Mihailo Gavrilović

Mihailo Gavrilović (; May 8, 1868 – November 1, 1924) was a Serbian historian and diplomat.

Early life Mihailo Gavrilović was born at Aleksinac in central Serbia on May 8, 1868 (Old Style). He completed high school in Niš and graduated from the department of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade before embarking on an academic career.

Scholarly career Gavrilović studied history at the Velika škola in Belgrade and graduated in 1891, The work is particularly valuable for its treatment of the diplomatic relations of Serbia with the European Powers. It carries the story of Prince Miloš down to 1835, and a fourth volume was to have dealt with the close of his first reign, his exile and his triumphant return in 1858. But unhappily the material which Gavrilović had amassed during the years of study and which would have enabled him to complete the work without much further effort, was irretrievably lost in a trunk which accompanied him during the painful retreat of the Serbian Army through Albania in the First World War (1915–1916), now remembered as the epic ”Albanian Golgotha“.

Using Austrian and Russian sources as well, Gavrilović, renowned for his methodical analysis and wider perspective on general historical developments, was considered the leading Serbian expert for diplomatic history. Gavrilović was elected a member of the Serbian Royal Academy in 1914.

Diplomatic career Gavrilović was Serbian envoy to Cetinje (1910–1914), and was reassigned in 1914 as Serbian Envoy to the Holy See. He died in London.

Selected works Étude sur le traité de Paris de 1259, entre Louis IX, roi de France, et Henri III, roi d’Angleterre, Librairie Émile Bouillon, Paris 1899. Spoljašnja politika Srbije u XIX veku, Belgrade, 1901. Srpski pokret i rusko-francuski odnosi 1804-1807, Belgrade, 1901. Ispisi iz pariskih arhiva (Građa za istoriju srpskog ustanka), Serbian Royal Academy, Belgrade, 1904. Miloš Obrenović, vol. I-III, [vol. I (1813–1820), vol. II (1821–1826), vol. 3 (1827–1835)], Nova štamparija Davidović, Izdanje Zadužbine I. M. Kolarca, Belgrade, 1908-1912 (reprinted by Slovo Ljubve, Belgrade 1978 and 1992), 579+758+661 pp. Iz nove srpske istorije, Srpska književna zadruga, Belgrade 1926, 209 p. (Introduction by Slobodan Jovanović)