Professor Jan Luňák and Alma mater Aemonensis : the Czech founding father of the classics department in Ljubljana

Movrin, David (author)

The paper analyzes the Slovenian legacy of Jan Luňák (1847–1935), a Czech classicist whose unusual career culminated in his becoming the founding figure of classical studies at the Uni versity of Ljubljana. He was trained in Prague, Leipzig, and Dorpat (nowadays Tartu), and active across the Russian Empire, from St Petersburg and Kazan to Moscow and Odessa. Luňák was part of the wider wave of Czech emigration to Russia in the second half of the nineteenth century. After retiring to Graz and losing his income due to the First World War and the Russian Revolu tion, he received an invitation in 1919 to the newly established University of Ljubljana, where he became its first professor of classical philology. The article shows how, despite advanced age, limited mastery of Slovenian, and a life marked by exile, Luňák worked hard for a full decade to build the classical seminary in Ljubljana. He taught a wide range of Greek and Latin courses, es tablished a regular teaching structure, evaluated and supported key younger scholars, helped secure donations for the library, and ensured institutional continuity through successors such as Fran Bradač, Anton Sovre, and Milan Grošelj. His story bears witness to the ties between Czech and Slovenian intellectuals and the transnational networks that shaped Central European univer sities after 1918.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Jan Luňák, 1847-1935, history of classical scholarship, history of universities, Czech diaspora, University of Ljubljana, Central Europe, češka diaspora, Oddelek za klasično filologijo, zgodovina klasične filologije, klasični seminar, ustanovitev univerz
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 14.07.2026
• Place of publishing: Brno
• Publisher: Masaryk University
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 83-103
• Numbering: Vol. 31, issue 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-185110
• UDC: 930.85(497.4)
• ISSN on article: 1803-7402
• DOI: 10.5817/GLB2026-1-5
• COBISS.SI-ID: 285699075
• Publication date in RUL: 23.07.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Graeco-Latina Brunensia
• Shortened title: Graeco-Lat. Brun.
• Publisher: Masarykova univerzita
• ISSN: 1803-7402
• COBISS.SI-ID: 31380269

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Projects

• Funder: UL - Univerza v Ljubljani
• Project number: ZRP 2024
• Name: Zgodovina humanistike v Sloveniji: internacionalizacija literarnih ved, filologije in komparativistike