Vatroslav Jagic

(also Ignatii Vikent’evich Iagich). Born July 6, 1838, in Varazdin; died Aug. 5, 1923, in Vienna. Philologist specializing in Slavic languages. Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences from 1880. A Croat by nationality.

Jagić graduated from the University of Vienna in 1860. He was a professor at Novorossia University from 1872 to 1874, the University of Berlin from 1874 to 1880, the University of St. Petersburg from 1881 to 1886, and the University of Vienna from 1886 to 1908. Jagić’s principal works were devoted to problems in linguistics, philology, textual criticism, paleography, folklore studies, literary theory and criticism, law, and history, including the history of Slavic studies.

Jagić made an important contribution to the study of sources with his preparations of Old Church Slavonic and South Slavic texts for publication. He was the author of numerous studies on such topics as the Old Slavic writing system, the language of Old Church Slavonic texts, the history of Croatian and Russian, and secret languages. He also devoted considerable attention to South Slavic folklore, Old Croatian literature, and the history of 18th-century Russian literature.

Jagić published the first international journal of Slavic philology, Archiv für slavische Philologie (1875–1920), and helped prepare the Encyclopedia of Slavic Philology, which he edited. He was one of the founders of the Yugoslav Academy.

Jagić greatly influenced the development of all branches of Slavic philology and the coordination of Slavic studies in many countries. He trained many generations of Slavicists. Jagic was a member of many academies and scholarly societies.