Joakim Vujić

Joakim Vujić (Serbian: Јоаким Вујић; 1772, Baja, Habsburg Monarchy – 1847) was a Serbian writer, dramatist (musical stage and theatre), actor, traveler and polyglot. He was one of the most accomplished Serbian dramatists and writers of the 18th century, director of Knjaževsko-srpski teatar (The Royal Serbian Theatre) in Kragujevac 1835/36. He is known as the Father of Serbian Theatre.

Biography

Vujić was born on 9 September 1772 in Baja, a small town on the bank of the Danube which had been granted, as early as 1696, special privileges by Emperor Leopold I as a "Serbian town" (though it had always been so for a long time). His ancestors (then living in Ottoman-occupied South Serbia) arrived to this region (Rascia or Rászság of the southern Pannonian Plain) seeking refuge from the Ottoman Turks.

Vujić went to school in Baja. First he attended a Slav-Serbian school and then he proceeded to Latin, German and Hungarian schools. He was further educated in Novi Sad, Kalocsa and Bratislava (the Evangelical Licaeum and the Roman Catholic Academy). He became a teacher and earned his living chiefly as a teacher of foreign languages. He was an ardent supporter of Enlightenment and his model was Dositej Obradović, whom he met personally in Trieste's Serbian community before Dositej left for Karađorđe's Serbia. Joakim Vujić was a polyglot and spoke Italian, German, French, English, Hungarian and, of course, Greek and Latin. He also learnt some Hebrew.