The Kalobje manuscript, also known as Liber cantionum Carniolicarum or the Book of Carnolian Poems arose in the middle of the 17th century and contains 44 poems with prayers and catechism in the Slovene language of the central and western type.
The first person to talk about the manuscript was Matija Majer in his Church Hymnals in 1846. There was no trace of the manuscript for a long time until it was discovered in Slomšek legacy by Franc Kovačič, who first wrote about it in detail. It was first treated using a literary theoretical historical approach in1963 in Marijan Smolnik’s dissertation, and published in book form in 1974.
The relatively small interest in the past is due to the difficult to decipher handwriting and occasional inconsistencies.
In the manuscript, there are also two poems from the older Slovenian folk tradition, namely the legend of Theophilus and Saint Margaret. The book aims to serve as a kind of guide for priests, with the author believed to be Matija Kastelic. The work according to the findings of Lina Legiše, who had prepared it for the first print, had already then been destined for printing, but then wasn’t published due to the mistrust of the ecclesiastical authorities towards the Slovenian language.
The manuscript is stored in the University Library of Maribor.
