Fragments of the Slovenian-speaking Trieste before the emergence of nationalism

Abstract

The article describes the presence of the Slovenian-speaking community of Trieste in the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century. Based on city chronicles and other sources, the author documents the use of the Slovenian language in Trieste churches and sheds light on the characteristics of Carniolan trade diaspora. The disappearance of the old traditional behavioural patterns dictated by the corporatist logic – which in the Trieste of the first half of the nineteenth century did not pay much regard to the ethnic origins and religious affiliation of individuals – was replaced by the logic of opposing national camps no earlier than the second half of the nineteenth century. The transition from the corporatist logic to nationally formed camps was a slow one, with the pre-March and March Era values continuing to clash still well into the second half of the nineteenth century that. The value system of the old-regime corporatist society overlapped with the emerging nationalism and other new ideologies in which the city and working elites recognized themselves.