Early life Branislav Petronijević was born in the small village of
Sovljak, near
Ub, Serbia, on 6 April (25 March,
O.S.) 1875, the son of Marko Jeremić, a
theologian. The last name Petronijević stems from Branislav's grandfather, Petronije Jeremić, a local priest. His father changed Branislav's last name to reduce pressure at school, as the Jeremić family were prominent supporters of the exiled
Karađorđević dynasty. He studied at the
Valjevo Gymnasium and the
Grande école in
Belgrade (the Belgrade Higher School). He taught the German language and philosophical
propaedeutics at the
Third Belgrade Gymnasium. Petronijević was promoted to the post of
associate professor in 1899, and then
full professor in 1903. Three years later when the school developed into the
University of Belgrade, Petronijević was demoted back to associate professor. He was simultaneously elected correspondent member of the
Serbian Royal Academy on 3 February 1906. Petronijević found this humiliating, and declined the post, his decision coming into effect in 1910. During this time, Petronijević also taught
art theory at
Rista and
Beta Vukanović's Serbian Art School in Belgrade. It was during this period that he thought out and developed what is distinctive in his philosophical doctrine. His two major works in metaphysics,
Prinzipien der Metaphysik (Principles of metaphysics) and
Die typischen Geometrien und das Unendliche (The typical geometries and the infinite), were published during this period.
World War I At the outbreak of
World War I he turned to journalism, becoming a war correspondent for the Serbian War Office Press Bureau, induced by
Dragutin Dimitrijević "Apis", his childhood friend. In 1915 he joined the Serbian army's
retreat through Albania. After reaching Greece, he was sent first to
Rome where he stayed for four months. After Rome, Petronijević spent several months in
Paris, where he taught two courses at the
Sorbonne, on universal evolution and on the value of life. Finally, he spent the longest part of the war in
London with the Serbian Legation, along with politician
Nikola Pašić, geographer
Jovan Cvijić, professors
Bogdan Popović and his brother
Pavle Popović. There, Petronijević worked on an English translation of (
A Theory of Natural Philosophy) by
Roger Joseph Boscovich, together with
Čedomilj Mijatović and
Nikolaj Velimirović. The 1763 Venetian edition of the book was translated by James Mark Child, and finally published in 1922 by the
Open Court Publishing Company, funded in part by the newly created
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Petronijević wrote the preface, titled
Life of Roger Joseph Boscovich. Parts of it were severely criticized by
Vladimir Varićak in 1925 for various factual errors, among other things for asserting Boscovich's exclusively Serbian ethnicity, and listing his birth date inaccurately. While in London, Petronijević met with
Bertrand Russell, who wrote:
Later life After the war he left London and went back to his teaching post at the University of Belgrade, where he was again appointed full professor in 1919. On 16 February 1920, he was elected into the Serbian Royal Academy. From 1918 to 1922, Petronijević notably mentored
Ksenija Atanasijević, later a prominent Serbian female intellectual and early Serbian
feminist writer. During the
Interbellum, Petronijević was an active participant in European philosophy, and considered himself a worthy philosopher who transcended his "parochial" limitations. He deemed himself one of the 15 "great philosophers" of history, along with
Aristotle,
Leibniz and
Hegel. Beside "great philosophers", Petronijević mentions "significant philosophers" and "philosophic writers". Petronijević retired from the university in 1927. He served as secretary of the Serbian Royal Academy from February 1932 to February 1933 and founded the Serbian Philosophical Society in 1938, together with
Vladimir Dvorniković,
Justin Popović and others. The third volume of his
Principles of Metaphysics was destroyed in an air raid in April 1941. He held lectures at the German Scientific Institute during the
occupation of Yugoslavia. After the war, he traveled to France several times and started writing poetry. Petronijević died at the Hotel Balkan in Belgrade on 4 March 1954. He was 78. He never married. ==Writings==