Slovenia · 500th birthday of Primož Trubar

Primož Trubar was a clergyman, writer and representative of the Reformation. He came from the Duchy of Carniola (Herzogtum Krain), a Habsburg territory whose population spoke various Slovene dialects. There was no Slovene state at the time; Latin and German were used primarily in the Church, administration and scholarly literature.

Trubar initially became a Catholic priest, but under the influence of Reformation ideas he turned to Lutheranism. A fundamental idea of the Reformation was that believers should be able to read and understand religious texts in their own language. Because of his teachings, Trubar came into conflict with the Habsburg authorities and spent a large part of his life in exile in German territories. He returned to Carniola (Krain) temporarily and helped organise a Protestant church there, but was expelled again.

In 1550, Trubar published the first printed books in the Slovene language, the “Catechismus” and the “Abecedarium”. The “Abecedarium” was used for learning to read, while the catechism conveyed the foundations of the Protestant faith. Trubar later also translated the New Testament into Slovene and wrote further religious works. For these activities, he had to develop a supraregional written language that could be understood across different dialects. His language was based primarily on the dialect area of his homeland and was supplemented by features of the language of Ljubljana.

Trubar’s work was initially motivated by religion, but in the long term it had consequences for linguistic and cultural history. His books created a foundation for the Slovene written and literary language. In this way, he became a point of reference for the later development of Slovene cultural and national consciousness.

The anniversary therefore gave Slovenia an opportunity to commemorate not only a reformer, but also the beginnings of Slovene printing and Slovene-language literature. Trubar is also already among the personalities depicted on Slovene euro coins: his portrait appears on the country’s regular €1 coin.