Josip Marn

Josip Marn (13 March 1832 – 27 January 1893) was a Slovene literary historian, journalist, and teacher.

Life Josip Marn was born in Dragovšek, and he contributed the story "7 pivcev o svojih ženah in njih 7 žen o svojih možeh" (Seven Drinkers Talk about Their Wives, and Their Seven Wives Talk about Their Husbands) to Jernej Lenček's almanac Slovenski romar (The Slovenian Pilgrim) in 1852.

Marn's story "Beseda, ktero je govoril bogoslov svojim vrstnikom" (The Word the Theologian Told his Classmates), written in 1853, typifies the orientation that he maintained all his life. It emphasizes both a thorough education in theology as well as the necessity of knowing many languages. In 1855 he assisted in the preparation of Matej Cigale's German–Slovene dictionary. As a curate in Horjul, he translated the first part of the Book of Ezra, Book of Judith, and Book of Esther for an edition of the Bible with commentary by Jožef Franc Allioli published by Bishop Wolf.

As a schoolteacher, he encountered language-related problems. He was required to teach Slovene through German without textbooks, and school grades in Slovene were not taken into account. It was only in January 1860 that Slovene became a required school subject for all ethnic Slovene schoolchildren, and grades in the subject were treated as equivalent to grades in other subjects.

Marn was not an aesthete, as is shown in his praise of Umek's poems and his Abuna Soliman, which he used with the permission of school superintendent Anton Jarc alongside the Berilo (Reader) until 1868, when Anton Janežič's Cvetnik slovenske slovesnosti (Anthology of Slovene Literature) was published. This method of teaching Slovene was resisted by his pupils Josip Jurčič, Fran Levec, and Janko Kersnik, and was also criticized by Josip Stritar in his Kritična pisma (Critical Letters). After 1860 he wrote the work Slovanskiga cerkveniga jezika pravo imé, pervotna domovina in razmera proti sedanjim slovanskim jezikom (The True Name of the Church Slavic Language, Its Original Homeland, and Relations with Today's Slavic Languages) based on the works of Jernej Kopitar and Franz Miklosich. From 1863 until his death he published the newsletter Jezičnik (The Prattler), a supplement to Bishop Wolf's Učiteljski tovariš (Teacher's Friend), for which he wrote linguistics articles, overviews of Slovene literature, and extensive biographical, bibliographical, and literary-history articles about Metelko, Kopitar, and Janez Bleiweis; after 1883 these works appeared under the joint title Knjiga slovenska (The Slovene Book).

Selected works Kopitarjeva spomenica (A Kopitar Memorial Volume), 1880 Jezičnik (The Prattler), 1863–1892 Josip Marn, vitez Fran-Josipovega reda (Josip Marn, Knight of the Order of Franz Joseph), 1892 Kratka staroslovenska slovnica (A Concise Old Slavic Grammar), 1863 Slovanskiga cerkveniga jezika pravo imé, pervotna domovina in razmera proti sedanjim slovanskim jezikom (The True Name of the Church Slavic Language, Its Original Homeland, and Relations with Today's Slavic Languages), after 1860

Works about Josip Marn Dušan Mevlja. 1988. "Josip Marn: ob 95-letnici smrti." Večer 44(21): 14. Andrijan Lah. 2002. "Josip Marn: naša kultura." Ave Maria 94(5): 108–109. Andrijan Lah. 1993. "Ob stoletnici smrti Josipa Marna." Mohorjev koledar 69–71.