The Oldest Children’s Books in Slovenia

AbstractThe article presents the history of children‘s book publishing in Slovenia, beginning with the age of manuscripts, when it was hard to speak about books aimed specifically at children, and including 19th century children‘s books. The invention of printing enabled a cheaper and widespread book production. As most of children‘s books are illustrated it is not until the middle of 19th century that they were widespread as public good. The article presents data on books that can be found on the Slovenian territory grouped upon three basic criteria: the oldest Slovene children‘s books, children‘s literature held by rich private libraries and the data on book selling from the end of 17the century onwards. It was concluded that, in spite of the poor book production of Slovenian children‘s books, children had the possibility to be familiar with a wide range of books published in European publishing centres.