Primoz Trubar

Trubar was born in the village of Rašica in the Duchy of Carniola, then under the Habsburgs. In the years 1520-1521 he attended the school in Rijeka, in 1522-1524 he continued his studies in Salzburg. From there, he went to Trieste under the tutelage of the Roman Catholic bishop Pietro Bonomo, where he came into contact with humanist writers, in particular Erasmus of Rotterdam.

In 1527 Bishop Pietro Bonomo assigned Trubar a post as a priest at Loka pri Zidanem Mostu. In 1528, he enrolled at the University of Vienna, but did not complete his studies. In 1530 he returned to the Slovenian lands and became a preacher in Ljubljana, where he lived until 1565. While in Ljubljana he lived in a house, on the current Fish Square (Ribji trg), in the part the oldest in town. 

Living in Ljubljana had a profound impact on his work, he considered Ljubljana the capital of all Slovenes due to its central position in the heart of the Slovenian lands and because its inhabitants spoke Slovene as their first language, unlike several other cities of present-day Slovenia.

It is estimated that during Trubar's time around 70% of Ljubljana's 4000 inhabitants attended Mass in Slovene. It was the language of Ljubljana that Trubar took as the basis for what later became standard Slovene, with a small addition of its native speech, i.e. the dialect of Lower Carniola. Trubar considered the Ljubljana speech the most appropriate, as it sounded much nobler than his own simple dialect from his hometown Rašica. 

His decision to write in the Ljubljana variety was later adopted by other Protestant writers as well, who also lived in Ljubljana during Trubar's time. He gradually leaned towards Protestantism and was expelled from Ljubljana in 1547.

In 1550, while he was a Protestant preacher in Rothenburg, he wrote the first two books in Slovene, Catechism and Abecedarium, which were later printed that year at Schwäbisch Hall by Peter Frentz.

In total, Trubar is the author of 22 books in Slovenian and two books in German. He was the first to translate parts of the Bible into Slovenian. After the exhortation of Pier Paolo Vergerio, he translated the Gospel of Matthew in 1555 and until 1577 in three parts published the translation of the entire New Testament. Between 1561 and 1565, Trubar was the director and overseer of the Biblical Institute Slavic from South. An eschatological spirit, he also endeavored to proselytize among Muslims in Turkey with his books.

Trubar died in Derendingen, Holy Roman Empire Germanic (now part of the city of Tübingen, Germany), where he is also buried.