Eduard Hercigonja

Eduard Hercigonja (born in Zagreb, 1929) is a Croatian philologist, Croatist and literary historian. University professor and a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, he authored several fundamental works on medieval Croatian literature and culture.

Hercigonja was born in Croatia's capital Zagreb in 1929. After finishing primary and secondary school in Sisak, he received a degree in Slavic studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb. He received his Ph.D. in 1970 with the thesis Jezik glagoljaške neliturgijske književnosti 15. stoljeća i Petrisov zbornik ('Language of the Glagolitic non-liturgical literature and Petris' miscellany'). He was elected as a docent in 1970, as an associate professor in 1974, becoming a full professor in 1977. Since 1968 he has served as a head of the Chair for the Old Church Slavonic language at the Department for Croatian Studies. Since 1977 he has been an associate, and since 1986 a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Hercoginja's research interest focuses on Croatian Middle Ages. His Srednjovjekovna književnost ('Medieval literature') in »Liber's« edition Povijest hrvatske književnosti ('The history of Croatian literature'; Volume II, Zagreb 1975), based on extensive textological, linguistic and historical research of Glagolitic heritage, has managed to paint a different picture of medieval Croatian texts as what used to be called a 'precursor of literature' (A. Cronia).

In a series of analytical papers he warns of Čakavian-Kajkavian (and also Old Church Slavonic) interference in Glagolitic manuscripts as a result of conscious and deliberate effort of medieval writers to expand the area of influence of their works. Some of the papers, as well as discussions on stylemastics, orthography, language, education, socio-economic situation and the potentials of Croatian Glagolites and their treatment in the historical accounts of Croatian literature, have been compiled in a book Nad iskonom hrvatske knjige (1986).

...
Wikipedia