Permanent Show Pays Tribute to Pioneer Playwright

Radovljica, 12 December

Anton Tomaz Linhart (1756-1795), the man credited with bringing the Slovenian language on stage, now has his own permanent exhibition in his hometown of Radovljica. The show opened on Tuesday evening at the Radovljica mansion, which is also home to the famed Museum of Beekeeping.

Although he is best known as the author of the first Slovenian play, Linhart was also a historian, poet, senior civil servant, polyglot and a cosmopolitan, a virtue that Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti highlighted as he opened the exhibition.
The display showcases his life, work and the period he lived in, while its authors hope to shed a new light on "the most important man of the age of enlightenment in Slovenia", as the head of the Museum of the Slovenian Theatre, Ivo Svetina, put it.
Linhart wrote his early works in German, including "Miss Jenny Love", a tragedy which was published in 1780. The original is kept it the Austrian National Library in Vienna, which lent it to the authors of the show for four months.
Apart from "Miss Jenny Love" the show also features originals of "Zupanova Micka" (Mayor's Mary, 1789), an adaptation of Richter's "Die Feldmühle" which is considered to be the first Slovenian comedy, and "Ta veseli dan ali Maticek se zeni" (1790).
Linhart modeled his second comedy on Beaumarchais' "La folle journee ou le Mariage de Figaro" (1778). However, the Slovenian play hit the stage before the French original, which was banned by Louis XVI because it ridiculed the aristocracy.
The opening night for the first Slovenian language play was held on 28 December 1789 at a Ljubljana theatre house, which burnt down 120 years ago. The model of the theatre is now displayed at the Radovljica show.
It also showcases the original of Linhart's two-volume historical work "Poskus zgodovine Kranjske" ("Essay on the History of Carniola"). While the first part (1788) focuses on the pre-Slavonic era, the second part (1791) gives an account of resettlement of peoples and the political development of Slovenians from there on.
According to Svetina, Linhart could compare to Mozart in terms of his lively nature and the many achievements in the 15 productive years from 1780 when he wrote "Miss Jenny Love" to his sudden death in 1795. What is more, his death has become the stuff of legend, like Mozart's.
At Tuesday's opening, Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti also highlighted Linhart's role in the efforts for the foundation of a national library in Ljubljana. The precursor to the National and University Library (NUK) was set up in the late 18th century at his initiative.
The exhibition aims to encourage the curiosity of visitors as well as museologists in Linhart's life, so that they can complement the display with new findings on details from his life and the period he lived in.
In one of the letters on display, Linhart says that he was "now brooding upon how to become famous one day", concluding that he would "probably never be ranked among the European celebrities". "250 years on we have established that's exactly what he is," Svetina says commenting on the title of the show.

Permanent Show Pays Tribute to Pioneer Playwright

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