[2] He completed his elementary education in his hometown, before graduating from gymnasium in Kraljevo.

He studied law at the Belgrade Higher School grande école, graduating in 1868.

[2] In 1881 he was offered the post of professor of South Slavic Literature at the Belgrade Higher School's Faculty of Philosophy.

It was there that he began the preparation of numerous valuable tracts on the history of Serbian literature during the Middle Ages to the present day,[6] and of dissertations and discussions on points of literary interest, as well as the publication of his various philosophical, legal poetical and other works absorbed the greater part of his time.

These brought him into communication with the most distinguished scholars and literary critics of Europe and Russia.