The South Slavic Section (J)
The South Slavic section includes Serbian, Montenegrin, Croatian and Bosnian and Herzegovinian literatures. The collection is based on two private libraries: the library of Prof. Branko Vodnik, containing the main works of Croatian and Serbian literary science and linguistics, magazines and publications of scientific societies; and Milan Rešetar’s collection of Ragusian Literature, Dubrovnik manuscripts and printed books, including the first edition of works by the representatives of Croatian Renaissance literature Dominko Zlatarić, Dinko Ranjina and the greatest figure of this literature, Ivan Gundulić. Works from the turn of the 18th century represent Junij Palmotić and Ivan Bunić-Vučić, already suiting the Baroque taste. The poem Uzdasi Mandalijene pokornice by Ignjat Đurđević, the greatest lyrical work of its time, comes from 1728. This section contains also the first edition of the national epos Razgovor ugodni naroda Slovinskoga by Andrija Kačić-Miošić from 1759. The Enlightenment ideas found a talented follower in Tito Brezovački and mainly in the most important representative of the Serbian Enlightenment, Dositej Obradović, whose numerous works published at the turn of the 19th century the library owns, including his autobiography Zhivot i prikliucheniia Dimitria Obradovicha narechenoga u kalucherstvu Dosifea from 1783. The library owns an extensive set of the works by the ethnographer, language reformer and the founding figure of later Serbian literature, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, whose collections of Serbian national songs spread the fame of the Serbian nation all over Europe. An outline of Croatian orthography Kratka osnova horvatsko-slavenskoga pravopisaňa by Ljudevit Gaj, a leader of the Illyrian movement, centred in Zagreb, comes from 1830. The main figure among Croatian linguists of the 19th century, Vatroslav Jagić, is represented by his work mostly in the general Slavic section; the South Slavic section, on the other hand, contains works i.a. of a famous Serbian linguist of the 20th century, Aleksandar Belić.
The collection includes numerous historical editions of works by the literary representatives of the Illyrian movement Ivan Mažuranić, Petar Preradović, Stanko Vraz and Dimitrija Demeter, as well as those by two great romanticists, the Serbian Branko Radičević and the Montenegrin Petar Petrović-Njegoš. The production by all important figures of South Slavic literature since the second half of the 19th century is richly represented, beginning with the founder of Croatian prose, August Šenoa, and his contemporary, the Serbian poet Jovan Jovanović-Zmaj, through Serbian and Croatian realists, representatives of the prosaic and lyrical modernism from the turn of the 20th century or great playwrights, among whom Ivo Vojnović is an author of the modern Croatian drama and Branislav Nušić is the greatest Serbian author of comedies. Among the authors of the 20th century, Ivo Andrić and Miroslav Krleža are represented by the biggest sets.
