Asketična ali meditativna proza slovenskega baroka

Abstract

As a literary genre, so-called meditative prose appeared in Slovenian Baroque literature in the seventeenth century and maintained its vitality throughout the Baroque period and deep into the nineteenth century. Most of the texts of this genre were not able to penetrate the medium of the printed book, instead circulating among readers only in manuscripts. As early as the middle of the seventeenth century, two basic subgenres of meditative prose emerged. The first is represented by Adam Skalar’s manuscript from 1643, where the narration is formed by expressive literary devices and sensual representations that motivate the reader’s emotional world. The second genre is represented by the oldest surviving Slovenian translation of Andrej Jankovič’s Imitatio Christi (1659), with concise and cogent spiritual sayings that address the reader’s intellectual powers, will and spiritual insight. Most of the extant manuscripts belong to the first genre. The most important of these is the Poljane manuscript, an extensive, meditative literary narrative about the life and suffering of Jesus, written around 1800, which testifies to the popularity and perseverance of the literary genre vita Christi in the Slovenian language.