May 15, 1864 – Slavist Vatroslav Oblak was born in Celje, he died in Celje on April 15, 1896.
His parents (father a modeller, mother a housewife) immigrated to Celje from the Poljanska dolina valley, so his son was already born in Celje. He attended primary school and lower grammar school in his hometown with relative failure, and a small interesting fact from this period is that he received the worst grades in Slovene and Latin. In the upper grades of grammar school, his attitude towards subjects clearly changed, as he was considered the "leader" of the Slovene students, who often met in his attic room. Because of the imperial anthem, which was sung in Slovene at the school mass on the Empress's Day (he was addressed by the grammar school choir), he was expelled from all grammar schools in the Austrian part of the monarchy; he had to take his matura in Zagreb.
In the autumn of 1886, he enrolled in Slavic philology and linguistics in Vienna. At the university, he was taught by Miklošič's successor Jagić, and Oblak wrote to his Archiv für slawische Philologie from the first year and was his best student throughout the years. In 1891, he earned his doctoral degree with the topic Church Slavonic Translation of the Apocalypse and also did intensive scientific work in the field. He studied Slovenian dialects and the linguistic and literary problems and history of South Slavic languages (Macedonian, Bulgarian, Croatian and Old Church Slavonic). He established contacts with numerous prominent linguists, even with the Slavic authority Jan Baudouin de Courtenay.
In 1893, he began lecturing Slavic philology as a private assistant professor at the University of Graz, and in March 1896 was proposed for associate professor, but did not live to see the appointment; he died of tuberculosis in his home in Celje. Despite his short life, he created a scientific opus that includes around 150 units. He was a representative of realism in science, which meant that he supplemented his theoretical work with fieldwork. His work at the University of Graz marks the beginning of Slovene linguistics, which was continued by Karl Štrekl, Rajko Nahtigal and Fran Ramovš, who brought it, developed and upgraded, to the newly founded Slovenian University in Ljubljana in 1919.
In 1899, his professional colleagues erected a beautiful monument to him at the cemetery in Golovec, Celje, with a famous biblical saying, which he himself used in his dissertation: "You were worthy to open the books."
More at the link: Obrazi slovenskih pokrajin
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