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Jewish collection of the Regional and Study Library of Murska Sobota

In January 2021, the Regional and Study Library of Murska Sobota began the project of cataloguing Jewish prayer and ritual books, which most likely belonged to the former Jewish religious congregation of Murska Sobota. The data entry into the COBISS was completed in October 2021 and it encompassed a total of 72 titles or 99 books. The covers of these books, some of which are bilingual, were printed in Hebrew, German, Hungarian, and Yiddish languages. Content wise, they are prayer books for various religious observances (i. e. siddurim and machzorim), copies of the Haggadah, and textbooks on how to read and perform prayers. The oldest book in the collection dates from 1779, while the youngest dates from 1942. They were published in Vienna, Budapest, Berlin, Prague, Vilnius, and Sulzbach in Bavaria. Some of them, interestingly, carry signatures of Jews from Murska Sobota, e. g., of Rabbi Lazar Roth, who was murdered in Auschwitz along with most of the members of his Jewish community. In 2023, the Regional and Study Library of Murska Sobota began digitizing these books with the help of a contractor and it is safe to assume the entire collection will be digitized in a few years’ time.

Baroque Sermons

During the Baroque period, sermons were an exceptionally popular and widely spread literary genre. With regard to their content, sermons could be classed as spiritual prose, i.e. prose that was written with a clear religious purpose. Up until 1730, spiritual prose represented a forty percent share of all the books published within the Holy Roman Empire. Once printed, sermons were read primarily by educated clergy but could also be used by anyone who knew how to read. More often than not, these lay readers were members of the bourgeois and the noble classes who, in order to cultivate piety in the privacy of their homes, liked to reach for religious literature. Three authors from the Slovenian territory who published their sermons in print form were Capuchin friars Janez Svetokriški and Rogerij Ljubljanski, and a Jesuit friar Jernej Basar. An extensive collection of sermons in Latin and German languages was also published by Janez Ludvik Schönleben and Andrej Klemenčič.

(from: Širca, Alen (2015). Slovenska baročna pridiga. Jezik in slovstvo, v. 65 (2022), no. 3–4, pp. 137–150.)

Karel Destovnik - Kajuh

Karel Destovnik Kajuh was born in Šentvid pri Zavodnju. When he was only six years old, he started to go to primary school in Šoštanj. He continued with his schooling at the gymnasium in Celje and later had to transfer to the gymnasium in Maribor due to forbidden literature found on him by local gendarmes.

The circumstances under which he lived helped him mature very early on. His verses represent a combination of social activism and lyricism that was rare in the poetry of the time. In them, the feelings of great sadness exist alongside those of unlimited happiness. As a poet, Kajuh dealt with social themes with utmost sensitivity. In his poetry, which he began writing as a secondary school boy faced with everyday hardships of commoners and which later reached its full potential at partisan recitations, one can observe his passion for bettering the world and bringing people closer to one another. His love poems are considered to be the purest in his lyrical achievement.

Beside the manuscripts of poems of Karel Destovnik Kajuh, this collection includes photographs, letters, and correspondence, all preserved by the Manuscript Collection of the National and University Library.

France Balantič

Slovenian poet France Balantič was born on November 29, 1921. The very first publications of his poems in the Dom in svet journal (Home and World) reflect his exceptional talent. In 1944, his collections of poetry V ognju groze plapolam (I Flutter in the Fire of Horror) and Venec (The Wreath), were published posthumously. During the same year, the poet's name was honoured by several cultural events. After 1945, the memory of his work was primarily kept by the Slovenian community in Argentina. The first post-war collection of his Poems was published in 1956 in Buenos Aires: it was edited by Dr Tine Debeljak and illustrated by Bara Remec. In 1966, Mitja Mejak selected and edited the collection of poetry Muževna steblika (The Sappy Stem); it was published by the Državna založba Slovenije publishing house. The already printed collection was destroyed, but nevertheless six copies have been preserved, two of which are stored in NUK. In 1976, Balantič's Collected Works were published in Argentina. After Slovenia's independence, Slovenian literary history ranked him among the classics. Today, the Public Library Kamnik is named after the poet.

Karel Štrekelj manuscript legacy

In the digital collection we present the ethnographic material from the manuscript legacy of Karel Štrekelj, slavicist, linguist, and ethnologist from the times of Austria-Hungary, who was also a collector of folk songs and tales. In 1887, Štrekelj – then lecturer of Slavic philology at the Vienna University – published a Petition for folk material in several newspapers. In his petition, he called on all his compatriots who “wanted the Slovenian people to show to the world the richness of their oral traditions”, and especially on teachers active both “in Church and in school”, to begin writing down the oral folk material. With this action, Štrekelj stepped on a path that over the 19th century had been walked by his predecessors with strong national awareness. Among Slovenian people, the Petition for folk material was accepted surprisingly well. This made it possible for Štrekelj to include in his collection of Slovenian folk songs, which was later to be followed by a collection of Slovenian folk tales, texts coming from all regions inhabited by Slovenians.

The material that was sent to Štrekelj by many from all across Slovenia and was preserved in his manuscript legacy has been digitized in cooperation between the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) and the National and University Library.

Josip Jurčič

Josip Jurčič is one of the ground-breaking authors in Slovenian literature. His novel The Tenth Brother is considered to be the first original novel in our cultural space. He wrote the novel so that Slovenes could enjoy creativity comparable to that of other rich artistic traditions. He drew on our own history and told stories about ordinary people. He started publishing very early, namely, at the age of seventeen while still in high school (The Tale of the White Snake). By far the most frequently translated work of this shrewd writer, namely, The Famous Goat Trial, captures readers with its lucid humour even today. He was our first professional journalist and editor. He left his biggest mark on the newspapers Slovenian Nation and Sudslawische Zeitung (which was published in Sisak). As his attempt to establish his own newspaper failed, only one issue of Glasnik was published in 1869.

In addition to Jurčič's printed works, the Manuscript Collection of the National and University Library also keeps his personal documents, manuscripts, correspondence with several famous people as well as some editorial and ephemeral material.

Reformation prints

The collection includes works and translations of Protestant authors from today's Slovenian territory and some other works to which those authors contributed. In addition to the key works of the Slovenian Reformation, thus the first books in the Slovenian language, the collection also includes the Croatian Protestant prints, to which Trubar contributed. They are printed in Glagolitic alphabet, a script invented by Cyril. For many centuries it enabled to use the vernacular of the Slavs in Catholic worship. The books were published in the second half of the 16th century, some on the Slovenian territory (by Janž Mandelc printing house), others in today's Germany, in Wittenberg, and especially in Tübingen, where the works of the South Slavic Protestant authors were printed and distributed by Ulrich Morhart printing house, or by his successor Georg Gruppenbach. Digitized copies are from the Rare Prints Collection of the National and University Library, and the Royal Library of Denmark. The collection is supplemented by material digitized within the National Project for Digitization of the Slovenika (works in the Slovenian language and works on the Slovenian language and literature), and Culturally Important Library Material (2021-2030).

Jakob Špicar

Jakob Špicar was a Slovenian folk playwright, theatre actor and organizer, director and translator. He was born on October 27, 1884 in Skočidol (Zgornji Rož, Gottestal in German) in Carinthia, and died on February 17, 1970 in Ljubljana. In 1905 he founded the Sloga Association in Podravlje and revived the tradition of Slovenian folk plays in Carinthia. He successfully run the Sokol stage both in Jesenice and Radovljica. He wrote mainly for the Carinthian newspapers (Mir) and later for other liberal Slovenian periodicals. On his initiative, a theatre association was founded in Jesenice in 1910, of which he was the president, and since 1912 an honorary member. He wrote around 80 theatre plays and scenes. He published them in the magazines Mir and Mladi rod, and also as radio plays. His most important works are the adaptations of the literary texts Miklova Zala (J. Sket) and Bukvice od Matjaž (A. Šuster-Drabosnjak) to dramatic form. Many of his works are territorially and thematically situated in the Carinthian region. He was a good friend of the Slovenes of Carinthia and was constantly involved in the struggle for their rights.

Happiness is in Books, Happiness is in Picture Books

As a rule, picture books are intended for younger readers. The text and the images are inseparably intertwined and complemented, regardless of which of the two prevails - they both introduce a young reader to the world of books and reading: at first by narrating and observing pictures, later by reading a story and recreating it. Leafing through picture books teaches not only reading of a written word but also understanding of visual language. Making friends with books in childhood decisively influences reading habits and abilities in later life, even in adulthood. Picture books are not merely childhood books, they are books for a lifetime, books of generations and books of families. At the same time, they are books of a hug and closeness, and the first independent and intimate reading achievements. Picture book has changed over time, like the notion of childhood. The first Slovenian picture books appeared only in the 20th century. Picture books were created by generations of renowned artists, from creators of morphological figures to creators who have dedicated their careers to illustration. The Slovenian picture book is notable for its high literary and artistic level, it forms an equal stone in the mosaic of the European picture book.

Slovenian linguistics from the 16th to the early 20th century

The first Slovenian grammar, Arcticae horulae succisivae de Latinocarniolana literatura was written in 1584 by Adam Bohorič. The first real dictionary from 1592 that includes (also) Slovenian language is the Dictionarium quatuor linguarum (Dictionary of the Four Languages) by Hieronymus Megiser. The first dictionary with Slovenian language as the source language is the Slovene-German-Latin manuscript dictionary Krajnsko besedische from the second half of the 17th century. The first printed dictionary with Slovenian as the source language is Tu malu besedishe treh jesikov by Marko Pohlin from 1781; in the manuscript, it is the Slovene-German-Latin dictionary Krajnsko besedische by an unknown author, written in the second half of the 17th century. The work is partly adapted from Megiser's multilingual dictionary from 1603. The first monolingual explanatory dictionary of the Slovenian language is the Dictionary of the Slovenian Language (Slovar slovenskega jezika) written by Jože Glonar in 1936.

The collection includes digital copies of older grammars, dictionaries, alphabet books, orthographies, textbooks and various language manuals and linguistic studies that are kept in the collections of the National and University Library and other Slovenian libraries.

A Thousand Years of Words

Brižinski spomeniki, the oldest known preserved written text in the Slovenian language, and at the same time the oldest Latin record of the Slavic language, was written deep in the Middle Ages, around the year 1000. From that time, until the 15th century, manuscript texts, mostly ecclesiastical, were written. The first preserved printed text, a German leaflet with a rebellion motto in Slovenian (Le vkup, le vkup, uboga gmajna), dates from 1515. Thirty-five years later, Trubar's first two books, Katekizem and Abecednik, were published, and Slovenian became a literary language that for half a millennium up to the present has stood alongside other European and world languages. It has survived many state formations and writings and has developed into a modern, living language of art and science, despite the domination of other languages stronger in number of speakers. The Slovenian literature is distinguished by its expression, quality and diversity of literary genres and forms.

The collection 1000 Years of Words: A History of Slovenian Language and Literature is intended for a wide range of users. It brings together the most important works of the Slovenian written cultural heritage, as well as critical texts and pictorial material.