Pavel Jozef Šafárik
Encyclopedia
Kobeliarovo
Kobeliarovo is a village and municipality in the Rožňava District in the Košice Region of middle-eastern Slovakia.-History:...
(Kisfeketepatak), Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
– 26 June 1861, Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Kingdom of Bohemia
Kingdom of Bohemia
The Kingdom of Bohemia was a country located in the region of Bohemia in Central Europe, most of whose territory is currently located in the modern-day Czech Republic. The King was Elector of Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806, whereupon it became part of the Austrian Empire, and...
) was a Slovak
Slovaks
The Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians are a West Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language.Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia...
philologist, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, one of the first scientific Slavists; literary historian, historian and ethnographer.
Family
His father Pavol Šafárik (1761–1831) was a Protestant clergyman in Kobeliarovo and before that teacher in ŠtítnikŠtítnik
Štítnik is a village and municipality in the Rožňava District in the Košice Region of middle-eastern Slovakia.-History:In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1243 by King Bela IV of Hungary, that was in a letter....
(Csetnek), where he was also born. His mother, Katarína Káresová (1764–1812) was born in a poor lower gentry family in Hanková
Hanková
Hanková is a village and municipality in the Rožňava District in the Košice Region of middle-eastern Slovakia.-Geography:The village lies at an altitude of 490 metres and covers an area of 10.872 km².It has a population of about 54 people....
(Hankova) and had several jobs in order to help the family in the poor region of Kobeliarovo. P. J. Šafárik had two elder brothers and one elder sister. One brother, called Pavol Jozef as well, died before Šafárik was born. In 1813, after Katarína's death, Šafárik's father married the widow Rozália Drábová, although Šafárik and his brothers and sister were against this marriage. The local teacher provided Šafárik with Czech books.
On 17 June 1822, when he was in Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
(see below), P. J. Šafárik married the 19 years old Júlia Ambróziová (1803–1876), a highly intelligent member of Slovak lower gentry born in 1803 in present-day Hungary. She spoke Slovak
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
, Czech, Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, and supported Šafárik in his scientific work. In Serbia, they also had three daughters (Ľudmila, Milena, Božena) and two sons (Mladen Svatopluk, Vojtech), but the first two daughters and the first son died shortly after their birth. Upon Šafárik's arrival in Prague, they had 6 further children, out of which one died shortly after its birth.
His eldest son Vojtěch
Vojtech Šafarík
Vojtěch Šafařík was a Czech chemist, specializing in inorganic chemistry. He wrote many popular textbooks as well as making over 20,000 observations of variable stars.The crater Šafařík on the Moon is named after him.- External links :*...
(1831–1902) became an important chemist, Jaroslav (1833–1862) became a military doctor and later the supreme assistant at the Joseph Academy in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Vladislav (1841 - ?) became a professional soldier, and Božena (1831-?) married Josef Jireček
Josef Jirecek
Josef Jireček was a Czech scholar.He was born in Vysoké Mýto ....
(1825–1888), a Czech literary historian and politician and earlier a tutor in Šafarík's family. Vojtech wrote an interesting biography of his father - Co vyprávěl P. J. Šafařík (What Šafárik said) - and the son of Božena and Jireček the study Šafařík mezi Jihoslovany (Šafárik among the Southern Slavs
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
).
Kingdom of Hungary (1795 - 1815)
His spent his childhood in the region of Kobeliarovo (situated in northern GemerGemer
Gemer is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. In the 19th century, and in the beginning of the 20th century, it was united with the Kishont region to form Gömör-Kishont county . Its territory is presently in southern Slovakia and northern Hungary...
(Gömör)) characterized by attractive nature and rich Slovak culture. He gained his basic education from his father. As P. J. Šafárik's son Vojtech put it later in his book (see Family): When, at the age of 7, his father showed him only one alphabet, he by himself hands down learned to read, and from then on he was always sitting on the stove and was reading. By the age of eight, he had read the whole Bible twice and one of his favorite activities was preaching to his brothers and sister, and to local people.
In 1805-1808 Šafárik studied at a "lower gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
" (in some sources described as Protestant school which was just changed into a middle Latin school
Latin School
Latin School may refer to:* Latin schools of Medieval Europe* These schools in the United States:** Boston Latin School, Boston, MA** Brooklyn Latin School, New York, NY** Brother Joseph C. Fox Latin School, Long Island, NY...
) in Rožňava
Rožnava
Rožňava is a town in Slovakia, approximately 71 km by road from Košice in the Košice Region, and has a population of 19,120.The town is an economic and tourist center of the Gemer. Rožňava is now a popular tourist attraction with a beautiful historic town centre. The town is an episcopal seat...
(Rozsnyó), where he learned Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, German and Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
. Since he did not have enough money to finance his studies, he continued his studies in Dobšiná
Dobšiná
Dobšiná is a town in the Slovenské rudohorie mountains in Slovakia, on the Slaná River, north-west of Košice.-Geography:...
(Dobsina) for two years, because he could live there with his sister. At that time, it was absolutely necessary for anyone, who wanted to become a successful scientist in the Kingdom of Hungary to have a good command of the four languages Latin, German, Hungarian and Slovak. Since the school in Rožňava specialized in Hungarian and the school in Dobšiná in German, and Šafárik was an excellent student and both schools had a good reputation, all prerequisites for a successful career were fulfilled as early as at the age of 15.
In 1810 - 1814 he studied at the "lyceum
Lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...
" of Kežmarok
Kežmarok
Kežmarok is a town in the Spiš region of eastern Slovakia , on the Poprad River.-History:...
(Késmárk), where he got to know many Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n and Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
students and his most important friend Ján Blahoslav Benedikti, with whom they together read texts of Slovak and Czech national revivalists, especially those of Josef Jungmann
Josef Jungmann
Josef Jungmann was a Bohemian poet and linguist, and a leading figure of the Czech National Revival. Together with Josef Dobrovský, he is considered to be a creator of the modern Czech language.-Life:Jungmann was the sixth child of a cobbler. In his youth, he wanted to become a priest...
. He also got to know there Classical literature and German esthetics (also thanks to the excellent library of the lyceum), and started to show interest in Serbian culture. He graduated from the following branches of study: philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
(including logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
, metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, "economia ruralis", Latin style, comparative philosophy and history of the Kingdom of Hungary), politics and law (including jus naturae, jus privatum civile et criminale, scienciae politicae), and theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
(including dogmatic and moral theology, hermeneutics, Greek language
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Hebrew language
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, physics, medicine, natural law
Natural law
Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...
, state law and international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
). The studies at this school were very important for his life, as he pointed out later himself, and since this was a largely German school, he was able to get a (partial) scholarship for a university in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Parallelly, he worked as a private tutor in the family of Dávid Goldberger in Kežmarok 1812 - 1814, which he also did one year after the end of his studies in Kežmarok. His mother died in late 1812 and his father married again 6 months later. His first bigger production was a volume of poems entitled The Muse of Tatras with a Slavonic Lyre
Lyre
The lyre is a stringed musical instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later. The word comes from the Greek "λύρα" and the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists", written in Linear B syllabic script...
published in 1814 (see Works). The poems were written in the old-fashioned standard of the Moravian Protestant translation of the Bible that the Slovak Lutherans used in their publications with many elements from the Slovak and some from the Polish language.
Germany (1815 - 1817)
In 1815 he began to study at the University of Jena, where he turned from a poet into a scientist. JenaJena
Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...
was a wish of his father, who was also the person who financed Šafárik's studies there.
He attended lectures in history, philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
, philosophy and natural sciences (lectures held by the professors Fries, Oken, Luden, Eichenstädt), studied books of Herder
Herder
A herder is a worker who lives a possibly semi-nomadic life, caring for various domestic animals, in places where these animals wander pasture lands....
and Fichte, was observing current literature and studied classical literature. While there he also translated into Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
the Clouds
The Clouds
The Clouds is a comedy written by the celebrated playwright Aristophanes lampooning intellectual fashions in classical Athens. It was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC and it was not well received, coming last of the three plays competing at the festival that year. It was revised...
of Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
(issued in the Časopis Českého musea [Journal of the Bohemian museum] in 1830) and the Maria Stuart of Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
(issued in 1831). In 1816 he became a member of the Societas latina Jenensis. 17 of Šafárik's poems written at this time (1815–1816) appeared in the Prvotiny pěkných umění by Hromádka in Vienna and made Šafárik well known in Slovakia and the Czech lands
Czech lands
Czech lands is an auxiliary term used mainly to describe the combination of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia. Today, those three historic provinces compose the Czech Republic. The Czech lands had been settled by the Celts , then later by various Germanic tribes until the beginning of 7th...
. In Jena, which Šafárik liked very much, he mainly learned to apply scientific methods and found a lot of new friends. One of them was the important Slovak writer Ján Chalupka
Ján Chalupka
Ján Chalupka was a Slovak dramatist, playwright, publicist and Evangelical pastor.- Life :...
, and another one, Samuel Ferjenčík, introduced him to Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Although he was an excellent student, Šafárik had to leave the University of Jena in May 1817 for unknown reasons (probably lack of money).
In 1817, on his way back home to Slovakia, he visited Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
and Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
. In Prague, where he was searching for a tutor job, he spent one month and joined the literary circle, whose members were Dobrovský
Josef Dobrovský
Josef Dobrovský was a Bohemian philologist and historian, one of the most important figures of the Czech national revival.- Life & Work :...
, Josef Jungmann and Hanka
Václav Hanka
Wenceslaus Hanka Czech: Václav Hanka was a Czech philologist.-Biography:He was born at Hořiněves near Hradec Králové . He was sent in 1807 to school at Hradec Králové, to escape the conscription, then to the University of Prague, where he founded a society for the cultivation of the Czech language...
, whom Šafárik thus got to know in person.
Kingdom of Hungary (1817 - 1819)
Between summer 1817 and June 1819, he worked as tutor in Pressburg (Pozsony, present BratislavaBratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
) in the well-known family of Gašpar Kubínyi. In Pressburg he also became a good friend of the Czech František Palacký
František Palacký
František Palacký was a Czech historian and politician.-Biography:...
, with whom they had already exchanged letters before and who was also a tutor in Pressburg at that time. The town of Pressburg was a social and intellectual center of the Kingdom of Hungary at that time. In the spring of 1819, Šafárik became a friend of the important Slovak writer and politician Ján Kollár
Ján Kollár
Ján Kollár was a Slovak writer , archaeologist, scientist, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.- Life :...
.
On April 1819, his friend Ján Blahoslav Benedikti helped him to get a doctor's degree, which he needed in order to become head master of a new gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
in Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
. It was Benedicti again, together with some well-known Serbs, who "manipulated" the selection procedure, so that Šafárik, as the youngest applicant, was chosen as the new school head. Before he left for Serbia, Šafárik spent some time in Kobeliarovo and with his grand father in Hanková. This was the last time Šafárik has seen his native country.
Serbia (1819 - 1833)
From 1819 to 1833 he was head master and professor at the Serbian Orthodox gymnasiumGymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
at Novi Sad in the south of the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
. All other professors of the gymnasium were Serbs. He himself taught mathematics, physics, logic, rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
, poetry, stylistics
Stylistics (linguistics)
Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts from a linguistic perspective. As a discipline it links literary criticism and linguistics, but has no autonomous domain of its own...
and Classic literature in Latin, German, and when Magyarisation (Hungarisation) by the authorities intensified also in Hungarian. From 1821 onwards, he also worked as a tutor of the son of the nephew of the Serbian patriarch
Patriarch
Originally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a compound of πατριά , "lineage, descent", esp...
. In 1824 he had to renounce to the post of head master because the Austrian government prohibited the Serbian Orthodox Church from employing Protestants from the Kingdom of Hungary. This caused Šafárik, who had to finance his newly arisen family (see Family), to lose a substantial source of income. He therefore tried to find a professor job in Slovakia, but for various reasons he did not succeed. In Novi Sad he studied Serbian literature
Serbian literature
Serbian literature refers to literature written in Serbian and/or in Serbia.The history of Serbian literature begins with theological works from the 10th- and 11th centuries, developing in the 13th century by Saint Sava and his disciples...
and antiquities, acquired many rare - especially Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
- books and manuscripts, which he used in Prague later. He also published a collection of Slovak
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
folk songs and sayings in collaboration with Ján Kollár
Ján Kollár
Ján Kollár was a Slovak writer , archaeologist, scientist, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.- Life :...
and others (see Works). In 1826 his Geschichte der slawischen Sprache und Literatur nach allen Mundarten was published. This book was the first attempt to give anything like a systematic account of the Slavonic languages as a whole.
Bohemia (1833 - 1861)
In 1832 he finally decided to leave Novi Sad and tried to find a teacher or librarian job in RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, but again without success. In 1833, with the help of Ján Kollár and on invitation of influential friends in Prague who promised to finance him, he went to Prague, where he spent the remainder of his life. During his entire stay in Prague, especially in the 1840s, his very existence depended on the 380 gulden
Austro-Hungarian gulden
The Gulden or forint was the currency of the Austrian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire between 1754 and 1892 when it was replaced by the Krone/korona as part of the introduction of the gold standard. In Austria, the Gulden was initially divided into 60 Kreuzer, and in Hungary, the...
s he received annually from his Czech friends under the condition that - as František Palacký explicitly said - "from now on, anything you write, you will write it in the Czech language only". Šafárik was an editor of the journal "Světozor
Svetozor
Světozor was a Czech language illustrated magazine published in 19th and 20th century.Světozor was created by Pavel Josef Šafařík in 1834. Šafařík was inspired by the British penny press and the German Pfennig-Magazin...
" (1834–1835). In 1837 poverty compelled him to accept the uncongenial office of censor
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
of Czech publications, which he abandoned in 1847. Between 1838 and 1842 he was first editor, later conductor, of the journal Časopis Českého musea, since 1841 he was a custodian of the Prague University Library. In Prague, he published most of his works, especially his greatest work Slovanské starožitnosti (see Works) in 1837. He also edited the first volume of the Vybor (selections from old Czech writers), which appeared under the auspices of the Prague literary society in 1845. To this he prefixed a grammar of the Old Czech language
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
- the Počátkové staročeské mluvnice.
In the papers collection "Hlasowé o potřebě jednoty spisowného jazyka pro Čechy, Morawany a Slowáky" [Voices on the necessity of a united literal language for the Czechs, Moravians and Slovaks] published by Ján Kollár in 1846, Šafárik moderately criticized Ľudovít Štúr
Ludovít Štúr
Ľudovít Štúr , known in his era as Ludevít Velislav Štúr, was the leader of the Slovak national revival in the 19th century, the author of the Slovak language standard eventually leading to the contemporary Slovak literary language...
's introduction of a new Slovak standard language (1843) that replaced the previously used Lutheran standard which was closer to the Czech language (the Slovak Catholics used a different standard). Although Šafárik - as opposed to most of his Czech colleagues - always considered the Slovaks
Slovaks
The Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians are a West Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language.Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia...
a separate nation from the Czechs (e. g. explicitly in his "Geschichte der slawischen Sprache . . . " and in "Slovanský národopis"), he advocated the use of only a "Slovak style of the Czech language" as the literary language in Slovakia.
During the Revolution of 1848 he was mainly collecting material for books on the oldest Slavic history (see Works). In 1848 he was made head of the University Library of Prague and a masterful professor of Slavonic philology in the University of Prague
Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe and is also considered the earliest German university...
, but resigned to the latter in 1849 and remained head of the university library only. The reason for this resignation was that during the Revolution of 1848-49 he participated at the Slavic Congress in Prague in June 1848
Prague Slavic Congress, 1848
The Prague Slavic Congress of 1848 took place in Prague between June 2 and June 12, 1848. It was one of several times that voices from all Slav populations of Central Europe were heard in one place...
and thus became suspicious for Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n authorities. During the absolutistic period following the defeat of the revolution, he lived a secluded life and studied especially older Czech literature
Czech literature
Czech literature is the literature written by Czechs or other inhabitants of the Czech state, mostly in the Czech language, although other languages like Old Church Slavonic, Latin or German have been also used, especially in the past. Modern authors from the Czech territory who wrote in other...
and Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
texts and culture.
In 1856/57, as a result of persecution anxieties, overwork, and ill health, he became physically and mentally insane and burned most of his correspondence with important personalities (e. g. with Ján Kollár). In May 1860, his depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
s made him to jump into the Vltava
Vltava
The Vltava is the longest river in the Czech Republic, running north from its source in Šumava through Český Krumlov, České Budějovice, and Prague, merging with the Elbe at Mělník...
river, but he was saved. This event produced considerable sensation among the general public. In early October 1860 he asked for retirement from his post as University Library head. The Austrian emperor
Emperor
An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
himself enabled him this in a letter written by his majesty himself and granted him a pension, which corresponded to Šafarik's previous full pay. Šafárik died in 1861 in Prague.
Poetry
- Ode festiva... (LevočaLevocaLevoča is a town in the Spiš region of eastern Slovakia with a population of 14,600. The town has a historic center with a well preserved town wall, a Renaissance church with the highest wooden altar in Europe, carved by Master Paul of Levoča, and many other Renaissance buildings.On 28 June 2009,...
, 1814), an odeOdeOde is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...
to the baronBaronBaron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman"...
and colonelColonelColonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Ondrej Máriassy, the patronPatrónPatrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
of the Kežmarok lyceum, on the occasion of his return from the war against Napoleon - Tatranská múza s lyrou slovanskou (Levoča, 1814) [literally: 'The Muse of Tatras with a SlavonicSlavic languagesThe Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
LyreLyreThe lyre is a stringed musical instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later. The word comes from the Greek "λύρα" and the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists", written in Linear B syllabic script...
- poems inspired by Classical, contemporaneous European literature (Friedrich SchillerFriedrich SchillerJohann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
) and by Slovak traditions and legends (Juraj JánošíkJuraj JánošíkJuraj Jánošík was a famous Slovak Carpathian Highwayman....
)
Scientific works
- Promluvení k Slovanům [literally: An address to the Slavs] in: Prvotiny pěkných umění (1817, ?) - inspired by Herder and other national literatures, he calls the Slovaks, Moravians and Bohemians to collect folk songs
- Počátkové českého básnictví, obzvláště prozodie (1818, Pressburg), together with František PalackýFrantišek PalackýFrantišek Palacký was a Czech historian and politician.-Biography:...
[literally:Basics of Czech poetry, in particular of the prosody] - deals with technical issues of poetry writing - Novi Graeci non uniti ritus gymnasii neoplate auspicia feliciter capta. Adnexa est oratio Pauli Josephi Schaffarik (1819, Novi Sad)
- Písně světské lidu slovenského v Uhřích. Sebrané a vydané od P. J. Šafárika, Jána Blahoslava a jiných. 1-2 (PestPest (city)Pest is the eastern, mostly flat part of Budapest, Hungary, comprising about two thirds of the city's territory. It is divided from Buda, the other part of Budapest, by the Danube River. Among its most notable parts are the Inner City, including the Hungarian Parliament, Heroes' Square and...
1823-1827) /Národnie zpiewanky- Pisne swetské Slowáků v Uhrách (1834–1835, Buda), together with Jan KollárJán KollárJán Kollár was a Slovak writer , archaeologist, scientist, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.- Life :...
[literally: Profane songs of the Slovak people in the Kingdom of Hungary. Collected and issued by P. J. Šafárik, Ján Blahoslav and others. 1-2 / Folk songs - Profane songs of the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary] - - Geschichte der slawischen Sprache und Literatur nach allen Mundarten (1826, Pest), [literally:History of the Slavic language and literature by all vernaculars] - a huge encyclopedia-style book, the first attempt to give anything like a systematic account of the Slavonic languages as a whole.
- Über die Abkunft der Slawen nach Lorenz Surowiecki (1828, Buda) [literally: On the origin of the Slavs according to Lorenz Surowiecki] - aimed to be a reaction the Surowiecki's text, the text developed into a book on the homeland of the Slavs
- Serbische Lesekörner oder historisch-kritische Beleuchtung der serbischen Mundart (1833, Pest) [literally: Serbian anthology or historical and critical elucidation of the Serbian vernacular] - explanation of the character and development of the Serbian language
- Slovanské starožitnosti(1837 + 1865, Prague) [Slavonic Antiquities], his main work, the first bigger book on the culture and history of the SlavsSlavic peoplesThe Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
, a second edition (1863) was edited by Josef JirečekJosef JirecekJosef Jireček was a Czech scholar.He was born in Vysoké Mýto ....
(see Family), a continuation was published only after Šafáriks death in Prague in 1865; a Russian, German and Polish translation followed immediately; the main book describes the origin, settlements, localisation and historic events of the Slavs on the basis of an extensive collection of material; inspired by Herder's opinions, he refused to consider the Slavs as Slaves and barbarian as was frequent at that time especially in German literature; the book substantially influenced the view of the Slavs - Monumenta Illyrica (1839, Prague) - monuments of old Southern Slavic literature
- Die ältesten Denkmäler der böhmischen Sprache... (1840, Prague) [literally: The oldest monuments of Czech language . . . ], together with František PalackýFrantišek PalackýFrantišek Palacký was a Czech historian and politician.-Biography:...
- Slovanský národopis (1842- 2 editions, Prague) [literally: Slavic ethnology], his second most important work, he sought to give a complete account of Slavonic ethnologyEthnologyEthnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
; contains basic data on individual Slavic nations, settlements, languages, ethnic borders, and a map, on which the Slavs are formally considered one nation divided into Slavic national units - Počátkové staročeské mluvnice in: Výbor (1845) [literally: Basics of Old Czech grammar]
- Juridisch - politische Terminologie der slawischen Sprachen Oesterreich (Vienna, 1850) [Legal and political terminology of the Slavic languages in Austria], a dictionary written together with Karel Jaromir ErbenKarel Jaromír ErbenKarel Jaromír Erben was a Czech historian, poet and writer of the mid-19th century, best known for his collection Kytice , which contains poems based on traditional and folkloric themes....
, Šafárik and Erben became - by order of Alexander Bach members of a committee for Slavic legal terminology in Austria - Památky dřevního pisemnictví Jihoslovanů (1851, Prague) [literally: Monuments of old literature of the Southern Slavs] - contains important Old Church Slavonic texts
- Památky hlaholského pisemnictví (1853, Prague) [literally: Monuments of the Glagolitic literature]
- Glagolitische Fragmente (1857, Prague), together with HöflerKonstantin von HöflerKonstantin von Höfler was a German church - and general historian, publicist, ennobled anti-nationalist politician and poet.-Biography and works:He was born at Memmingen in Bavaria on 26 March 1811; died at Prague, 29 December 1898...
[literally: Glagolitic fragments] - Über den Ursprung und die Heimat des Glagolitismus (1858, Prague) [literally: On the origin and the homeland of the Glagolitic script] - here he accepted the view that the Glagolitic alphabetGlagolitic alphabetThe Glagolitic alphabet , also known as Glagolitsa, is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. The name was not coined until many centuries after its creation, and comes from the Old Slavic glagolъ "utterance" . The verb glagoliti means "to speak"...
is older than the Cyrillic one - Geschichte der südslawischen Litteratur1-3 (1864–65, Prague) [literally: History of Southern Slavic literature], edited by Jireček
Collected works & papers
- Sebrané spisy P. J. Šafaříka 1-3 (Prague 1862–1863, 1865)
- Spisy Pavla Josefa Šafaříka 1 (Bratislava 1938)
Recognition
- Pavol Jozef Šafárik UniversityUniversity of Pavol Jozef SafarikThe Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice is a university located in Košice, Slovakia. It was founded in 1959 and is organized in 5 faculties...
in KošiceKošiceKošice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...
is named after him. - Gymnázium Pavla Jozefa Šafárika in RožňavaRožnavaRožňava is a town in Slovakia, approximately 71 km by road from Košice in the Košice Region, and has a population of 19,120.The town is an economic and tourist center of the Gemer. Rožňava is now a popular tourist attraction with a beautiful historic town centre. The town is an episcopal seat...
is named after him. - A street in Novi SadNovi SadNovi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
and a street in BelgradeBelgradeBelgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
are named after him. - Slovak cultural center Pavel Jozef Šafárik in Novi SadNovi SadNovi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
.