Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
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The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Latin Academia Scientiarum et Artium Croatica, Croatian Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti) is the national academy of Croatia.
The institution was founded in Zagreb (then mostly known as Agram, in German) in 1867 as the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts. The bishop and benefactor Josip Juraj Strossmayer, a prominent advocate of higher education during the 19th century Croatian national romanticism, set up a trust fund for this purpose and in 1860 submitted a large donation to the then ban (viceroy) of Croatia Josip Šokčević for the cause of being able to "converge all better minds ... to decide how to create a people's book in the Slavic south as soon as possible, and how it could encompass all branches of human science".
After some years of deliberations by the Croatian Parliament and the Emperor Franz Joseph, it was finally sanctioned by law in 1866. The official sponsor was Josip Juraj Strossmayer, while the first President of the Academy was the distinguished Croatian historian Franjo Rački. Its creation was the logical extension of the University of Zagreb, the institution initially created in 1669 and also renewed by bishop Strossmayer in 1874.
Bishop Strossmayer also initiated the building of the Academy Palace in the Zrinjevac park of Zagreb, and the Palace was completed in 1880. In 1884, the Palace also became a host of the "Strossmayer Gallery" that contained 256 works of art (mostly paintings). The same is today one of the most prominent gallery in Zagreb.
The Academy published the scientific magazine Rad (rad=work in Croatian language) between 1867 and 1882, when each of the individual scientific classes of the Academy started printing their own magazines. A total of almost five hundred issues have been printed up to now. In 1887, the Academy published the first "Ljetopis" as a year book, as well as several other publications in history and ethnology.
The Academy was named "Yugoslav" until 1991 (except for a brief intermission in the time period between 1941 and 1945 during the Nazi regime of the Independent State of Croatia) when it was renamed to "Croatian".
[edit] Criticism
The Academy has been criticized to the effect that its membership and activities are based on academic cronyism and political favor, rather than on scientific and artistic merit. In 2006 this came to a head with the Academy's refusal to induct Dr. Miroslav Radman, an accomplished biologist, a member of the French Academy of Sciences, and an advocate of a higher degree of meritocracy and accountability in the Croatian academia. His supporters from within the Academy and the media decried the decision as reinforcing a politically motivated, unproductive status quo. Dr. Ivo Banac, a Yale University professor and a deputy in the Croatian parliament, addressed the chamber in a speech decrying the "dictatorship of mediocrity" in the Academy, while Globus columnist Boris Dežulović satirized the institution as the "Academy of stupidity and obedience". Dr. Vladimir Paar and others defended the Academy's decision, countering that it did take pains to include accomplished scientists, but that, since Dr. Radman's work has mostly taken place outside of Croatia, it was appropriate that he remained a Corresponding Member rather than a Full Member of the Academy.
[edit] See also
- History of Zagreb
- History of Croatia
- Zagreb cathedral
- St. Mark's Church
- Kaptol
- Gradec
- Ban Jelačić Square
- Croatian National Theatre
- Mimara Museum
- Mirogoj Cemetery
