The leading humanists in the Slovenian territory between the 16th and mid-19th centuries and their social and cultural environment

Culture and language being the basic constitutive elements of many numerically small nations such as Slovenian, proper understanding of the history of their territories crucially depends on the knowledge of the role of prominent humanists who in any way dealt with the present-day national territory during the “pre-national period” and whose activities were very much in line with broader European trends.
The leading humanists of the period spanning more than three hundred years, from the 16th to mid-19th century, will be examined from various perspectives. What they all (but one representing an exception in points 4–6) share in common is that: 1) they played a crucial role in co-creating the spiritual, intellectual, scientific, cultural, and political currents in the Slovenian territory, 2) hence, they were also important protagonists in the developments that took place in a broader context, 3) they worked outside the Slovenian provinces for longer periods of time, 4) they had a significant influence on the development of thought and science, respectively, in a broader Central European context, 5) they already achieved recognition in their lifetime, and 6) today they are present in not only Slovenian national but broader collective consciousness. As such, they symbolise all major historical or cultural historical periods (Reformation, Counter-Reformation, Baroque, Enlightenment, and Romanticism) and represent the development arc from the beginnings of empiricism to modern science, and from the early ethno-linguistic integrations to modern nations.
Research goals:
The most important humanists in the Slovenian territory of a “(Central) European” range will be subject to a consolidated interdisciplinary investigation under one project for the first time. The main focus will not be on their personalities but their interaction with the environment, which will be analysed under several thematic areas. Each thematic area will focus on problems and problem clusters that have so far proved to be the most deficient in efforts to provide a comprehensive overview of the period, personalities under examination and sustainable results of their work. The project will include the following thematic areas: 1) biographic-historical, 2) literary-historical, and 3) cultural-political. The project groups will therefore not be composed exclusively of historians but researchers from the following four fields of science: historiography, literary sciences, linguistics and history of art.
In addition to the traditional form of publishing, all publications will be also available in electronic version on a specially designated website and accompanied by comprehensive abstracts in foreign languages. The website will be primarily intended to regularly disseminate the latest findings whose timely publication in the traditional print form is not possible, and allow direct interaction with the scientific and professional community.
The members of the project group will present partial results of their research at scientific meetings and invited lectures both at home and abroad. After the completion of the project, the entire production of the project and the most important results will be presented at a scientific consultation. Given the significance of the personalities under discussion for the Slovenian territory, the presented achievements are expected to receive a significant response from the media and the professional public. The final goal of the project is to initiate (preliminary) preparations to compose a synthetic presentation of the personalities under examination, their work and their time.
Relevance and potential impact of the results: Original results, as well as comparative and interdisciplinary approach, should warrant a sufficiently far-reaching and particularly long-term impact on the development of national sciences.