Jan Kollar, a native of Slovakia, was born July 29, 1793 in Mosovice and died January 24, 1852 in Vienna. Kollar studied at Bratislava and at Jena and entered priesthood in 1819. His interests led Kollar to philology and archeology and in 1849 he was appointed to the chair of Slavonic Antiquities at the University of Vienna. Kollar’s poetic fame rests on his monumental collection of sonnets, published under the title of SLAVY DCERA. Though today we may criticize the contents and structure of this work, its author still remains as the founder of modern Czech poetry.
