Pavel Jozef Šafárik

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Pavel Jozef Safarik
Pavel Jozef Safarik

Pavel Jozef Šafárik (Safáry / Schaffáry/ Schafary/ Saf(f)arik / Šafarík/ Szafarzik, Czech Pavel Josef Šafařík, modern Slovak Pavol Jozef Šafárik, German Paul Joseph Schaffarik, Latin Paulus Josephus Schaffarik, Hungarian Pál József Saf(f)arik) (13 May 1795 in Kobeliarovo, Slovakia (at that time part of the Kingdom of Hungary) - 26 June 1861 in Prague, Czech Republic (at that time part of the Austrian Empire)) was a Slovak philologist, poet, one of the first scientific Slavists; literary historian, historian and ethnographer. He wrote most of his texts in Czech or in German.

Contents

[edit] Family

His father Pavel Šafárik (1761 - 1831) was a Protestant clergyman in Kobeliarovo and before that teacher in Štítnik, where he was also born. His mother, Katarína Káresová (1764 - 1812) was born in a poor lower gentry family in Hanková 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 Pavel 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 (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, Czech, Serbian and Russian, 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 Vojtech (1831-1902) became an important chemist, Jaroslav (1833-1862) became a military doctor and later the supreme assistant at the Joseph Academy in Vienna, Vladislav (1841 - ?) became a professional soldier, and Božena (1831-?) married Josef Jireček (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).

[edit] Life

[edit] Slovakia (1795 - 1815)

His spent his childhood in the region of Kobeliarovo (situated in northern Gemer) 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" (in some sources described as Protestant school which was just changed into a middle Latin school) in Rožnava, where he learned Latin, German and Hungarian. Since he did not have enough money to finance his studies, he continued his studies in Dobšiná 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" of Kežmarok, where he got to know many Polish, Serbian and Ukrainian 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. 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 (including logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, "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 (including dogmatic and moral theology, hermeneutics, Greek language, Hebrew language, physics, medicine, natural law, state law and international law). 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.

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 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.

[edit] Germany (1815 - 1817)

In 1815 he began to study at the University of Jena, where he turned from a poet into a scientist. Jena was a wish of his father, who was also the person who financed Šafárik's studies there.

He attended lectures in history, philology, philosophy and natural sciences (lectures held by the professors Fries, Oken, Luden, Eichenstädt), studied books of Herder and Fichte, was observing current literature and studied classical literature. While there he also translated into Czech the Clouds of Aristophanes (issued in the Časopis Českého musea [Journal of the Bohemian museum] in 1830) and the Maria Stuart of Schiller (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. 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 Chalúpka, 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 and Prague. In Prague, where he was searching for a tutor job, he spent one month and joined the literary circle, whose members were Dobrovský, Josef Jungmann and Hanka, whom Šafárik thus got to know in person.

[edit] Slovakia (1817 - 1819)

Between summer 1817 and June 1819, he worked as tutor in Bratislava in the well-known family of Gašpar Kubínyi. In Bratislava he also became a good friend of the Czech František Palacký, with whom they had already exchanged letters before and who was also a tutor in Bratislava at that time. The town of Bratislava 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.

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 in Novi Sad. 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.

[edit] Serbia (1819 - 1833)

From 1819 to 1833 he was head master and professor at the Serbian Orthodox gymnasium at Novi Sad in the south of the Kingdom of Hungary. All other professors of the gymnasium were Serbs. He himself taught mathematics, physics, logic, rhetoric, poetry, stylistics 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. 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 and antiquities, acquired many rare - especially Old Church Slavonic - books and manuscripts, which he used in Prague later. He also published a collection of Slovak folk songs and sayings in collaboration with Ján Kollár 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.

[edit] Bohemia (1833 - 1861)

In 1832 he finally decided to leave Novi Sad and tried to find a teacher or librarian job in Russia, 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 guldens 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" (1834-1835). In 1837 poverty compelled him to accept the uncongenial office of censor 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 - 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'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 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 an extraordinary professor of Slavonic philology in the University of Prague, 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 (June 1848) and thus became suspicious for Austrian authorities. During the absolutistic period following the defeat of the revolution, he lived a secluded life and studied especially older Czech literature and Old Church Slavonic 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 depressions made him to jump into the Vltava 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 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.

[edit] Works

His most important works are:

a) Poetry:

b) 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 Czechs to collect folk songs
  • Počátkové českého básnictví, obzvláště prozodie (1818, Bratislava), together with František Palacký [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 (Pest 1823-1827) /Národnie zpiewanky- Pisne swetské Slowáků v Uhrách (1834-1835, Buda), together with Jan Kollár [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 Slavs, a second edition (1863) was edited by Josef Jireček (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 Palacký
  • Slovanský národopis (1842- 2 editions, Prague) [literally: Slavic ethnology], his second most important work, he sought to give a complete account of Slavonic ethnology; 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 Jaromŕr Erben, 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 Höfler [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 alphabet is older than the Cyrillic one
  • Geschichte der südslawischen Litteratur1-3 (1864-65, Prague) [literally: History of Southern Slavic literature], edited by Jireček

c) Collected works:

  • Sebrané spisy P. J. Šafaříka 1-3 (Prague 1862-1863 + 1865)

d) Collected papers:

  • Spisy Pavla Josefa Šafaříka 1 (Bratislava, 1938)

[edit] Recognition

Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice is named after him.

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