1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Miklosich, Franz von

MIKLOSICH, FRANZ VON (1813–1891), Austrian philologist, was born at Luttenberg, Styria, on the 29th of November 1813. He graduated at the university at Gratz as a doctor of philosophy, and was for a time professor of philosophy there. In 1838 he went to Vienna, where he took the degree' of doctor of law. He devoted himself, however, to the study of Slavonic languages, abandoned the law, and obtained a post in the imperial library, where he remained from 1844 to 1862. In the former year he published a noteworthy review of Bopp’s Comparative Grammar, and this began a long series of works of immense erudition which completely revolutionized the study of Slavonic languages. In 1849 Miklosich was appointed to the newly created chair of Slavonic philology at the university of Vienna, and he occupied it until 1886. He became a member of the Academy of Vienna, which appointed him secretary of its historical and philosophical section, a member of the council of public instruction and of the upper house, and correspondent of the French Academy of Inscription. His numerous writings deal not only with the Slav languages, but with Rumanian, Albanian, Greek, and the language of the gypsies. Miklosich died on the 7th of March 1891.