The Society of Serbian Letters
(1841-1845)

1841.
	28 September	Jovan Sterija Popović and Atanasije Nikolić, professors at the Lyceum submitted a draft of the Statute, Rules of Procedure, as well as the proposal for the seal of the Serbian Academy of Sciences. This proposal arose from the practical needs of the newly founded Lyceum (1838), where teachers worked without the established standardised language and orthography, as Vuk Kardžić’s orthographic reforms had been banned since 1832.
	10 October	The Council accepted everything proposed, with the sole suggestion of dropping the name Serbian Academy of Sciences and adopting the name Society of Serbian Letters.
	14 November	Prince Mihailo adopted the Constitution and Rules of Procedure of the Society of Serbian Letters by decree. The Constitution clearly defined the tasks of the Society: ‘promoting the sciences in the Serbian language, education and language development.’

1842.
	27 May	Prince Mihailo appointed Society’s first full members by decree. They were: Dimitrije Isailović, Supreme School Supervisor, Stefan Marković, a Council member, lieutenant colonel and holder of a knighthood, Jovan Stejić, Chief Secretary of the Council, Dimitrije Tirol, a full member of the Department of History and Antiquities; Sima Milutinović, a Serbian writer and poet; Jovan Sterija Popović, a professor of natural law; Atanasije Nikolić, a professor of mathematics and Isidor Stojanović, a professor of general history.
	31 May	The first session was held, at which the following were elected: Atanasije Nikolić as secretary, Dimitrije Isailović as vice-president and Dimitrije Tirol as treasurer. By virtue of his office, the Minister of Education served as President of the Society.
	8 June	A ceremonial assembly was held in the premises of a municipal school. At the ceremony, the Prince accepted the patronage of the Society and presented the President with the Constitution and the members with their diplomas.
	11 June	At the first election session, a further eight full, 20 corresponding and 11 honorary members were elected. Among them there were: Vuk Karadžić, Jan Kolar, Jovan Hadžić, Ljudevit Gaj, Pavle Josif Šafarik, Jernej Kopitar, Petar Petrović Nјegoš, Platon Atanacković, Janko Drašković, Sava Tekelija, Lazar Arsenijević Batalaka, etc.
	14 June	At its first official session, the Society decided to study the Serbian language lexically and grammatically, in order to collect material for a dictionary and grammar of the standard language. Its second main task was to develop terminology of the sciences taught at the Lyceum.
	4 July	The alphabet of 35 letters was adopted as the Society’s orthography.
	11 July	Atanasije Nikolić proposed the establishment of the National Library.
	11 July	After eight sessions had been held, the Society stopped working in August. Prince Mihailo left Serbia, while Aleksandar Karađorđević assumed power.

1844.
	25 March	The Serbian Civil Code, authored by Jovan Hadžić, was adopted.
	10 May	The Ministry of Education issued an order to local authorities to organise the collection of antiquities for the National Museum.
	10 July	Prince Mihailo issued the Statute and Rules of Procedure of the Society of Serbian Letters by decree. The Statute clearly defined the Society’s tasks as follows: ‘promotion of sciences in the Serbian language, education and language development.’
	18 July	The Prince endorsed the request and recommended the Society carry out tasks entrusted to it.
	1 August and 8 August	At the first two sessions, it was decided to continue work on the terminology. The results of this work were presented by Jovan Sterija Popović, in the first volume of ‘Glasnik’ [Herald]. (Nazivoslovne reči izrađene Družtvom srbske slovesnosti; Razlozi o nazivoslovnim rečima (Gl. DSS 1 (1847) 1-16).
	25 September	The Law on the Management of the Lyceum (Ustrojenije javnog učilišnog nastavlenija) [Organisation of Public School Education], drafted by Jovan Sterija Popović, was passed.

1845.
	21 February	Milovan Spasić reported on the organisation of the Library of the Ministry of Education (which at the time held 1,421 works).
	20, 21 and 27 May	By participating in the Society’s sessions, Vuk Karadžić opposed the Society’s normative tasks, which led the Society to decide not to establish norms and to discontinue its work on terminology. (Letters of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić and Sava Tekelija to Bishop Platon Atanacković, Vienna, 1845.)
	19 August	A decision was adopted to launch Glasnik [Herald], in which the results of scientific research were to be published.
	19 August	The work titled Razgovori za obrazovanje srca i duše [Conversations for the Education of the Heart and Soul] by Archimandrite Gavrilo Popović was published.