Matija Ban

Matija Ban (Матија Бан; 6 December 1818 – 14 March 1903) was a Serbo-Croatian poet, dramatist, and playwright. He is known as one of the earliest proponents of the Serb-Catholic movement in Dubrovnik.

Ban was born in Petrovo Selo near Dubrovnik, then in the Kingdom of Dalmatia in the Austrian Empire, now in Croatia. After working as a language teacher in Greek schools in Constantinople and Bursa, Matija Ban settled in Serbia in 1844. He is commonly regarded as being the first to use the term "Yugoslav", in a poem in 1835. In 1848 he came from Serbia to Dalmatia to study the state of national sentiment there. He returned to Belgrade in 1850 to teach at the Lyceum.

His best known literary works include 14 dramas and tragedies related to Slavic history (Miljenko i Dobrila, 1850; Mejrima ili Bošnjaci, 1851; Car Lazar, 1858; Marta Posadnica, 1871; 1880; Jan Hus, 1884, etc).

Matija Ban was a member of the Society of Serbian Letters (1858), Serbian Learned Society (1864), and Serbian Royal Academy (1892).