Valentin Vodnik

Valentin Vodnik (3 February 1758 – 8 January 1819) was a Carniolan priest, journalist and poet of Slovene descent. He was active in the late Enlightenment period.

Vodnik was born in Zgornja Šiška, now a suburb of Ljubljana, Slovenia, then part of the Habsburg Monarchy. He was raised in a relatively well-to-do peasant-artisan family. He became a Franciscan and studied in Ljubljana, Novo Mesto and Gorizia, finishing his studies in 1782.

He worked as a priest in Ljubljana, in the Upper Carniolan village of Sora, in Bled, and in Ribnica. In 1793 he returned to Ljubljana and joined the intellectual circle of Sigmund Zois, in which several figures of the Slovenian Enlightenment gathered. Zois remained Vodnik's sponsor until his death. In 1797, Vodnik became a professor at the Lyceum in Ljubljana.

Vodnik dedicated himself to writing poetry in the Slovene, which he referred to as the Carniolan. His first poems were published in Marko Pohlin's collections of Slovene folk songs. Vodnik's poetry was relatively simple, with a generally patriotic and satirical character. One of his most famous poems, "Dramilo" (A Pick-me-up), is a poetic appeal to Slovenes to be proud of their land, language, and heritage. In 1806, he published his first collection of poetry, entitled Pesme za pokušino (Poems for Sampling). He was also the editor of the first Slovenian newspaper Lublanske novice, which was issued twice a week from 1797 to 1800.

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