylor, ed. (2006). The Oxford Companion to the Garden. Oxford University Press. pp. 295–6. ISBN 0-19-866255-6.
  3. Trencsényi, Balázs; Janowski, Maciej; Baar, Monika; Falina, Maria; Kopecek, Michal (26 February 2016). A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe: Volume I: Negotiating Modernity in the 'Long Nineteenth Century'. Oxford University Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-19-105695-6. Maksimilijan Vrhovac (1752–1829), a staunch proponent of Enlightenment ideas and member of a Masonic lodge
  4. Od godine 1790 do 1836. Tisak dioničke tiskare. 1903. p. 48. Maksimilijan Vrhovac se rodio 23. studenoga 1752. u Karlovcu od oca Alekse, koji je bio kapetan.
  5. (Strižić 2001, p. 109):"MAKSIMILIJAN VRHOVAC (23. studenoga 1752. - 16. prosinca 1827.), zagrebački ... Škole je Vrhovac završio u Grazu, a potom je stupio u vojsku, iz koje je brzo izašao, uvidjevši da nije stvoren za vojnički poziv. Polazi zagrebačko sjemenište ..."
  6. (Lunt 1970, p. 15):"When the Croatian Bishop Maximilian Vrhovac visited Vienna in 1810 , Kopitar persuaded him to ask his parish priests to write down the local songs , but evidently this approach to collecting was unsuccessful "
  7. (Cvrlje 2004, p. 180):"Vrhovac je za promicanje ilirskog jezika osnovao tiskaru u kojoj je tiskao mnoge knjige i obrednik na kajkavskom i štokavskom. ... štokavski govor nazivao je slavenskosrpskim, a kasnije samo srpskim, pa je hrvatsku štokavsku književnost nazvao literaturom katoličkih Sloveno-Srba, a kajkavski ..."
  8. (Cvrlje 2004, p. 180):"Vrhovac je za promicanje ilirskog jezika osnovao tiskaru u kojoj je tiskao mnoge knjige i obrednik na kajkavskom i štokavskom. ... štokavski govor nazivao je slavenskosrpskim, a kasnije samo srpskim, pa je hrvatsku štokavsku književnost nazvao literaturom katoličkih Sloveno-Srba, a kajkavski ..."
  9. (Frangeš 1980, p. 101):"...ambicija je pokreta bila da oko tog Zagreba, koji za književni jezik proklamira štokavštinu, govor većine Hrvata i Srba, "
  10. Pisana riječ u Hrvatskoj. Muzejski prostor. 1986. p. 99.
  11. Pisana riječ u Hrvatskoj. Muzejski prostor. 1986. p. 99.
  12. (Čulinović 1952, p. 15):"Maksimilijan Vrhovac, zagrebački biskup (1752 — 1827) istaknuti protivnik mađarskog prodora"
  13. (Nedeljković 1966, p. 17):"Najodlučniji i najotvoreniji borac protiv osnivanja jednog takvog lista bio je biskup Maksimilijan Vrhovac."
  14. (Mohorovičić 1988, p. 8):"Vukovim idejama bio je u Zagrebu potaknut biskup Maksimilijan Vrhovac kada je pozvao svoje svećenstvo da otpočne sa sabiranjem"
  15. (Žutić 1997, p. 103):"Против Копитара устао је раније, у одбрану "хрватског језика", бискуп Максимилијан Врховац."
  16. (Toporišič 1996, p. 516)
  17. (Cvrlje 2004, p. 180)
  18. Rasprave Instituta za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje. Institut. 2004.

References
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