Jovan the older brother was engaged in trade and cooperated with Miša Anastasijević, who helped in Emilijan's schooling, considering that his father died early on.
He finished the mathematical military school in Lugoj, and completed his academic studies at the University of Vienna, earning a degree in philosophy and technical sciences at the age of 22.
He retired from the Grande école (Visoka škola) which by then was soon-to-become the newly-formed University of Belgrade[6] after 33 years of dedicated educational work.
This was at the same time when large construction works were being carried out in other major European cities, such as Haussmann's renovation of Paris and Ildefons Cerdà's "extension" of Barcelona called the Eixample.
The first urban plan traced some of the basic axes of today's Belgrade - Knez Mihajlova Street,[13] Tsar Dušan, King Peter I avenues.
[14] Emphasizing the lack of greenery and free spaces for rest, Josimović proposes public parks on the site of the Great Market (Studentski trg) and on Kalemegdan.
The Institute of Architecture and Urbanism of Serbia had published a special publication "Emilijan Josimović - the first Serbian urbanist", whose author was Dr. Branko Maksimović.
[17][18][19] During the renovation of Knez Mihailova Street and its transformation into a pedestrian zone in 1987, a monument with the name of Emilijan Josimović and the year of the adoption of the first urban plan for Belgrade was erected on Republic Square in front of the building where the Ruski car Tavern is located.