Zaharije Orfelin

He was born in a Serb family in Vukovar in 1726, in the period after the Great Turkish War. His father's name was Jovan[2] and hiis nephew is the painter Jakov Orfelin.

Orfelin's first published work is Краткоје о богоподобајуштем телу и крови Христовој поклоненији и временитога настављенија, written during his scribal service as a scribe for the Metropolitan Nenadović in 1758.[3]

It is assumed that he was trained in Budapest and Vienna, as well as that he subsequently studied on his own in Novi Sad.[3]

Свети Ђорђе са изгледом манастира Сенђурђа (Saint George with a view of the Senđurđa monastery) from 1767 is Orfelin's work from 1760, for which the art historian Dinko Davidov believes that this copper engraving was "a kind of specialist exercise" on the basis of which Jakob Schmutzer accepted as an honorary member of the Viennese copper engraving academy in 1767.[3]

Orfelin served under bishop Vićentije Jovanović Vidak in Timisoara until 1764. Then he went to Venice, where he worked as a proofreader of Serbian books in Dimitrije Teodosi's printing house. It is believed that he occasionally traveled to Vienna from Venice for work and other reasons.[3]

He died on January 19, 1785 in Novi Sad, Sajlovo, and is burried in a nearby church.[4]

Serbian poet Đorđe Nešić wrote a poem titled A toast to Zaharije Orfelin, inspired by his poetry and publications on winemaking.[5] He is the main character of the novel "Drugo Telo" by Milorad Pavić.

A private secondary school based in Belgrade is named after him.[6]

Orfelin appeared on the Serbian cultural scene in 1758.[3]

He was successful as a painter, calligrapher and copper-engraver, he did several works in copper-engraving. One of them represents Saint Sava. In the 1870s, he was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Arts in Vienna.[7]

As a poet, Orfelin is the most significant figure in Serbian poetry of the 18th century. He wrote a dozen longer poems, the most significant of which is Плач Сербији (Lament of Serbia, 1761) in two versions, folk version and Church-Slavonic.[8][9][10] It is an anti-Austrian, rebellious song. In that song, Serbia regrets the former glory of the medieval state and criticizes compatriots who forget their national identity.

Among Orfelin's most significant works is the "Slavenoserbski magazin" printed in Venice in 1768.[11] It was conceived as a magazine, that is, it is the first magazine in the entire south of Slovenia. Only one number came out. In the preface in the form of a manifesto, Orfelin presents the basic idea of civic enlightenment, the idea of democratization of culture, that science should serve the needs of ordinary people, and literature and philosophy should leave the narrow circle of learned people and become available to everyone. It is the first Serbian secular and civil-enlightenment book.

In 1768, Zaharije Orfelin proclaimed a mixture of Church-Slavonic and vernacular into the Serbian literary language, in which there was always room for specific Russian words, thus practically establishing the Slavic Serbian language.[12][13] Literary historian Jovan Deretić considers him, along with Jovan Rajić, to be the most important writer of the Russo-Slavic era in Serbian literature.

In 1776 Orfelin's name appears in a lexicon of Austrian artists, Des Gelehte Osterisch by de Luca, where he is listed as both an engraver and a writer, elected as an academician in the newly established Art Academy of Engraving in Vienna, and acknowledged by its director Jacob Matthias Schmutzer.[14]

Zaharije Orfelin is the author of the first modern Serbian spelling book from 1767, which was used by numerous generations of children. The second edition was published in 1797.

He is also the author of the first textbooks of the Latin language. His most extensive work is "The Life of Peter the Great" (Venice, 1772), in whom he saw an enlightened monarch, the philosophical ideal of the 18th century. Zaharije Orfelin also wrote the first Serbian "Perpetual Calendar" in 1780, printed in Vienna in 1783, where, in addition to standard calendar data, he also provides an extensive chapter on astronomy.

Orfelin noted the great importance of medicinal plants and wrote the (unfinished) book "The Great Serbian Herbarium" in which he described about 500 plants, giving each a Latin and folk name. In addition, for each plant he listed "benefits and uses" with data on medicinal effects and therapies, i.e. how that plant can be usefully used, which was common at that time in Europe, and for the first time among the Serbs.

His book Искусни подрумар (Experienced Cellarer, Vienna, 1783) has several hundred recipes for making herbal wines and many other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and medicines. The book also discusses the method and time of harvesting and drying medicinal plants and the usefulness and medicinal value of complex preparations made from more than 200 domestic and exotic medicinal and aromatic plants.[15] Writing about recipes for wine production, Zaharije Orfelin also mentions the recipe for making bermet, which differed from house to house. Orfelin gave a recipe that became popular with various modifications in the Fruška gora region.[16] It is the first book of its kind in the Serbian language. Only a hundred years later (1883) the Serbian archive for the entire medicine printed as a special edition Medicinal plants in Serbia by dr. Sava Petrović.

The illustration Creation of the World and the title page of the book Вѣчный калєндарь (Eternal Calendar) by Orfelin, 1783.

Theotokos of Bođani Monastery, Serbia, 1758

Mojsej Putnik, 1757

Krušedol Monastery, 1775

Hilandar Monastery, 1779

• Pesan novosadelanuje za gradjanku gospodicnu Femku, between 1748 and 1757[17]
• Pozdrav Mojseju Putniku, Novi Sad, 1757.
• Omologija, 1758.
• Hulitelj, Sremski Karlovci, 1759.
• Kratkoje o sedmih tajinstvah nastavlenije, 1760.
• Gorestni plač slavnija inogda Serbiji, Venice, 1761
• Trenodija, Venice, 1762
• Plač Serbii, jejaže sini v različnija gosudarstva rasjejali sja, Venice, 1762
• Oda na vospominanije vtorago Hristova prišestvija, 1763.
• Apostolskoje mleko, Timișoara, 1763.
• Istina o Boze, Novi Sad, 1764.
• Hristoljubivih dus stihoslovije, Novi Sad, 1764.
• Sjetovanije naučenogo mladago čelovjeka, 1764.
• Strasno jevandljelje, Venice, 1764.
• Pjesn istoriceskaja, Venice 1765.
• Melodija k proleću, Novi Sad, 1765.
• Slavenosrpski kalendar za godionu 1766., Novi Sad, 1765.
• Latinski bukvar, Venice, 1766.
• Pervija načatki latinskogo jazika, 1767.
• Pervoje ucenije hotjastim ucitisja knig pismeni slavenskimi nazivaemo Bukvar, Venice, 1767.
• Latinska gramatika, Venice, 1768.
• Slaveno-serbski magazin, Venice, 1768.
• Istorija o žitija i slavnih djelah velikago gosudarja i imperatora Petra Pervago, Venice, 1772
• Generalnaja karta vserosijkoj Imperiji, 1774.[18]
• Položenije provuncij: Liflandije, Finlandije, Karelije, Ingrije, i Kurlandije, 1774.
• Karta georaf. Germanije, Holandije, Danije, Poljane, 1774.
• Karta Male Tatarije, 1774.
• Bukvar za srpsku decu slovenski, Venice, 1776.
• Propisi srpski, Sremski Karlovci, 1776.
• Slavenska i vlaska Kaligrafija, Sremski Karlovci, 1778.[19]
• Večni kalendar, Vienna, 1783.
• Iskusni podrumar, Budapest, 1808.
• Sedam stepenej premudrosti

Edited or translated

• Srpska gramatika, 1755.
• Kratkoje nastavlenije, Sremski Karlovci, 1757.
• Ortodoksosomologija ili pravoslavnoje ispovjedanije, Sremski Karlovci, edited 1758.
• Kratko nastavljenije, Sremski Karlovci, 1758.
• Oda na vospominanije vtoraga Hristova prisestvija, Vienna, 1759.
• Molitvoslav, Venice, 1762.
• Psaltir, Venice, 1762.
• Trebnik, Venice, 1762.
• Propoved ili slovo o osuzdeniji, Venice, 1764.
• Evangelija ctomaja vo sjatij i velikij cetveretok, Venice, 1764.
• Catechisis by Peter Mohyla
• Catechisis by Jovan Rajić
• Srbljak (a compedium of old Serbian writings)
• Short Stories by Feofan Prokopovich

• Borivoj Čalić. "Zaharije Orfelin" (in Serbian). antikvarne-knjige.com.
• Todorović, Jelena (2006). An Orthodox Festival Book in the Habsburg Empire: Zaharija Orfelin's Festive Greeting to Mojsej Putnik (1757). Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 9780754656111.
• "Орфелин-Стефановић Захарије" (in Serbian). Мала енциклопедија Просвета [Little Encyclopedia Prosveta]. Belgrade: Prosveta. 1978. p. 737.
• Milorad Pavić (20 May 2001). "Захарија Стефановић Орфелин" (in Serbian). Историја српске књижевности – Барок. Project Rastko.
• Jovan Skerlić, Istorija Nove Srpske Književnosti / History of New Serbian Literature (Belgrade, 1914, 1921), pages 60–66.
• Milan Đ. Milićević, "Pomenik znamenitih ljudio u srpskoga naroda novijega doba", Belgrade, 1888.
• Jovan Živanović, "Zaharije Orfelin", Brankovo Kolo, Sremski Karlovci 1895.
• M. Kolarić, "Zaharije Orfelin", Zbornik Matice srpske, 2, Novi Sad 1951.
• Dejan Medaković, "Bakrorezac Zaharije Orfelin", NIN od 8. II 1953.
• Dinko Davidov, "Srpski bakroresci XVIII stoleća", Zagreb 1962.
• Dinko Davidov, "Barokni bakrorezi – grafičar Zaharija Orfelin", Dnevnik, Novi Sad, 11. mart 1962.
• Tihmir Ostojić, "Zaharije Orfelin", Beograd 1923.
• M. Kostić, "Srpski bakrorezi XVIII veka", Letopis Matice srpske, Novi Sad 1925.
• Veljko Petrović i Milan Kašanin, Srpska umetnost u Vojvodini, Novi Sad 1927.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zaharije Orfelin.

• Искусни подрумар [Experienced Winemaker] by Orfelin (1783), on Google Books.