Knowledge without frontiers Knowledge Without Frontiers | Page 103

SUNITA L. WILLIAMS
PRIMOZ TRUBAR
BELOVED SLOVENIANS…
In 1550 Trubar wrote and published the first
printed book in the Slovenian language, the
Catechism. He was guided by the fundamen-
tal value of Protestantism: to make the word
of God accessible to the common people in the
vernacular. With Catechism he built the foun-
THE JUMPSUIT that Sunita Williams wore as
the commander of two expeditions to the Inter-
national Space Station in 2012, Expedition 32 (1
June to 6 September 2012) and Expedition 33 (16
September to 15 November 2012). Upon visiting
Slovenia in 2013, she donated it to the people of
Leše, the village near Tržič where her mother’s
family hails from.
Institute of Slovenian Astronauts. Photo: Sanja Živković.
dations of a literary language designed to be
understood by the speakers of all Slovenian di-
alects. In his time, Slovenian only existed in the
form of geographically and socially dispersed
dialects. By creating a single language, he uni-
fied the Slovenian nation and highlighted its
uniqueness to the outside world. To this day,
his actions remain a pillar of the Slovenian na-
tional identity and statehood.
Technical Museum of Slovenia. Photo: Nebojša Tejić, STA
.
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