Anton Tomaž Linhart
Encyclopedia
Anton Tomaž Linhart was a Slovene playwright
and historian
, best known as the author of the first comedy
in Slovene, Županova Micka (Micka the Mayor's Daughter). He is also considered the father of Slovene historiography, since he was the first historian to write a history of all Slovenes as a unit, rejecting the previous concept which focused on single historical provinces.
n town of Radovljica
, at the time part of the Habsburg Monarchy
. His father was a Czech
hosiery
manufacturer who had moved to Carniola
from Bohemia
. Linhart attended primary school in his home town and then went to Ljubljana
. He studied trading
and finance
in Vienna
. Before finishing his studies, he also spent a short time in the Stična
monastery
in Lower Carniola
. After returning to Ljubljana, he was hired as an archivist
by the bishop of Ljubljana. He later also worked as a chief book revisor, school commissioner, ending up as secretary
in the Habsburg administration of the district of Carniola
.
In 1786, he was appointed school commissioner for the district of Ljubljana. Within three years of his appointment he increased the number of primary schools in the rural areas of the district from 9 to 18. He was also very keen on establishing a central public study library
in Ljubljana and it was on his initiatives that the Lyceum
Library in Ljubljana, the predecessor of the present National and University Library of Slovenia
.
From the early 1780s on, Linhart began frequenting a circle of Slovene enlighteners
who met in the Zois Palace
in Ljubljana. There, he met several intellectuals, including Sigmund Zois, Valentin Vodnik
, Jernej Kopitar
, Jurij Japelj
and others, in whose company he developed an interest in Slovene language, culture and history. He wrote two plays in the Slovene language and then began a project to write the first comprehensive history of the Slovene Lands
. He died in Ljubljana before he could complete his project. He is buried in the Navje
cemetery in Ljubljana, along other important personalities in Slovene history.
. His first tragedy
Miss Jenny Love (also in German) was published in 1780. Under the influence of Slovene enlighteners
, especially Marko Pohlin
and Sigmund Zois, he began writing in Slovene language. He translated and adapted the comedy of the German dramatist Joseph Richter Die Feldmühle (The Country Mill). His title for it was Županova Micka (Micka the Mayor's Daughter). It is regarded the first comedy
in Slovene. He also adapted Beaumarchais's comedy The Marriage of Figaro
into a new play Ta veseli dan ali Matiček se ženi (This Merry Day or Matiček's Wedding).
As a historian he wrote a two-volumed work in German Versuch einer Geschichte von Krain und den übrigen Ländern der südlichen Slaven Oestérreiches ("An Essay on the History of Carniola and Other Lands of the Austria
n South Slavs
"). The first volume was published in 1788 and describes the proto-Slavic era. The second was published in 1791. It deals with the age of migrations
, the Slavic
settlement in the Eastern Alps
and later political development of the Slovenian people, starting from Samo realm
and Carantania. Linhart's historical work, strongly influenced by the ideas of the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder
, had an important influence for the development of the Slovenian national consciousness
in the early 19th century.
and the Church
. Initially, he had a favourable opinion of the reforms of the Emperor Joseph II
, but he was critical of his centralist policies as well as of his neglection of the various regional languages in the Habsburg Empire.
Linhart was one of the first supporters of Austroslavism
, a political program aiming to achieve a cultural and political emancipation of Slavic peoples
within the Austrian Empire
.
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, best known as the author of the first comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
in Slovene, Županova Micka (Micka the Mayor's Daughter). He is also considered the father of Slovene historiography, since he was the first historian to write a history of all Slovenes as a unit, rejecting the previous concept which focused on single historical provinces.
Biography
Linhart was born in the Upper CarniolaUpper Carniola
Upper Carniola is a traditional region of Slovenia, the northern mountainous part of the larger Carniola region. The centre of the region is Kranj, while other urban centers include Jesenice, Tržič, Škofja Loka, Kamnik, and Domžale.- Historical background :...
n town of Radovljica
Radovljica
Radovljica is a town and a municipality in in the Upper Carniola region of northern Slovenia. The municipality has around 18,000 inhabitants and an area of 118 km²...
, at the time part of the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
. His father was a Czech
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
hosiery
Hosiery
Hosiery, also referred to as legwear, describes garments worn directly on the feet and legs. The term originated as the collective term for products of which a maker or seller is termed a hosier; and those products are also known generically as hose...
manufacturer who had moved to Carniola
Carniola
Carniola was a historical region that comprised parts of what is now Slovenia. As part of Austria-Hungary, the region was a crown land officially known as the Duchy of Carniola until 1918. In 1849, the region was subdivided into Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola, and Inner Carniola...
from Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
. Linhart attended primary school in his home town and then went to Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
. He studied trading
Trader (finance)
A trader is someone in finance who buys and sells financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, commodities and derivatives. A broker who simply fills buy or sell orders is not a trader, as they are merely executing instructions given to them. According to the Wall Street Journal in 2004, a managing...
and finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. Before finishing his studies, he also spent a short time in the Stična
Stična
Stična is a village in the Municipality of Ivančna Gorica in central Slovenia. The area is part of the historical region of Lower Carniola. The municipality is now included in the Central Slovenian statistical region....
monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
in Lower Carniola
Lower Carniola
Lower Carniola was a kreis of the historical Habsburg crown land of Carniola from 1849 till 1919 and is nowadays a traditional region of Slovenia. Its center is Novo Mesto, while other urban centers include Kočevje, Grosuplje, Krško, Trebnje, Mirna, Črnomelj, Semič, and Metlika.-See also:* Upper...
. After returning to Ljubljana, he was hired as an archivist
Archivist
An archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to information determined to have long-term value. The information maintained by an archivist can be any form of media...
by the bishop of Ljubljana. He later also worked as a chief book revisor, school commissioner, ending up as secretary
Secretary
A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
in the Habsburg administration of the district of Carniola
Carniola
Carniola was a historical region that comprised parts of what is now Slovenia. As part of Austria-Hungary, the region was a crown land officially known as the Duchy of Carniola until 1918. In 1849, the region was subdivided into Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola, and Inner Carniola...
.
In 1786, he was appointed school commissioner for the district of Ljubljana. Within three years of his appointment he increased the number of primary schools in the rural areas of the district from 9 to 18. He was also very keen on establishing a central public study library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
in Ljubljana and it was on his initiatives that the Lyceum
Lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...
Library in Ljubljana, the predecessor of the present National and University Library of Slovenia
National and University Library of Slovenia
The National and University Library is one of the most important national educational and cultural institutions of Slovenia. It was established in 1774 by a decree released by the Empress Maria Theresa. It is located in the centre of Ljubljana, in a building designed by the architect Jože Plečnik...
.
From the early 1780s on, Linhart began frequenting a circle of Slovene enlighteners
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
who met in the Zois Palace
Zois Palace
Zois Palace is a mansion in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.The mansion was built between 1765 and 1770, combining older buildings, in the neoclassicist style. It is located on the bank of the Ljubljanica river...
in Ljubljana. There, he met several intellectuals, including Sigmund Zois, Valentin Vodnik
Valentin Vodnik
Valentin Vodnik was a Slovene priest, journalist and poet from the late Enlightenment period.-Life and work:He was born in Šiška, now a suburb of Ljubljana, then part of the Habsburg Monarchy...
, Jernej Kopitar
Jernej Kopitar
Jernej Bartol Kopitar was a Slovene linguist and philologist working in Vienna. He also worked as the Imperial censor for Slovene literature in Vienna...
, Jurij Japelj
Jurij Japelj
Jurij Japelj, also known in German as Georg Japel was a Slovene Jesuit priest, translator and philologist. He was part of the Zois circle, a group of Carniolan scholars and intellectuals that were instrumental in the spread of Enlightenment ideas in the Slovene Lands...
and others, in whose company he developed an interest in Slovene language, culture and history. He wrote two plays in the Slovene language and then began a project to write the first comprehensive history of the Slovene Lands
Slovene Lands
Slovene Lands or Slovenian Lands is the historical denomination for the whole of the Slovene-inhabited territories in Central Europe. It more or less corresponds to modern Slovenia and the adjacent territories in Italy, Austria and Hungary in which autochthonous Slovene minorities live.-...
. He died in Ljubljana before he could complete his project. He is buried in the Navje
Navje
Navje, formerly known as St. Christopher's Cemetery is a memorial park in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is located in the Bežigrad district, just behind the Ljubljana railway station....
cemetery in Ljubljana, along other important personalities in Slovene history.
Work
His first literary work, written whilst still studying, was a book of poems titled Blumen aus Krain (Flowers from Carniola), written in GermanGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. His first tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
Miss Jenny Love (also in German) was published in 1780. Under the influence of Slovene enlighteners
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, especially Marko Pohlin
Marko Pohlin
Marko Pohlin , was a Slovene philologist and author. He is generally considered the first exponent of the Age of Enlightenment in the Slovene lands....
and Sigmund Zois, he began writing in Slovene language. He translated and adapted the comedy of the German dramatist Joseph Richter Die Feldmühle (The Country Mill). His title for it was Županova Micka (Micka the Mayor's Daughter). It is regarded the first comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
in Slovene. He also adapted Beaumarchais's comedy The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro (play)
The Marriage of Figaro ) is a comedy in five acts, written in 1778 by Pierre Beaumarchais. This play is the second installment in the Figaro Trilogy, preceded by The Barber of Seville and followed by The Guilty Mother. The Barber begins the story with a simple love triangle in which the Count has...
into a new play Ta veseli dan ali Matiček se ženi (This Merry Day or Matiček's Wedding).
As a historian he wrote a two-volumed work in German Versuch einer Geschichte von Krain und den übrigen Ländern der südlichen Slaven Oestérreiches ("An Essay on the History of Carniola and Other Lands of the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n South Slavs
South Slavs
The South Slavs are the southern branch of the Slavic peoples and speak South Slavic languages. Geographically, the South Slavs are native to the Balkan peninsula, the southern Pannonian Plain and the eastern Alps...
"). The first volume was published in 1788 and describes the proto-Slavic era. The second was published in 1791. It deals with the age of migrations
Migration Period
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
, the Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
settlement in the Eastern Alps
Eastern Alps
Eastern Alps is the name given to the eastern half of the Alps, usually defined as the area east of the Splügen Pass in eastern Switzerland. North of the Splügen Pass, the Posterior Rhine forms the border, and south of the pass, the Liro river and Lake Como form the boundary line.-Geography:The...
and later political development of the Slovenian people, starting from Samo realm
Samo
Samo was a Frankish merchant from the "Senonian country" , probably modern Soignies, Belgium or Sens, France. He was the first ruler of the Slavs whose name is known, and established one of the earliest Slav states, a supra-tribal union usually called Samo's empire, realm, kingdom, or tribal...
and Carantania. Linhart's historical work, strongly influenced by the ideas of the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried von Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.-Biography:...
, had an important influence for the development of the Slovenian national consciousness
Romantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
in the early 19th century.
Views
Linhart was an adherent of the Enlightenment worldview. He was deist and was critical towards the privileges of the nobilityNobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
and the Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. Initially, he had a favourable opinion of the reforms of the Emperor Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
, but he was critical of his centralist policies as well as of his neglection of the various regional languages in the Habsburg Empire.
Linhart was one of the first supporters of Austroslavism
Austroslavism
Austroslavism was a political concept and program aimed to solve problems of Slavic peoples in the Austrian Empire.It was most influential among Czech liberals around the middle of the 19th century...
, a political program aiming to achieve a cultural and political emancipation of Slavic peoples
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
within the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
.
Sources
- Taras KermaunerTaras KermaunerTaras Kermauner was a Slovenian literary historian, critic, philosopher, essayist, playwright and translator.- Life :...
, Začetki slovenske dramatike (Ljubljana: Slovenski gledališki muzej, 1999) - Helena Koder, "Linhart, slovenski razsvetljenec" in Gorenjski glas, y.59, n.96 (December 1, 2006), 12-13.
- Janko KosJanko KosJanko Kos is a Slovenian literary historian, theoretician and critic.He was born in Ljubljana in what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as the son of the painter and sculptor Tine Kos...
, Duhovna zgodovina Slovencev (Ljubljana: Slovenska maticaSlovenska maticaSlovenska matica , also known as Matica slovenska, is the second-oldest publishing house in Slovenia, founded in the 19th century as an institution for the scholarly and cultural progress of Slovenes...
, 1996) - Blaž Lukan, "Otrok in soustvarjalec evropske misli: 250. obletnica rojstva A. T. Linharta" in DeloDeloDelo is the largest national daily newspaper in Slovenia. It was established on May 1st, 1959, when two newspapers Ljudska pravica and Slovenski poročevalec merged. Nowadays, it is the most influential and credible daily newspaper in Slovenia...
, y.48., n.31 (February 7, 2006), 14.