Janez Vesel (12 September 1798 – 26 March 1884), known by his pen name Jovan Koseski (Slovene conventions also include the names and, less often, or ) was a Slovene lawyer and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

Life and work

Vesel was born in

Gorenje Gorenje (); stylized as ''gorenje''), is a Slovenian major appliance manufacturer, founded in 1950 by Ivan Atelšek. It is based in Velenje, Slovenia. It is the fourth largest manufacturer of household appliances in Europe. Appliances are sold un ...

(now part of Spodnje Koseze) in the

Duchy of Carniola The Duchy of Carniola ( sl, Vojvodina Kranjska, german: Herzogtum Krain, hu, Krajna) was an imperial estate of the Holy Roman Empire, established under Habsburg rule on the territory of the former East Frankish March of Carniola in 1364. A ...

in the Habsburg monarchy (now in

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

) and baptized ''Johannes Vesseu''. He studied law in Graz and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and worked in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...

for most of his professional life. In his student years, he mostly wrote in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

. In 1818, his sonnet (The Comfort) was the first sonnet ever printed in Slovene. No further works by Koseski are known until 1844, when he published his

ode An ode (from grc, ᾠδή, ōdḗ) is a type of lyric poetry. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three majo ...

(Slovenia to Emperor Ferdinand), dedicated to Emperor Ferdinand. The poem where he describes the history of the

Slovene Lands The Slovene lands or Slovenian lands ( sl, Slovenske dežele or in short ) is the historical denomination for the territories in Central and Southern Europe where people primarily spoke Slovene. The Slovene lands were part of the Illyrian provin ...

since the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

times is widely regarded as his best work. Afterwards, he continued writing and also translating poetry. Vesel was a grandfather of the Austrian-Italian mountaineer and author

Julius Kugy Julius Kugy (19 July 1858 – 5 February 1944) was a mountaineer, writer, botanist, humanist, lawyer and officer of Slovenian descent. He wrote mostly in German. He is renowned for his travelogues from opening up the Julian Alps, in which he refle ...

. He died in Trieste.

The word ''Slovenija''

Vesel's 1844 ode was long considered the earliest known printed use of the word 'Slovenia', at the time referring to the

. In the early 1990s, it was found that the word was already printed in 1841 in the book (The Ancient and Modern Slovenes) by the Russian writer

Yuriy Venelin Yuriy Ivanovich Venelin ( rue, Юрій Іванович Венелін; born Georgiy Hutsa; 22 September 1802 – 26 March 1839) was a Rusyn slavist, folklorist, ethnographer and philologist best known for his research on the language, history a ...

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vesel, Janez 1798 births 1884 deaths People from the Municipality of Lukovica Slovenian poets Slovenian male poets Carniolan poets Carniolan lawyers 19th-century poets 19th-century Carniolan writers Sonneteers