200 Years of the Birth of Đura Daničić (1825-2025)

Today, we remember Đura Daničić, one of the most eminent philologists and linguists in the history of Serbian science and culture. Together with Vuk Karadžić, he was the founder of modern Srbistika and the begetter of contemporary Serbian literary language.

Đuro Daničić was born on 6 April (Old Style) / 18 April (New Style) 1825  to a distinguished clerical family. As one of the best students in the history of the Grand Serbian Orthodox Gymnasium in Novi Sad, he set off to Pozsony and Vienna for further education. In his early years alongside Franz Miklosich and Vuk Karadžić, he emerged as a prominent Srbist of his time. With the publication of his study Rat za srpski jezik i pravopis [The War for the Serbian Language and Orthography] in 1847, he introduced modern scientific methodology into the study of the Serbian language, thus achieving symbolic triumph in a several-decades-long fight over the form of this language. His Mala srpska gramatika[Little Serbian Grammar], a painstaking lector work on texts as well as his social activities always in service of education and science brought about the final victory of the Serbian literary language rooted in centennial experience of oral literature and reliable fact establishment as per best traditions of Central European philologies of that time.

In numerous fields—among Serbs and even other Slavs—Đura Daničić was a true pioneer. He was the first to publish a historical dictionary of the language of a Slavonic people, Rječnik iz književnih starina srpskih [Dictionary of Serbian Literary Antiquities], while his monumental Srpska sintaksa [Serbian Synthax] set a standard that surpassed all other syntactic studies of the time. Alongside Vuk Karadžić, he was the anonymous co-author of the landmark Srpski rječnik (Serbian Dictionary), published in 1852. He left an indelible mark on Serbian culture through his extraordinary translation of the ’Old Testament’, editions of major medieval writers, monographs, studies and critiques, as well as through the introduction of the provision requiring a copy of every book published in Serbia to be stored at the National Library. He was a director of the National Library, secretary of the Society of Serbian Letters, and a professor at the Lyceum and Great School in Belgrade. He also served as a secretary of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, as well as the president of the Serbian Learned Society and was a member of the Matica Srpska Literary Department and a foreign member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.

In recognition of Đura Daničić’s immense contributions, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts has declared 2025 the Year of Đura Daničić – Two Centuries of Đ. Daničić. As much as Serbia owes to Dositej Obradović, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, and Petar II Petrović Njegoš, it also owes to Đura Daničić—a modest man, a brilliant scholar, and a great patriot.

National Library of Serbia
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Matica Srpska
Institute of the Serbian Language of SASA
Library of Matica Srpska
Department of Serbian with South-Slavic Languages
Department of Serbian Literature with South-Slavic Literatures of the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade.