Academic Predrag Matvejević passed away in Zagreb

Prominent intellectual of Croatian, Italian, and Bosnian-Herzegovinian origin, academic Predrag Matvejević, passed away today in Zagreb after a long and difficult illness, at the age of 85, writes Patria. 

He was born in Mostar in 1932. Matvejević is one of the most translated writers and publicists from the Balkans, but also from Europe.

He was a humanist, cosmopolitan, polyglot, and activist, attending protests until his old age, always advocating for human rights, peace, and understanding.

A year ago, about sixty prominent Italian artists signed an initiative to award Predrag Matvejević the Nobel Prize in Literature precisely for his "Mediterranean Breviary". Among the initiators of this idea were the famous Italian writers Umberto Eco and Claudio Magris.

Matvejević earned his doctorate at the Sorbonne, taught French literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb from 1959 to 1991, taught Slavic literatures at the Third Paris University (Nouvelle Sorbonne) from 1991 to 1994, and from 1994 to 2007, he taught Serbian and Croatian language and Serbian and Croatian literature at the Roman university La Sapienza. Matvejević received honorary doctorates in France, BiH, and Italy.

He is an honorary lifelong vice-president of the International PEN Club in London and one of the most translated Croatian authors in the world.

Since 2002, Matvejević has also been a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.