Although Valentin Vodnik (1758-1819) was primarily a poet, a versatile cultural figure, a national awakening figure, and much more, on the 200th anniversary of his birth, we also exhibited a selection of books related to drama and theater.
In our library we have editions of Vodnik's poems from 1840 and 1869, as well as a copy of the Viennese Bells, in which Fran Levstik published the poet's Conversations from Lucian (1870).
We also exhibited an adaptation Little cockerel, a comedy by August Kotzebue (The Cock's Cluck), which was Slovene-translated by Jernej Kopitar, with Valentin Vodnik contributing verses. The comedy, which was staged in Ljubljana at the beginning of the nineteenth century, is considered our first youth play and the first performed youth drama text in the Slovene language, but unfortunately it has not been preserved. The adaptation by Kristina Brenk, which is kept in our library, was created on the 150th anniversary of the performance. It was published as a supplement Chronicles, newspapers for Slovenian local historyIn it, the author also published a study on the first performance of a youth play in the Slovenian language (Chronicle 3. 1956, No. 3, pp. 160-164).
Valentin Vodnik also appears as a dramatic character in the texts of Slovenian playwrights. We have also exhibited some of them. The oldest is the text by Luiza Pesjak In Koprivnik, Vodnik's Bohinj Parish (1872). The manuscript of the play follows A hundred years ago, written by Josip Vošnjak (1889). As an indispensable member of Zois's Enlightenment circle, the Guide also appears in the comedy Local comedians Brother Kreft (1948).