Miroslav Marcovich

Miroslav Marcovich (born March 18, 1919 in Belgrade , † June 14, 2001 in Urbana , Illinois ) was an American classical philologist of Serbian origin. He was particularly prominent as the editor of philosophical and patristic texts from antiquity.

Life

Miroslav Marcovich studied Classical Philology at the University of Belgrade . After graduating in 1942, he worked as an assistant for the Byzantinist Georg Ostrogorsky before he was hired as a translator for Tito's general staff in 1943 . After the end of the Second World War , Marcovich returned to the University of Belgrade and worked there as a lecturer from 1946 to 1954. During these years he researched many manuscripts in the libraries of Yugoslavia and published numerous finds, including in particular the Byzantine documents of the State Archives in Dubrovnik ( Ragusa ) and Latin poems by Croatian humanists.

From 1954 to 1955 Marcovich stayed in India as a visiting professor at the Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan . He translated the Bhagavad Gita into Spanish and Serbo-Croatian. Rejection by the Tito government, he did not return to Belgrade, but went to the Universidad de los Andes in Mérida (Venezuela) in 1955 as a professor of classical philology and philosophy. Marcovich spent the winter semester as a research semester in Cambridge . During this time Marcovich wrote an extensive article about the philosopher Heraklit for the real encyclopedia of classical antiquity , which he later worked out into a monograph; he also prepared an edition of the Heraclitus Fragments.

Marcovich has had an international reputation as a philologist and historian of philosophy since the 1950s. In 1962, Hans Herter invited him to the University of Bonn as a guest lecturer , where Marcovich began his edition of Hippolytus' Refutatio omnium haeresium .

In 1969 Marcovich accepted a call from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , where he was appointed Professor of Classics to succeed Alexander Turyn . Marcovich worked at this university until the end of his life, since 1989 as an emeritus . From 1973 to 1977 he was Head of the Classics Department of the Classics Department . During his tenure, the number of Classical Philology students increased considerably. In 1976 Marcovich founded the journal Illinois Classical Studies (ICS) and served as editor for several years. As visiting professor he taught and researched at the universities of Chapel Hill (1975), Ann Arbor (1979–1980), Trinity College in Dublin (1984), the Israel Academy of Sciences (as Albert Einstein Fellow ) and at the University of Tel Aviv (1991).

Marcovich's achievements as a classical philologist, namely his contributions to classical philology at the University of Illinois and his text editions, have received numerous awards. In 1963 he received the Silver Cross of Athos, in 1983 a Guggenheim Fellowship , in 1990 the Fellowship of the National Endowment for the Humanities and in 1994 an honorary doctorate ( Doctor of Letters ) from the University of Illinois.

Fonts (selection)

See full list of publications up to 1993 in Illinois Classical Studies 18, 1993, pp. 1-17 ( full text ).

• Herakleitos . Stuttgart 1967 (special editions of the article from the Pauly-Wissowaschen Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity)
• Three word trimeter in Greek tragedy . Königstein / Taunus 1984 (Contributions to Classical Philology 158), ISBN 3-445-02315-8 .
• Hippolytus: Refutatio omnium haeresium . Berlin / New York 1988 (Patristic Texts and Studies 25), ISBN 3-11-008751-0 .
• Athenagoras: Legatio pro christianis . Berlin / New York 1990 (Patristic Texts and Studies 31), ISBN 3-11-011881-5 .
• Pseudo-Justinus, Cohortatio ad Graecos, De Monarchia, Oratio ad Graecos . Berlin / New York 1990 (Patristic Texts and Studies 32), ISBN 3-11-012135-2 .
• Theodori Prodromi De Rhodanthes et Dosiclis amoribus libri IX . Stuttgart / Leipzig 1992
• Iustini Martyris Apologiae pro christianis . Berlin / New York 1994 (Patristic Texts and Studies 38), ISBN 3-11-014180-9 . New edition Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-11-018541-5 .
• Tatiani Oratio ad Graecos . Berlin / New York 1995, ISBN 3-11-014406-9 .
• Clementis Alexandrini Protrepticus . Leiden / New York / Cologne 1995, ISBN 90-04-10449-6 .
• Iustini Martyris Dialogus cum Tryphone . Berlin / New York 1997, ISBN 3-11-015738-1 .
• Diogenis Laertii Vitae philosophorum . Three volumes, Munich / Leipzig 1999–2002 ( Bibliotheca Teubneriana )
• Athenagorae qui fertur De resurrectione mortuorum . Leiden / Boston / Cologne 2000 (Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements 53), ISBN 90-04-11896-9 .
• Eustathius Macrembolites: De Hysmines et Hysminiae amoribus libri XI . Munich / Leipzig 2001 (Bibliotheca Teubneriana), ISBN 3-598-71232-4 .
• Heraclitus. Greek text with a short commentary including fresh addenda, corrigenda and a select bibliography (1967-2000) . Second edition. Sankt Augustin 2001 (International pre-Platonic studies 2), ISBN 3-89665-171-4 .
• Origenis Contra Celsum libri VIII . Leiden / Boston / Cologne 2001 (Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements 54), ISBN 90-04-11976-0 .

literature

• David Sansone: Miroslav Marcovich †. In: Gnomon . Volume 73 (2001), pp. 746-748.

Web links

• Literature by Miroslav Marcovich in the catalog of the German National Library