Name Natko Nodilo | Role Politician | |
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Died May 21, 1912, Zagreb, Croatia | ||
Natko Nodilo (31 August 1834, Split – 21 May 1912, Zagreb) was a Croatian politician, historian, publicist, university professor and rector of the University of Zagreb.
He studied theology in Zadar until 1856, when he dropped out of college and took a job as an auxiliary teacher at the Classical Gymnasium in Split. He received a degree in history and geography in Vienna in 1861. He turned to politics soon after returning to the Split gymnasium to work as an associate professor, becoming the editor of the new magazine, Il Nazionale, in which he published articles on the principles of national and liberal politics. He was persecuted in court because of his articles.
After abandoning his job as the editor, he worked as a teacher in Zadar gymnasium and as a representative of the People's Party in the Parliament of Dalmatia, advocating the unification of Dalmatia with Croatia.
In 1857 he was elected as the first professor of general history at the University of Zagreb. After his rectorship mandate in the academic year 1890-91 expired, he served as a prorector the following academic year. He served as a dean of the faculty in two mandates. He retired in 1901. From 1905–08, he published a series of essays in which he elaborated his political convictions. He studied early medieval history of Serbs, Croats and the South-East Europe.
He authored the first general history of the Middle Ages on South Slavic area. A street in Zagreb was named in his honor in 1931.