Jovan Tomić


Jovan Tomić was Serbian historian, academic and the former director of the National Library of Serbia from 1903 to 1927.

Biography

Tomić was born in Nova Varoš in the Zlatibor District of western Serbia. He attended high school in Kragujevac and determined early that his destiny was in historical research, education and record-keeping. He attended the Grandes écoles, today's University of Belgrade, from which he earned a bachelor's degree in 1890. Upon completion of his studies, he taught in Krusevac and Kragujevac, between 1890 and 1894. From 1894 and 1896 he lived in France and Italy where he pursued further studies in library science and professional training as an educator. His experiences abroad were put to good use when he was a professor at the Teacher's Training College in Aleksinac and the First Belgrade Gymnasium.
From 1903 to 1927 he was the director of the National Library of Serbia. During his time as director the First World War brought a lot of misfortune to the library. The bombing destroyed a part of its holdings, and the remaining collections were moved for safety to several different places in Belgrade, Niš and Kosovska Mitrovica. A part of the collections ended up in Sofia, but was returned after the war. A lot of the library materials, manuscripts, books and newspapers disappeared. Thanks to Jovan Tomić's public activity, the reconstruction of the library holdings began during the war and was intensified after the war.

Selected works

Tomić has published 60 books, and more than 40 learned articles and dissertations, a lot of criticism, reports and polemics. He also worked on the publication of archive material.
In his work 'Who is Djemo the Mountaineer' Tomić claims that Djemo the Mountaineer was from region of Brda which is a territory modern-day Montenegro and Northern Albania. He thought that Musa Kesedžija is based on the supporter of Jegen Osman Pasha while Jegen Pasha himself has been transformed into Djemo the Mountaineer in Serbian epic poetry.