Matija Ban
Encyclopedia
Matija Ban was a Serbo-Croatian
poet, dramatist, and playwright, born in the city of Dubrovnik
, who became known as one of the first Catholics from Dubrovnik who expressed a Serb nationality
. He settled in Serbia
in 1844, and engaged in various diplomatic missions in service of the Principality of Serbia.
Ban was a strong advocate of Serbian unity and independence, but was also a pan-Slavist. He is commonly regarded as being the first to use the term "Yugoslav
", in a poem in 1835.
(in today's Croatia
).
His ethnicity was also Croat., according to others, by virtue of him being a Roman Catholic. After graduating from a lycee in Dubrovnik, he was supposed to join the Franciscan
order, but suddenly changed his plans. His inquisitive mind and wanderlust made him travel to the East. He first lived and worked on the island of Halki (Heybeliada), near Istanbul (Constantinople); Bursa; and the metropolis of Constantinople
. He also had an estate in Anatolia
, Asia Minor
, where he spent his holidays.
Matija Ban was influenced by pan-Slavists and romantic nationalists
Michał Czajkowski and František Zach
in Istambul, so much that he moved to Belgrade
in 1844 in an attempt to promote his idea that Serbian patriotism must extend beyond Serb Orthodoxy and the borders of the Principality of Serbia.
In 1844 he arrived in Serbia where he obtained employment in the government service. At the same time he became seriously interested in Serbian literature, under the influence of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić
, the great reformer, and Branko Radičević
, the Romantic poet.
In Serbia, Ban's group of enthusiasts worked with Serbia's minister of the interior Ilija Garašanin
, the author of Načertanije
, to enter the upper reaches of Serbian political life. They were not, however, met with uniform acceptance - Jovan Sterija Popović
and others, with support of the Church in Serbia, protested against their ideas and by extension against Vuk Karadžić's notion that Serbian language and nationality extended beyond Orthodoxy.
Initially, Ban began writing early in 1834, in the Serbian idiom and in Italian (then spoken along the Dalmatian littoral as a second language). During the 1840s he began producing literary work while in civil service
.
Shortly before the Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas
, Matija Ban was sent from Belgrade on special missions to Novi Sad
, Karlovci
, Zagreb, Zadar
, Dubrovnik and Cetinje. Ban first arrived in Cetinje
in middle of April, 1848, in the capacity as a confidential Serbian emissary on a secret mission. Before that, he had visited Karlovci—the centre of the Vojvodina
Serbs—and Zagreb—the Croatian centre, Ban was generally a very suitable choice as intermediary between Belgrade
and Zagreb
and as loyal collaborator with Petar II Petrović Njegoš in the organization of a conspiratorial network in the south, spreading from Herzegovina
. Bishop Petar II greeted Ban with open arms, even ceremoniously. Ban immediately recognized Njegoš among the chieftains, by his bearing and demeanor. He was to visit him twice more. Ban left some fine notes which reveal the Bishop's political image. True to the Montenegrin cause as well as to the Serbian reality, Njegoš, according to Ban, believed that it was first necessary to settle age-old accounts with Turkey (before redeeming Serbian territories under the Habsburgs and the Republic of Venice). The subject of Njegoš-Ban negotiations was the raising of a rebellion in Turkey—in Old Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia—with the aid of the two Serbian states (Montenegro and Serbia).
When Ban appeared before Njegoš in the spring of 1849, Njegoš read a letter that he wrote to Prince Alexander (April 14, 1849), had we marched on Bosnia instead of Vojvodina, today we would have in our hands something that could not be easily lost. But the collapse of the revolution meant an end to plans of liberating Serbs from the Ottoman yoke, which Njegoš suspected all along. Ban's last visit to Cetinje was to inform the ailing Bishop (who had full-blown tuberculosis
by then) that the insurgents had been dissolved in Austria.
In his travels to Croatian lands, Ban advocated for pan-Slavic as well as pro-Serbian ideas, claiming the Kingdom of Dalmatia
should be unified with the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
, but also describing the language of Dubrovnik as Serbian. By 1850, the revolution was over and Ban, particularly because he had acquired Serbian citizenship in 1844, became suspicious to the Austrian police in Dubrovnik, who started to monitor him. At that point, he was summoned to Belgrade where Garašanin suspended all of his operations and ordered him to permanently return to Belgrade. He hesitated, but was persuaded by Prince Aleksandar and others to comply. He did however leave his family in Dubrovnik and published two more issues of the journal Dubrovnik in Ljudevit Gaj
's publishing house in Zagreb in 1851 and 1852.
In the 1851 issue, Ban wrote in a footnote underneath the song "Materi Serbskoj" ("To the Serbian mother"):
From 1853 till 1861 two volumes of his were published in Belgrade under the title Različnih Pisma (Different Letters).
He's one of the most prolific of Serbian dramatists, however, he failed to produce plays of lasting value: Mejrimah (1849); Milijenko i Dobrila (1850); Smrt kneza Dobroslava (1851); Smrt Uroša V, ilio poslednji Nemanjići (1857); Kralj Vukašin (1857); Car Lazar (1858); Cvijeti Srbske(1865); Vanja (1868); Kobna tajna (1869); Marta Posanjica (1871); Marojica Kabora (1879); Jan Hus (1880); Knez Nikola Zrinjski (1888).
Ban was named among the first four members of the Academy of Arts of the Royal Serbian Academy of Sciences, named by King Milan I of Serbia on 5 April 1887. Metropolitan Mitrofan Ban
of Montenegro is his nephew.
Ban died in 1903.
Matija Ban was always something more than an intermediary between Belgrade, Cetinje and Zagreb. He was a man of vast and refined culture, and having grown up in a Catholic milieu in Dubrovnik, he knew its mentality and also found working with Serbs in Belgrade and Cetinje or Croatians in Zagreb quite natural. He was a poet—and has been remembered and appreciated as such—but his was not a great talent, despite his sincerely patriotic ideas. This facilitated his contact with Njegoš and turned their political collaboaration into a friendship and understanding. He was a reflective, rational nature—such was needed in that time and for that task. He enjoyed the confidence of Belgrade and of Prince Alexander Karadjordjević himself, whose children he tutored.
Though Ban did not contribute anything innovative or creative to Serbian literature, he represents the end of the Serbian Romanticism and the start of Serbian Realism. He was a fruitful and influential writer, a man of cultured background and one who knew European literature well.
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
poet, dramatist, and playwright, born in the city of Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
, who became known as one of the first Catholics from Dubrovnik who expressed a Serb nationality
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
. He settled in Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
in 1844, and engaged in various diplomatic missions in service of the Principality of Serbia.
Ban was a strong advocate of Serbian unity and independence, but was also a pan-Slavist. He is commonly regarded as being the first to use the term "Yugoslav
Yugoslav
Yugoslav refers to:* Yugoslavia** Kingdom of Yugoslavia** Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia** Federal Republic of Yugoslavia* Yugoslavs...
", in a poem in 1835.
Biography
Matija Ban was born in Petrovo Selo, near the city of DubrovnikDubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
(in today's Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
).
His ethnicity was also Croat., according to others, by virtue of him being a Roman Catholic. After graduating from a lycee in Dubrovnik, he was supposed to join the Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
order, but suddenly changed his plans. His inquisitive mind and wanderlust made him travel to the East. He first lived and worked on the island of Halki (Heybeliada), near Istanbul (Constantinople); Bursa; and the metropolis of Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. He also had an estate in Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
, Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
, where he spent his holidays.
Matija Ban was influenced by pan-Slavists and romantic nationalists
Romantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
Michał Czajkowski and František Zach
František Zach
František Aleksandr Zach was a Czech-born soldier and military theorist, best known for being the first acting General and Chief of the General Staff to the Principality of Serbia from 1876 to 1877....
in Istambul, so much that he moved to Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
in 1844 in an attempt to promote his idea that Serbian patriotism must extend beyond Serb Orthodoxy and the borders of the Principality of Serbia.
In 1844 he arrived in Serbia where he obtained employment in the government service. At the same time he became seriously interested in Serbian literature, under the influence of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić
Vuk Stefanovic Karadžic
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić was a Serbian philolog and linguist, the major reformer of the Serbian language, and deserves, perhaps, for his collections of songs, fairy tales, and riddles to be called the father of the study of Serbian folklore. He was the author of the first Serbian dictionary...
, the great reformer, and Branko Radičević
Branko Radicevic
Branko Radičević , an influential Serbian poet, within a short space of time contrived to enhance Serbian literature with several perennially attractive poems.- Biography:...
, the Romantic poet.
In Serbia, Ban's group of enthusiasts worked with Serbia's minister of the interior Ilija Garašanin
Ilija Garašanin
Ilija Garašanin was a Serbian politician and statesman, serving as Interior Minister and Prime Minister ....
, the author of Načertanije
Nacertanije
Načertanije is a document drawn up by the Serbian politician Ilija Garašanin in 1844, aimed at uniting the Serbian people, living under the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. It represents the first formalization of the political program of Serbia....
, to enter the upper reaches of Serbian political life. They were not, however, met with uniform acceptance - Jovan Sterija Popović
Jovan Sterija Popovic
Jovan Sterija Popović was a Serbian playwright, poet and pedagogue who taught at the Belgrade Higher School. Sterija was recognized by his contemporaries as the one of the leading Serbian intellectuals...
and others, with support of the Church in Serbia, protested against their ideas and by extension against Vuk Karadžić's notion that Serbian language and nationality extended beyond Orthodoxy.
Initially, Ban began writing early in 1834, in the Serbian idiom and in Italian (then spoken along the Dalmatian littoral as a second language). During the 1840s he began producing literary work while in civil service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
.
Shortly before the Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas
Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas
From March 1848 through July 1849, the Habsburg Austrian Empire was threatened by revolutionary movements. Much of the revolutionary activity was of a nationalist character: the empire, ruled from Vienna, included Austrian Germans, Hungarians, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians,...
, Matija Ban was sent from Belgrade on special missions to Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
, Karlovci
Karlovci
Karlovci can refer to:* Sremski Karlovci, a town and municipality in Srem, Vojvodina, Serbia* Novi Karlovci, a village in Srem, Vojvodina, Serbia...
, Zagreb, Zadar
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
, Dubrovnik and Cetinje. Ban first arrived in Cetinje
Cetinje
Cetinje , Цетиње / Cetinje , Italian: Cettigne, Greek: Κετίγνη, Ketígni) is a town and Old Royal Capital of Montenegro. It is also a historical and the secondary capital of Montenegro , with the official residence of the President of Montenegro...
in middle of April, 1848, in the capacity as a confidential Serbian emissary on a secret mission. Before that, he had visited Karlovci—the centre of the Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
Serbs—and Zagreb—the Croatian centre, Ban was generally a very suitable choice as intermediary between Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
and Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
and as loyal collaborator with Petar II Petrović Njegoš in the organization of a conspiratorial network in the south, spreading from Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
. Bishop Petar II greeted Ban with open arms, even ceremoniously. Ban immediately recognized Njegoš among the chieftains, by his bearing and demeanor. He was to visit him twice more. Ban left some fine notes which reveal the Bishop's political image. True to the Montenegrin cause as well as to the Serbian reality, Njegoš, according to Ban, believed that it was first necessary to settle age-old accounts with Turkey (before redeeming Serbian territories under the Habsburgs and the Republic of Venice). The subject of Njegoš-Ban negotiations was the raising of a rebellion in Turkey—in Old Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia—with the aid of the two Serbian states (Montenegro and Serbia).
When Ban appeared before Njegoš in the spring of 1849, Njegoš read a letter that he wrote to Prince Alexander (April 14, 1849), had we marched on Bosnia instead of Vojvodina, today we would have in our hands something that could not be easily lost. But the collapse of the revolution meant an end to plans of liberating Serbs from the Ottoman yoke, which Njegoš suspected all along. Ban's last visit to Cetinje was to inform the ailing Bishop (who had full-blown tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
by then) that the insurgents had been dissolved in Austria.
In his travels to Croatian lands, Ban advocated for pan-Slavic as well as pro-Serbian ideas, claiming the Kingdom of Dalmatia
Kingdom of Dalmatia
The Kingdom of Dalmatia was an administrative division of the Habsburg Monarchy from 1815 to 1918. Its capital was Zadar.-History:...
should be unified with the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia or Croatia Slavonia was an autonomous kingdom within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was part of the Hungarian Kingdom within the dual Austro-Hungarian state, being within the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen or Transleithania...
, but also describing the language of Dubrovnik as Serbian. By 1850, the revolution was over and Ban, particularly because he had acquired Serbian citizenship in 1844, became suspicious to the Austrian police in Dubrovnik, who started to monitor him. At that point, he was summoned to Belgrade where Garašanin suspended all of his operations and ordered him to permanently return to Belgrade. He hesitated, but was persuaded by Prince Aleksandar and others to comply. He did however leave his family in Dubrovnik and published two more issues of the journal Dubrovnik in Ljudevit Gaj
Ljudevit Gaj
Ljudevit Gaj was a Croatian linguist, politician, journalist and writer. He was one of the central figures of the Croatian national reformation, also known as the Illyrian Movement.-Origin:...
's publishing house in Zagreb in 1851 and 1852.
In the 1851 issue, Ban wrote in a footnote underneath the song "Materi Serbskoj" ("To the Serbian mother"):
From 1853 till 1861 two volumes of his were published in Belgrade under the title Različnih Pisma (Different Letters).
He's one of the most prolific of Serbian dramatists, however, he failed to produce plays of lasting value: Mejrimah (1849); Milijenko i Dobrila (1850); Smrt kneza Dobroslava (1851); Smrt Uroša V, ilio poslednji Nemanjići (1857); Kralj Vukašin (1857); Car Lazar (1858); Cvijeti Srbske(1865); Vanja (1868); Kobna tajna (1869); Marta Posanjica (1871); Marojica Kabora (1879); Jan Hus (1880); Knez Nikola Zrinjski (1888).
Ban was named among the first four members of the Academy of Arts of the Royal Serbian Academy of Sciences, named by King Milan I of Serbia on 5 April 1887. Metropolitan Mitrofan Ban
Mitrofan Ban
Mitrofan Ban was Bishop of Cetinje, Metropolitan of Montenegro, and exarch of the Patriarchate of Peć, of the Serbian Orthodox Church. He was also Archimandrite of the Cetinje monastery.- Life :...
of Montenegro is his nephew.
Ban died in 1903.
Legacy
As a poet he's lacking in talent and his writing is long-winded and bureaucratic in style. Relatively more worthy are his dramas. All his works have a lot of Slav history and patriotism, but also are lacking in great creativity and poetry. Overesteemed as a poet, he had been forgotten in that area, his true worth really lay, as a politician and diplomat.Matija Ban was always something more than an intermediary between Belgrade, Cetinje and Zagreb. He was a man of vast and refined culture, and having grown up in a Catholic milieu in Dubrovnik, he knew its mentality and also found working with Serbs in Belgrade and Cetinje or Croatians in Zagreb quite natural. He was a poet—and has been remembered and appreciated as such—but his was not a great talent, despite his sincerely patriotic ideas. This facilitated his contact with Njegoš and turned their political collaboaration into a friendship and understanding. He was a reflective, rational nature—such was needed in that time and for that task. He enjoyed the confidence of Belgrade and of Prince Alexander Karadjordjević himself, whose children he tutored.
Though Ban did not contribute anything innovative or creative to Serbian literature, he represents the end of the Serbian Romanticism and the start of Serbian Realism. He was a fruitful and influential writer, a man of cultured background and one who knew European literature well.
Further reading
- Jovan SkerlićJovan SkerlićJovan Skerlić was a Serbian writer and critic. He is regarded as one of the most influential Serbian literary critics of the early 20th century, after Bogdan Popović.- Biography :...
, Istorija Nove Srpske Književnosti/ A History of Modern Serbian Literature (Belgrade, 1921), pages 199-201.