Simon Rutar

He wrote primarily on the history and geography of the areas that are now part of the Slovenian Littoral, the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the Croatian counties of Istria and Primorsko-Goranska.

Rutar was born in a peasant family in the Alpine village of Krn near Kobarid, in what was then the Austrian county of Gorizia and Gradisca (now in Slovenia).

During his years in Split, Rutar started publishing numerous articles on the local history of his native lands, especially the County of Gorizia.

He established close contacts with the Carniolan Rudolfinium Museum, led by the renowned historian and archeologist Karel Dežman, where he helped as an expert in archeological excavations in the Slovene Lands.

He was however also interested in the habits and tradition of the peasant populations regardless their language and ethnicity, although he did concentrate on the two Slavic-speaking peoples in the area, the Slovenes and Croats.

He clearly rejected the Romantic nationalism of the early Slovene amateur historians, such as Davorin Trstenjak or Janez Trdina, and instead focused on the specifics of local history, his favorite area of inquiry.

He wrote important pioneering works on the Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps, the medieval history in the County of Gorizia and Gradisca and in Friuli.

He insisted on the political and legal continuity between the Slavic principality of Carantania and the Carolingian Duchy of Carinthia, from which all other provinces in Inner Austria developed.

Much of his work has remained in sketches and the destruction of his personal archive and notes has prevented later scholars from making a definitive assessment of his opus.

Rutar's studies of specific topics, such as the Slavic settlements in southwest Friuli in the 10th century, were recognized as very important by future historians such as Milko Kos, Ferdo Gestrin, and Bogo Grafenauer.