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Copyright Slavisticno Drustvo Slovenije Jan-Mar 2013

Abstract

A great accomplishment has been the digitalization of the Passion and the discovery of its date of origin ([Matija Ogrin] was the main collaborator on the project). The passion is on the website Elektronske in znanstvenokriticne izdaje slovenskega slovstva (Digital and scholarly critical editions of Slovene literature) in a format that corresponds to standards of scholarly electronic publications: a scan, a diplomatic and critical transcriptions of contents with translations of non-Slovene texts, and simultaneous display of all three items. The commentaries provide codicological and paleographic descriptions and the detective work on dating, the time staging began, and further performances (it was written in 1725 and played from 1713 on), though intermittent (1721, 1727, 1728, and 1734), unlike German versions. There are arguments against the 1721 date: if the text appeared and the first performance was in 1721, then the following statements would be meaningless: "the permanent guardian of the procession... is the fraternity," "this time the treasurer was," "the right noble Kosem had until now always given a horse," and "the casket is born by fourteen men, who have always been burghers." Further, folio 2r, dated 1721, is on different paper, in a different handwriting,2 and is not cotemporaneous with the main text; it is recorded in it that the presbytery had given permission for 23 May 1721, while Good Friday had been on 11 March 1721 (May 1721 probably refers to a new legal for the performance). Kristof of Gradec (1713-22) is recorded as the provincial who gives permission for the procession, but in the main text Gotthard (1725-27) is recorded as the provincial. This means that the main text was written after 1725 and bound into the codex of 1730. When did performances begin? Based on letters appended to the codex, we can conclude it was 1713. One of the arguments is that the leader of the procession says in one letter that popular uprisings were in the making and there is talk of war. This probably refers to the Tolmin peasant uprising of 1713, which threatened to spread to the Loka realm. From the fact that different fraternities are named as sponsors, and the codex contains lists of different scenes, etc., we can conclude that this was a long tradition and that the 1725 recording simply fixed the tradition. Letters of invitation indicate annual and not occasional performances. Ogrin refutes the thesis that the Loka passion was the only one in Slovene, and that all other known passions were in German in the following way: Folio 14, in which there is the German-Slovene song "Slavo Kristusu skazimo" (We praise Christ), is older than the central text; it could well have been a fragment of another Slovene passion. Three years later, Ogrin (2011b) found a page inserted among Ferdinand Ljubljanski's homilies, on the margin of which is the note, "Christus gehet dem Garten zu, Vide 4te Vorstellung." Here [Ferdinand] is speaking of the passion scene where Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives. Since other recorded versions of the passion3 do not mention this scene, it appears that Ferdinand had a passion that we are not familiar with. The passion tradition, then, goes back at least to 17134. Romuald received the passion in 1715 and wrote it down in 1725. Ferdinand Ljubljanski received it next, and it was staged every year, although it was not the only passion in Slovene.

[Igor Grdina], [Marko Kersevan], Saso Jerse, Kos, Sabina Mihelj, Jakob Müller,10 and others addressed these questions at the symposia and elsewhere. There are basically two answers: A group in the sixteenth century was understood as a linguistic group, not as a group with the same past and tradition, and the reverse view. I cite the sociological viewpoint: "A common historical destiny was for them (before the sixteenth century - A.B.) the common destiny of the lands of the German empire in that area (and/or under the Hungarian crown), and the common linguistic and ethnic destiny of the various inhabitants of Carniola, Styria, Carinthia, and Gorizia... Only with the development of linguistic (self)consciousness or identity and ideology did a distinct 'common destiny' of 'Slovenes' [...] apart from the destiny of German [...] speaking inhabitants appear" (Kersevan in Jeziki, identitete, pripadnosti, 86-88). "Only with the use of a standard language (as the literary language) in institutions do the linguistic similarities and differences that exist become public and are legitimized as a centripetal frame of connection and at the same time centrifugal demarcating" (Kersevan 2006: 19)-that is, only with the appearance of a literary language in the sixteenth century. Grdina agrees in the entry "Slovenci" (Slovenes) in the Enciklopedija Slovenije. Further, "the Protestants' language and publishing work in the sixteenth century certainly did not have national goals, or the goals of identifying and connecting people with the same language by means of a literary language. The main intention was religious (Kersevan in v Jeziki, identitete, pripadnosti: 83). As regards language, I would also like to mention Kersevan's rejection of reductionism, meaning that for the Protestants, Slovene was but a tool for spreading the true faith. They were instead interested in spreading God's word (the Bible) and "at the same time, God's word in yet another language meant multiplying praise for God and hallowing that language," which is why Germans, too, supported Slovene books.

Details

Title
SLOVENE PRE-MODERN LITERATURE IN LITERARY STUDIES AFTER 1990
Author
Bjelcevic, Aleksander
Pages
135-156
Publication year
2013
Publication date
Jan-Mar 2013
Publisher
Slavisticno Drustvo Slovenije
ISSN
03506894
e-ISSN
18557570
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1364748272
Copyright
Copyright Slavisticno Drustvo Slovenije Jan-Mar 2013