Dr. Jovan Andrejevic Joles, the First Serbian Anatomist: Life, Work and Achievement

Doctor Jovan Andrejevic Joles was one of the most educated Serbs of the 19th century, a medical doctor, scientist, journalist and translator. He was born in 1883 in Novi Sad. Even as a student of medicine he was active in scientific work, which resulted in a paper entiteled "The fine structure of the liver," later published in one of the most eminent medical journals in Europe. He completed the study of medicine in Vienna. He did not accept the position at the Medical Faculty in Vienna, and returned to Novi Sad, where he quickly gained an excellent reputation as a physician. He participated in the founding of the Serbian National Theatre in 1861, he was also one of the most active contributors of Matica Srpska, wrote many articles, critics and reviews, and was also regarded as the founder of aesthetic romanticism in Serbs. With Laza Kostic, he was the first among the Serbs to translate Shakespeare. At that time, when he was only 30 years old, he wrote about a brand-new art - photography. He lived in a harmonious marriage with Jelena - Ilka Bajic, who after Joles' death remarried to a captain of the Serbian army, and after his murder, became famous for the assassination attempt of King Milan Obrenovic (recorded in history textbooks as the "Rebellion of Ilka"). Dr. Jovan Andrejevic died prematurely of tuberculosis, at that time an incurable disease, in 1864 in Novi Sad.