This study examines the largely overlooked genre of Jesuit congratulatory prints produced by students of the upper grammar school classes, Poetics and Rhetoric, and dedicated to newly graduated Bachelors and Masters of Philosophy at university ceremonies. After outlining the thematic, formal and structural characteristics of these occasional writings from the late 16th to the mid‑17th century, the study focuses on Legatio Apollinis coelestis (1646), a work attributed to Bohuslav Balbín. Although often incorrectly associated with the coronation festivities of Ferdinand IV, the text is shown to belong firmly to the corpus of Jesuit congratulatory prints created within the academic environment of the Clementinum. The analysis highlights the sophisticated literary concept of the work, which combines poetic imitations of ancient authors, allegorical narrative frames and vivid transitional prose passages that evoke the structure of a staged performance. Particular attention is given to questions of authorship – whether the imitative poems were created by students themselves or by their teacher – as well as to the possible performative dimension of these texts. The study concludes that while Legatio Apollinis coelestis illustrates an advanced culmination of the genre, the precise division of creative labour and the extent of its actual performative use remain uncertain.
The unusual presence of the adjective audibilis, both in Augustine of Hippo's De magistro, and in Ambrose of Milan's De Noe et arca, forces us to ask ourselves in what sense the dependence is established in relation with this term between the two authors. Is Ambrose the one who borrowed it from Augustine or Augustine from Ambrose? To be able to determine this, we first analyse the frequency of previous appearances of this adjective in the Latin literature of the fourth century, to rule out any other external influence. Secondly, we review the various dating proposals for Ambrose's De Noe et arca and we try to reinforce Marcel Viller's hypothesis, according to which this treatise is not earlier than 385, at a date very close to the stay of Augustine in Milan, who could have known the text firsthand, immediately after its writing. The analysis of the specific context in which the term appears in De magistro allows us to make a surprising discovery: a hitherto undiscovered anagram that accredits and recognizes the authorship of the neologism audibilis to Ambrose.
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 University 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 Revolution, 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, established 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 universities after 1918.
