Banned books in Slovenian Lands and how they managed to reach their readers despite the censorship

The exhibition will be open until mid-September

3. avgust 2018 ob 20.10 • Ljubljana - MMC RTV SLO

The exhibition And yet, they read them, banned books in Slovenia in the early modern age from the National and University Library collection will be open until September 15. Foto: BoBo

In the winter of 1600, more than one hundred books were burnt in Ljubljana, probably near the Town Square. Among those, there were works of Primož Trubar, the only author in Carniola considered as the first class banned author. However, even such strict censorship could not stop the readers who were eager to learn. Thanks to them, many of those books are still available today.

An exhibition of banned books from the early modern period in Slovenian Lands will be open during this summer at the National and University Library (NUK) in Ljubljana. NUK will select the most interesting books from their collection, that talk about not only the authors, their works and the censorship of the Catholic Church, but also about the fact that despite their aspiration, the censorship was unsuccessful; about how they made it difficult to access such works, however, it wasn’t entirely impossible and how individual intellectuals and some (even church) libraries were aware of the importance of keeping any knowledge or literary work.

The authors of this exhibition, the research assistant from the Institute of Slovenian Literature and Literature at ZRC SAZU Luka Vidmar and the researcher of manuscripts, rare and old prints at NUK Sonja Svoljšak named the exhibition And yet, they read them, paraphrase of the famous quote by Galileo, one of the most noted scientists, whose works have been banned.

The exhibition And yet, they read them, banned books in Slovenia in the early modern age from the National and University Library collection will be open until September 15.