Capuchin Monastery Archives and Library, Škofja Loka
History
Ordo Fratrum Minorum Capucinorum came to Slovenia in the 16th century when the order was confirmed by the pope, and by the 17th century the Slovene territory had 10 order houses.
The Church of St. Anna and the adjacent monastery were built in 1709, when the Capuchin library was also founded. Although the youngest of the Slovenian monasteries, the Škofja Loka Library soon became the largest monastic library in Slovenia. The fund was enlarged after 1786, when the collections of the dissolved monasteries in Kranj and portions of the ones from Ljubljana and Novo mesto were added. In 1922 the order was organised into a joint Slovene-Croatian province, but in 1967 it was split into separate Slovene and Croat provinces.
Collections
The Capuchin Monastery Archives are important for their birth, death, and marriage records. They also preserve a range of incunabula and old religious books. The most precious is the manuscript by Friar Romuald from 1721 on which the famous Škofja Loka Passion Play, the oldest preserved drama text in the Slovenian language, is based. In 1999 the play was performed again in the town of Škofja Loka for the first time in 200 years.
Older documents from the monastery archives are preserved at the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia.
See also
External links
- Capuchin Monastery Archives and Library, Škofja Loka website (in Slovenian)
- Digitised Škofja Loka Passion play, on DLib.si - Digital Library of Slovenia (in Slovenian)
- Slovene Capuchin order website (in Slovenian)
- 400 years of Capuchin Presence in Slovenia on the international website of the Order of Capuchin Friars Minor