Slovenian toponymy of Ljubljana up to the first printed list of toponyms from 1787

Abstract

Early Slovenian toponymy of Ljubljana, the capital of the Republic of Slovenia and formerly of the Duchy of Carniola, has so far only received sporadic research attention. With German and Ecclesiastical Latin being official written languages in the central Slovenian territory and Slovenian remaining marginalized until the nineteenth century, Slovenian toponyms and micro-toponyms did not appear in sources until a very late stage. Whereas only one Slovenian toponym dates back to the Late Middle Ages, the vast majority were first recorded no earlier than the eighteenth century, mainly in the register of banns kept in Slovenian by Ljubljana’s cathedral parish. What is more, not even the Slovenian name of Ljubljana was documented in its original form until the second half of the sixteenth century. However, contrary to expectations, it did not first appear in a manuscript source but in one of the earliest books printed in Slovenian (1566). The contribution discusses sources for the Slovenian toponymy of Ljubljana and their explanatory value, it presents a few observations regarding the development of Slovenian toponyms, and brings forth a systematic overview of their appearances up to and including the first printed list of street names in German and Slovenian (1787).