After finishing primary and secondary school in Sisak, he received a degree in Slavic studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb.
He received his Ph.D. in 1970 with the thesis Jezik glagoljaške neliturgijske književnosti 15. stoljeća i Petrisov zbornik ('Language of the Glagolitic non-liturgical literature and Petris' miscellany').
In a series of analytical papers he warns of Čakavian-Kajkavian (and also Old Church Slavonic) interference in Glagolitic manuscripts as a result of conscious and deliberate effort of medieval writers to expand the area of influence of their works.
In the catalog of the exhibition Pisana riječ u Hrvatskoj (Muzejski prostor, Zagreb 1986) he published a study of three-script and three-lingual culture of the Croatian Middle Ages, which served as a basis of the book by the same name.
His 2004 book Na temeljima hrvatske književne kulture: filološko medievističke rasprave, also published by Matica, represents a compilation of author's 50 years of scientific work and study of Croatian literature since the Middle Ages till the 18th century.