Jovan Koseski

Who was Jovan Koseski?

Janez Vesel, known by his pen name Jovan Koseski, was a Slovene lawyer and poet.

Born as Janez Vesel in Spodnje Koseze in the Duchy of Carniola in the Habsburg Monarchy, Koseski studied law in Graz and Vienna and worked in Trieste for most of his professional life. In his student years he mostly wrote in German. In 1818 his sonnet Potažba was printed and was the first sonnet ever printed in Slovene. No further works by Koseski are known until 1844, when he published his ode Slovenija, dedicated to Emperor Ferdinand, widely regarded as his best work, in which he describes the history of the Slovene lands since Roman times. After this he continued writing and also translating poetry.

His ode Slovenja is the earliest known printed use of the word Slovenia to describe the Slovene lands.

He was the grandfather of the Austrian-Italian mountaineer and author Julius Kugy.