2 Euro Proof

Adam Bohorič was a Slovenian Protestant educator and linguist of the 16th century. He studied in Wittenberg, a centre of the Reformation, and later headed a school in Ljubljana. There, he helped establish a Protestant-oriented education system. In the Slovenian-speaking regions, the Reformation promoted the use of the vernacular in worship, education and printing. This created a need for standardised spelling rules and teaching materials.

Bohorič’s grammar was published in Wittenberg in 1584 under the Latin title “Arcticae horulae succisivae”. It is considered the first grammar of the Slovenian language. Its being written in Latin reflected the language of scholarship at the time and made the description accessible beyond the Slovenian-speaking region. Bohorič arranged the morphology and other linguistic rules following the model of contemporary Latin grammars. At the same time, the work helped establish Slovenian as a language of education and literature that could be described according to rules.

The orthography associated with his name was used in Protestant publications and, with modifications, remained in use until the 19th century. Jurij Dalmatin’s complete Slovenian Bible translation, which was also printed in Wittenberg in 1584, likewise used this orthographic tradition. Such books helped to develop a common Slovenian written language across regional dialects. Later, Bohorič orthography was replaced by an alphabet based on that of the Croatian language reformer Ljudevit Gaj.

The memory of Bohorič therefore concerns more than the biography of a single scholar. It points to the emergence of Slovenian linguistics, Protestant book culture and the role of printed texts in the development of a common written language. The round anniversary gave Slovenia an occasion to commemorate this period of its linguistic and educational history on a circulating coin.