Pavle Popovic

The article presents the opening chapter of Miroslav Pantic?s monograph on Pavle Popovic (Chapter One, which has remained unpublished). Based on a thorough study of the recorded material, the monograph is a broad overview of Pavle Popovic?s ancestry; it emphasises that Branko Radicevic was his paternal relative, while his maternal grandfather was Stefan Markovic, an esteemed writer of that period and member of The Society of Serbian Letters. All members of his nuclear family are described, especially the writer Bogdan Popovic and the diplomat Dimitrije Popovic, who later on studied Serbian diplomatic history. The years spent in second?ary school (as a student of the First Belgrade Grammar School, he was a member of the Nada student company) are described, as well as his earliest interest in science and meetings with the professors whose influence on him was visible later in his life (Ivan Djaja, Andra Nikolic and Svetislav Vulovic). The period Popovic spent as a student at the Department of History and Philology of Belgrade Higher School?s Faculty of Philosophy is described in detail, mostly on the basis of Pavle Popovic?s personal reminiscences.