Humanismus bei den Slovenen

Primož Simoniti published his monograph "Humanizem na Slovenskem" for the first time in Ljubljana in 1979, presenting a unique opus to Slovenian readers. The author not only detected signs of humanism in Carniola and Lower Styria during the 15th and 16th centuries, but also showed the widespread diffusion and cross-linkage of Renaissance humanism in Europe. He discovered that many of the impulses received both by the Habsburg court and the University of Vienna during the 15th and 16th centuries in the fields of science, culture and also in diplomatic affairs, had their origins with humanists born in the territories that nowadays form the Republic of Slovenia. Simoniti's intense research, based on unpublished manuscript sources, bridged an important historiographic gap. He showed that the opinion that the Slovenian-speaking territories were a scientific and cultural desert without any influence on other regions of Europe was just as incorrect as the theory that the emigration of the cultural elites provoked a brain drain. He also demonstrated that knowledge of the Slovenian language in combination with humanistic education produced special qualifications essential for a career in the diplomatic service of the Habsburgs. The publication of this important book in German enables a wider non-Slovenian public to get to know the results of this scientific research.