Natko Nodilo

Natko Nodilo

Natko Nodilo (Split, August 31, 1834 – Zagreb, May 21, 1912) was Croatian politician, historian, publicist, university professor and rector of the University of Zagreb.

He studied theology in Zadar until 1856, when he dropped out of college and took a job as an auxiliary teacher at the gymnasium in Split. He received a degree in history and geography in Vienna in 1861.

He turned to politics soon after returning to the Split gymnasium to work as an associate professor, becoming the editor of the new magazine Il Nazionale in which he published articles on the principles of national and liberal politics. He was persecuted in court because of his articles. After abandoning his job as the editor, he worked as a teacher in Zadar gymnasium and as a representative of the People's Party in the Parliament of Dalmatia, advocating the unification of Dalmatia with Croatia.

In 1857 he was elected as the first professor of general history at the University of Zagreb. After his rectorship mandate in the academic year 1890/1891 expired, he served as a prorector the following academic year. He also served as a dean of the faculty in two mandates. He retired in 1901.

In the period 1905–1908, he published a series of essays in which he elaborated his political convictions. He studied early medieval history of Serbs, Croats and the South-East Europe.Natko Nodilo: Stara vjera Srba i Hrvata, Zagreb 1878

He is the author of the first general history of the Middle Ages on South Slavic area. Having contributed so much to Croatian science, a street in Zagreb was named in his honor in 1931.

References

• Nodilo's biography, at the University of Zagreb website