| Birth Date: | 23 November 1752 |
| Birth Place: | Karlovac, Croatia, Habsburg monarchy |
| Death Place: | Zagreb, Croatia, Austrian Empire |
| Other Names: | Maximilianus Verhovacz |
| Occupation: | Catholic bishop |
| Known For: | Leading figure in the Croatian national revival and Illyrian movement |
Maksimilijan Vrhovac (23 November 1752 – 16 December 1827) was the bishop of Zagreb. He was one of the ideological architects of the Croatian national revival, and is notable for founding the Maksimir Park in 1787,[1] one of the first major public parks in Southeast Europe.[2] Vrhovac was a member of the Freemasons.[3]
His father, Aleksa,[4] was captain of the frontier-guards near the Austrian-Ottoman border. For his merit, he was awarded with nobility by the Austrian empress Maria Theresa.
After he graduated school in Graz, Vrhovac joined the army, but soon left when he realized that he did not qualify for this occupation. Instead, he joined the seminary in Zagreb.[5]
Vrhovac studied in Vienna and Bologna, and became a vice-rector, and later rector, at the seminary in Zagreb, as well as a professor of dogma at the Academy in Zagreb. Emperor Joseph II promoted him to rector of the seminary in Pest before he returned to Croatia as a bishop.
In 1808, Vrhovac requested the Croatian Parliament to open his library to the public. In the 1810s, he worked on translating the Bible into the Kajkavian Croatian language. Other contributors in the program were Antun Vranić, Ivan Nepomuk Labaš, Ivan Gusić, Ivan Birling, Stjepan Korolija, and Tomaš Mikloušić. In 1810, he visited Vienna. During his stay, Jernej Kopitar requested that Vrhovac organize a collection of local songs, but this attempt was not successful.[6]
To promote the Ilyrian language, Vrhovac established a printing house and printed books in the Kajkavian and Shtokavian dialects.[7]
Vrhovac continued to pursue his own perception of the language and people. After Napoleon captured the territory of Austria-Hungary, he issued a proclamation in 1813 to "natives across Sava" (prekosavskim domorocima), emphasizing that there were no more borders between Croats in Croatia, Dalmatia, and the Coastal region.[8] After the defeat of Napoleon in Russia and the return of Austria-Hungary to its borders from 1806, the court in Vienna resented Vrhovac for his earlier behavior.[9] Vrhovac was a distinguished opponent of the expansion of Hungarian influence to South Slavs.[10]
In 1814, Vrhovac's chaplain Marko Mahanović, following Vrhovac's instruction, published a work titled Observationes circa croaticam ortho-graphiam without taking in consideration Chakavian being only a dialect of Croatian as presented by Jernej Kopitar. Nevertheless, Mahanović did somewhat follow the idea of Kopitar to develop a unified orthography for all South Slavic languages.[11]
"MAKSIMILIJAN VRHOVAC (23. studenoga 1752. - 16. prosinca 1827.), zagrebački ... Škole je Vrhovac završio u Grazu, a potom je stupio u vojsku, iz koje je brzo izašao, uvidjevši da nije stvoren za vojnički poziv. Polazi zagrebačko sjemenište ..."
"When the Croatian Bishop Maximilian Vrhovac visited Vienna in 1810, Kopitar persuaded him to ask his parish priests to write down the local songs, but evidently this approach to collecting was unsuccessful "
"Vrhovac je za promicanje ilirskog jezika osnovao tiskaru u kojoj je tiskao mnoge knjige i obrednik na kajkavskom i štokavskom. ... štokavski govor nazivao je slavenskosrpskim, a kasnije samo srpskim, pa je hrvatsku štokavsku književnost nazvao literaturom katoličkih Sloveno-Srba, a kajkavski ..."
"Maksimilijan Vrhovac, zagrebački biskup (1752 — 1827) istaknuti protivnik mađarskog prodora"