Avram Brankovic


Avram Branković or Abraham Brankovits was a Hungarian official in Buda of Serbian descent. He is best remembered as an excellent translator from German to Serbian.

His life

Son of Antonije Branković. He studied law in Karlovica and Szeged and received his degree in Jurisprudence from the Grande école in Pest, then he went on to perfect his Hungarian in Kežmarok and German in Vienna. In 1830 he went to the Serbia and sought employment as a district clerk at the newly-established printing press where he met many literary figures, including Vuk Karadžić, Marija Milutinovic Punktatorka, Julijana Radivojevic, Georgije Magarašević and others.
Avram Branković is best known for one of the oldest books that deals with the problems of ethnologic characteristics in Serbia -- "Characteristic or nation description" -- which was published in 1827 in Buda, only two years after Noveise zemleopisanie by Joakim Vujić was also published in Buda.

His works

Charakteristik aller Nationen or "Characteristics or nation description", Buda, 1827Pregled i lětočisleno označenie u carstvu istorie svemirne: od početka sveta do danas, Buda, 1828Boj kod Novarina, Buda, 1829 Novi zabavni kalendar, Buda, 1830 (New Serbian entertainment calendar.

Additional notes

  • Pál Gulyás: The Life and Works of Hungarian Writers. Bp., Association of Hungarian Librarians and Archivists, 1939-2002. From volume 7 to press order. János Viczián.
  • Das geistige Ungarn, Biographisches Lexikon. Hrsg. Oscar von Krücken, Imre Parlagi. Wien-Leipzig, W. Braumüller, 1918.
  • Pallas the great lexicon, an encyclopedia of all knowledge. 1-16 k.. Bp., Pallas-Révai, 1893-1904.