The Jesuit Theatre was the first such institution in Slovene ethnic territory to achieve continuity (from 1598 to 1773), and it made an important contribution to the theatrical and cultural development of the land. Because the scripts of plays were most often only an aid for staging them, very few have been preserved. In the majority of cases, the content and genre of the Ljubljana Jesuit plays, as well as their literary and dramaturgical qualities, can only be deduced from preserved programme notes (known as periochae or synopses, these were a kind of theatre leaflet with a summary of the play and list of performers). These notes were prepared for the audience to help them better understand the play and more easily follow the performance.
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