The Manuscript Družba Kraljevih vrat in the Historical Shaping of the Slovene Alphabet

Abstract

This article is the first part of a presentation (a description of the manuscript and the alphabet) of the preserved fragments of a translation of a controversial French text, titled Druxba Kraljevih urat (Society of Port-Royal), written by an unknown Jansenist writer from Carniola that was associated with the religious conflict between the Jesuits and the Jansenists at Port- -Royal-des-Champs Abbey in the seventeenth century. A text titled S. Atanazi with a description of the martyr's life of Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria from the fourth century, and an accompanying letter written by the female sender of the manuscript, who sent the manuscript to an anonymous priest, are also enclosed with the manuscript. It is kept in the Archdiocesan Archives in Ljubljana and is included in the Register of Baroque and Enlightenment Slovenian Manuscripts and dated between the years 1820 and 1840. As an artefact from the time of intensive efforts to reform the Slovenian alphabet, this manuscript highlights new information about the private use of distinctive graphemes for sibilants and shibilants that was taking place within limited circles and differed from the traditional Bohorič alphabet (bohoričica). All of the new graphemes except one matched the new alphabet created by Peter Dajnko (dajnčica).