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Content of the digital repository

Research background

The work in the project Jesuit Plays as a Factor in the Development of Early Modern Drama: The Slovenian and Central European Context (Z6-8260) focused on studying Jesuit drama activity at the Ljubljana College of the Society of Jesus from the founding of the college (1596/1597) until the dissolution of the order (1773). The research also examined the connections with theater activity by other colleges in the Jesuits’ Austrian Province at the time, especially with neighboring colleges (in Graz, Klagenfurt, Gorizia, and Trieste), and of course with its center in Vienna. In practice this meant that a large share of the research was conducted in archives and libraries in Slovenia and abroad. The project’s findings are based on newly discovered Jesuit and non-Jesuit archival sources that have hitherto been overlooked by research. A database was gradually created (and is still being expanded) based on information about the Ljubljana Jesuit performances found in the sources and newly discovered plays and program notes. At the same time, digitization of primary material (i.e., manuscript plays plus manuscript and printed program notes) was carried out and permissions were obtained for publication. This valuable basis was the source of the current digital repository Drama Activity by the Ljubljana College of the Society of Jesus, which aims to encompass all of the varied and diverse drama activity of the Ljubljana Jesuits.

Repository sources

The repository contains complete or partially published digitized primary material about the drama activity of the Ljubljana Jesuits (manuscript plays, manuscript and printed program notes, and summaries of the content of Passion processions) from 1640 to 1727. This material is held by four institutions, two in Slovenia and two in Austria:

  • The Seminary Library (Semeniška knjižnica) in Ljubljana;
  • The National and University Library (Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica) in Ljubljana;
  • The Auersperg Family Archives (Sonderbestände: Nachlässe, Familien- und Herrschaftsarchive, Familienarchiv Auersperg), kept by the National Archives of Austria (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv) in its House, Court, and State Archives (Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv);
  • The Austrian National Library (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek).

The drama activity of the Jesuit college in Ljubljana that could not be corroborated with preserved plays or program notes is represented in the repository on the basis of evidence that could be found in Jesuit annals, annual reports for the Jesuit leadership in Vienna and Rome, Jesuit diaries, and other contemporary testimony. These sources are held by the following institutions:

  • The Archives of the Republic of Slovenia (Arhiv Republike Slovenije): Historia annua Collegii Societatis Iesu Labacensis (1596–1691), Diarium praefecturae scholarum (1650–1718), Diarium patris ministri (1651–1772)
  • The National and University Library in Ljubljana: Annua Collegii Labacensis (1722–1773)
  • The Austrian National Library: Litterae annuae provinciae Austriae Societatis Iesu (1629–1638, 1690–1722), Historia collegii Societatis Iesu Viennensis (1648–1727)
  • The University Library in Klagenfurt (Universitätsbibliothek Klagenfurt): Annales Collegii Clagenfurtensis Societatis Iesu (1603–1771)

The basis for reconstructing the first period of the Jesuit drama activity in Ljubljana was the Latin and Slovenian edition of the annals of the Ljubljana college, which covers the period from the founding of the college in 1596 to 1691: Historia annua Collegii Societatis Iesu Labacensis – Letopis Ljubljanskega kolegija Družbe Jezusove. The Latin edition of the original was prepared in 2002 by France Baraga, and the Slovenian translation was prepared in 2003 by Marija Kiauta. The part of the annals of the Ljubljana college covering the last decade of the seventeenth century and the first fifth of the eighteenth century has been lost, and so the presentation of the drama activity of this period is based on the annual reports by the Jesuit’s Austrian Province to the order’s leadership in Rome. Such reports were referred to as Litterae annuae by the Jesuit order, although in practice they could also bear somewhat different titles (e.g., Annuæ Provinciæ, Annua Historia). The basic source for the last fifty-one years of the existence of the Jesuit college in Ljubljana was the continuation of the college’s annals titled Annua Collegii Labacensis (1722–1773).

Of aid in reconstructing the theater performances for the years insufficiently presented by the three main sources (or for which reports were deficient or lacking) were two diaries by the Ljubljana Jesuits that recorded everyday events at the college and school: Diarium p. ministri and Diarium praefecturae scholarum. The broader character of the Jesuit college and its activities was examined through Johann Gregor Thalnitscher’s Annales urbis Labacensis, which was translated into Slovenian by Viktor Steska (Dolničarjeva Ljubljanska kronika od l. 1660 do l. 1718). Of significant help was the detailed presentation of the Jesuit college in Ljubljana from its founding to 1704 presented in France M. Dolinar’s 1976 dissertation (Das Jesuitenkolleg in Laibach und die Residenz Pleterje: 1597–1704). In it he also dedicated attention to the Jesuit theater activity. The titles of some of the plays staged by the Jesuits in Ljubljana can also be found in the inventory of Latin works by Slovenian authors that was prepared in 1972 by Primož Simoniti: Sloveniae scriptores latini recentioris aetatis.

The impetus for searching for possible preserved plays in the Auersperg Family Archives in Vienna was the play Haeresis fulminata, which, although it was considered lost, was found in the archives in 2013 in the course of research on Johann Ludwig Schönleben. The search for plays and program notes was guided by the introduction (Einleitung) and supplement (Anhang) in Peter Radics’s 1865 edition of the German play Der verirrte Soldat. Of aid was also his treatise Die Entwickelung des deutschen Bühnenwesens in Laibach (1912).

As part of the project research and compiling the repository, collections inventorying Jesuit plays in the German-speaking area were examined, but no references to Ljubljana theater production were found in them (Johannes Müller: Das Jesuitendrama in den Ländern deutscher Zunge vom Anfang (1555) bis zum 1665, two vols., 1930; Elida Maria Szarota: Das Jesuitendrama in deutschen Sprachgebiet. Eine Periochen-Edition. Texte und Kommentare, three vols., 1979–1983; Jean-Marie Valentin: Le théâtre des Jésuites dans les pays de langue allemande: répertoire chronologique des pièces représentées et des documents conservés (1555–1773), two vols., 1983–1984).

In determining possible authors of the Ljubljana performances—both those that have been preserved in full or in the form of printed or manuscript program notes, and those known only by their titles—extensive Jesuit collections with collected bibliographic information were examined (e.g., Bibliothèque des écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus; Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus: Bibliographie, Histoire) as well as the collection of Jesuit writers in the order’s Austrian Province (Scriptores Provinciae Austriacae Societatis Jesu). Use was also made of copies of the catalogues for the Jesuits’ Austrian Province, which contain chronologically ordered information about the staff of the colleges and individuals’ missions within the order (Ladislaus Lukács: Catalogi personarum et officiorum provinciae Austriae S.I.). Despite the existence of these collections, determining authorship turned out to be very difficult because the authors are only exceptionally mentioned due to the order’s prescribed modesty and anonymity, and so they are also only rarely found in bibliographic inventories.

Presentation of the primary drama material collected in the repository

Newly discovered drama material in the Auersperg Family Archives in Vienna

The greatest quantity of primary drama material by the Ljubljana Jesuits is preserved in the Auersperg Family Archives. Until October 2018 this material was unknown and was not listed in inventories of material from this archive. It was discovered, inventoried, and first thoroughly examined during the course of research for this postdoctoral project. The last person to see this material was Peter Radics, who mentioned it in 1865 in the introduction (Einleitung) and supplement (Anhang) to his edition of the play Der verirrte Soldat. Radics was also the one that, while organizing the Auersperg library and archives, removed this material from its original classification in the library and included it in a special category that he dubbed Auerspergiaca as material important for the history of the family because of the plays’ introductory dedications to the Auerspergs. The 1895 earthquake in Ljubljana later damaged the Auersperg palace, and both the library and the archives were transferred to Losensteinleiten Castle in Upper Austria (the library was later sent to Uruguay and then to London, where a large part of the collection was sold at auction by Sotheby’s in 1982 and 1983), as a result of which all traces of the Jesuit plays and program notes were lost. They were not listed in the inventories of the Auersperg Family Archives, and the part of the archives not inventoried is inaccessible to external researchers.

A turning point in the research was the exceptional permission for a behind-the-scenes examination of the archives obtained from Maria Zdislava Röhsner, the curator of the Auersperg family material, to whom I am very grateful. Inspecting the part of the material not inventoried could not have succeeded without the help of Luka Ručigaj, who systematically examined this archive and played the role of an intermediary in searching for the lost Ljubljana theater material. I am also grateful to Heinrich Auersperg, who permitted me to conduct research work in the archive several years ago, and to Dominica Auersperg-Breunner, who approved digitization of the entire Ljubljana theater material. Thanks are also due to the management of the House, Court, and State Archives in Vienna, which permitted this material to be published in the repository.

The discovery of this material is invaluable for Slovenian theater history because it comprises twenty-four manuscript plays as well as six printed and six manuscript program notes for plays that were created at the Ljubljana College of the Society of Jesus between 1640 and 1672.

The Seminary Library: program notes, summaries of the content of Passion processions, and a manuscript play

The next largest quantity of primary theater material by the Ljubljana Jesuits is preserved at the Seminary Library in Ljubljana, which holds twenty-five program notes, eleven or twelve summaries of Passion processions (one of them is preserved in two copies), and one manuscript play. These make it possible to obtain more detailed insight into Ljubljana Jesuit theater activity between 1647 and 1713. Most of the material mentioned is kept in Thalnitscher’s collection titled Miscellanea, and there are also some specimens in other locations in the library. The most important find is the manuscript play Lapis angularis seu Basis perfecta episcopatus et principatus Labacensis, which the Jesuits created in 1684 in honor of newly named Ljubljana Bishop Sigismund Christoph von Herberstein.

Part of the rich Jesuit theater material held by the Seminary Library is also presented in digitized facsimiles in the repository. Permission was received to publish three digitized program notes and one digitized summary of a Passion procession in full, and other material is limited to facsimiles of the title pages. I am grateful to the chancellor of the Ljubljana Theological Seminary, Peter Kokotec, and the head of the Seminary Library, Mateja Demšar, for permission to digitize the material and publish it in the repository.

Program notes from the Austrian National Library

Five printed program notes dating from 1674 to 1708 are preserved in the Austrian National Library. Of these, two are bilingual (Latin and German) and three are in Latin. All these program notes were already digitized and are part of the library’s digital collection (Digitales Objekt ÖNB). In the repository they are presented in the same form as published in the library’s digital collection. The original shelf numbers are provided for each of them and there are links to the web pages with the first digitized versions. I would like to thank Peter Prokop for his assistance and all the guidance in connection with publication in this repository.

Program notes from the National and University Library in Ljubljana

Two of the extant program notes from the Ljubljana Jesuits are preserved among material in the National and University Library. These two bilingual Latin and German program notes dating from 1725 (Ovinius Gallicanus) and 1727 (Artaburius) round out the nearly ninety-year period of drama activity by the Ljubljana Jesuits (1640–1727) for which primary material is now also available. These program notes are important because, along with a summary of the plays’ content and a list of the performers, they also preserve lists of the best pupils at the Ljubljana Jesuit college from 1722 to 1726.

Thanks to Damjana Vovk and Janko Klasinc for permission to also include graphic material from the National and University Library Archives (already published in the Digital Library of Slovenia) in the presentation of the Ljubljana Jesuit drama activity.