Božidar Petranović

Božidar Petranović (18 February 1809 – 12 September 1874) was a Serbian author, scholar, journalist, and one of the leading historians of Serbian literature and a distinctive proponent of world literature. He is also mentioned as Theodor (Greek version of Serbian Božidar) Petranović in some publications. He is regarded as one of the early Serbian bibliographers.

Biography Born in Šibenik, Dalmatia, Božidar Petranović was one of the first Dalmatian Serbs to be educated in the newly constructed Metropolitanate of Karlovci's Gymnasium of Karlovci. He was also educated in Graz together with Ljudevit Gaj.

In 1838, he claimed Dubrovnik's literary tradition for Serbia since Dubrovnik's (also known as Ragusa of old) authors "wrote in Serbian, but with Latin letters." (Croats particularly members of the Catholic clergy were of the opposite opinion and so the dispute continues to this day). Similar theories were proposed by Vaso Glušac (1879–1955) at the beginning of the 20th century, and contemporary historian Dragoljub Dragojlović in his 1987 book.

Petranović died in Venice on 12 September 1874.