Humanism in the Slovene Lands∗

Abstract

The question whether a Slovene cultural historian is warranted and justified to speak of a “Slovene Humanism period,” was in Slovene historiography seriously raised in the thirties. Asked in a dispute over a suggestion that a number of scholars, by provenience Inner Austrian Slovenes, who between 1450 and 1525 paved the way for Italian Renaissance Humanism at the University of Vienna, belong to Slovene cultural tradition, the question was answered with the proposition that in the Slovene lands of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries an atmosphere of interests and activities existed which indeed might be understood as a “Slovene Humanism.” In the discussion which followed and which is even today far from terminated, the concept “humanism” has been, of course, understood in very loose and broad terms, so that soon even such Protestant Reformers as Primož Trubar (1508-1586) could be proclaimed “Humanist writers.” What I propose to do in this paper is to reexamine this question; in addition, I hope to be able to show that the proposition I wish to develop in relation to a period in Slovene cultural history, may be applicable to the cultural and social history of Slavic nations in general.