Andrija Torkvat Brlić was born on 15 May 1826 to Mr. and Mrs. Ignjat Alojzije Brlić of
Brod na Savi, then part of the
Austrian Empire. He was a descendant of the
Ragusan Brlić family. There is a tradition of considering them a
Herzegovina family, with a mention of a
Zahumlje prince named Brlić in 1393, and it's reasonable to assume this family would be their descendants, but the historical sources for them start in the early 18th century in the village of Svinjar (today's
Davor). His mother, Katarina () hailed from
Vukovar while his father, Ignjat Alojzij Brlić, was a merchant, linguist, publicist, and translator. Ignjat Alojzije Brlić was a noted participant of the
Illyrian movement himself, his '
Illyrian' grammar first published in 1833 being one of the first Croatian grammar books, even as he disagreed with the likes of
Ljudevit Gaj, arguing that his
ikavian dialect should be a literary language. Andrija Torkvat Brlić attended elementary school (lower
gymnasium) in
Vinkovci, and his father sent him to a
Zagreb seminary in 1841. He soon dropped out and moved out to a
Jesuit convent in Zagreb, from where he continued to attend higher gymnasium, but continued to rebel against his father by refusing to attend
Hungarian classes. In March 1842, together with nine other students, he founded a
Čitaonica Narodna () in Zagreb, and became its first president. In 1843, with the help of a scholarship provided by bishop
Haulik, he went to study theology in
Vienna at the
Pázmáneum. In 1847, he spent a summer in
Glina where he befriended
Josip Jelačić, and then also moved to the Vienna
Augustineum where his friend
Josip Juraj Strossmayer had been one of the people in charge. During his studies, he took an interest in politics and became a follower of the
Illyrian movement. At the time, Brlić collaborated with
Jernej Kopitar,
Franc Miklošič, and Strossmayer. He also wrote poems and articles for the literary magazine
Zora dalmatinska. In the 1840s, he contributed to a number of newspapers and magazines, including the
Narodne novine, and
Danica ilirska. He took part in the
Prague Slavic Congress of 1848 and later that year joined Josip Jelačić's
campaign against Hungary. He worked as his correspondent, contacting the leaders of the Czech national movement. Brlić was a follower of the Serbian linguist
Vuk Karadžić, and his grammatical theories combined the Karadžić and Illyrian philological models, following in the steps of his father's work, Karadžić,
Đuro Daničić,
Franc Miklošič and
Vjekoslav Babukić. They had a summer house in
Brodsko Brdo. Together, they had two sons. He was a
polyglot and spoke German, French, Polish, Czech, Russian, Slovak, and English. He translated from Greek, Czech and German. He died on 21 May 1868, six days after his 42nd birthday. He left behind a number of written correspondences with politicians he had between 1840 and 1857. His diary from this period is considered his most important work, because of his insights as Jelačić's secretary and envoy. == Works ==