Matija Mesić

After being ordained and a short chapel service, he worked as a probationary professor of history and geography at the gymnasium in Zagreb.

He received a professorship at the Law Academy in Zagreb in 1854, working as a director of the same institution since 1871.

He participated in the work of Croatian parliament and served as the president of Matica ilirska.

In the academic year 1874/75 he had the honor to be the first rector of the Royal University of Franz Joseph I in Zagreb.

In the opening ceremony, on the October 19th 1874, he held his famous speech in which he warned on the importance of modern university.