GIFTS

The Bible in Slovenian, from 1584

The translation of both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible into Slovenian was a major undertaking in Protestant literature of the late 16th century. This undertaking was the work of Protestant writer and theologian Jurij Dalmatin (*Krško, Slovenia, about 1547, + Ljubljana, Slovenia 1589), and served to establish the pinnacle of Slovenian Protestant literature, as well as to mark a unique milestone on the historical path of Slovenian cultural development. The translation was printed in 1584 in Wittenberg, Germany, and was then spirited back into Slovenia hidden in barrels and boxes.

The translation of the Bible into the language of any nation is in itself a major cultural and civilisational achievement, and this translation into Slovenian was among the first Bible translations in the world. Dalmatin completed the translation in approximately ten years, of course without any previous formal Slovenian education, without any grammar book and without dictionaries. For this very reason the translation is worthy of great admiration, providing at the same time a supreme example of the great importance of the national language and books printed in this language for what was then the most widespread use, that is, for the church. The rich linguistic knowledge of the Slovenian intellectuals complemented the country's geopolitical position in creating access for Slovenia to European culture, particularly since the actual work of the Protestants marked the beginning of modern Slovenian literature in the true sense of the phrase.

Naturally this work of the Protestants was also part of a much longer and older historical process, which can be traced right back to the 6th century and the founding of the state of Carantanian Slovenians (Carantania), the most important political formulation in the centuries-long process of Slovenian nation-building. Certain elements of the regulation and legal system of that state even served as a model for the formulation of some articles of the Constitution of the United States of America.