Carneola

Carneola
?–820
The probably territorial extent of Carneola around 800
Capital		Carnium?
Languages		Alpine Slavic language
Religion		paganism, Christianity
Government		Principality
prince
•	795	Vojnomir?
Historical era		Early Middle Ages
•	Established	?
•	Rebellion of Ljudevit Posavski	820

Carneola or Carniola (Latin: Carneola, Carniola) was an Early Mediaeval principality in the territory of what is now Slovenia, separated to the north by the Karawanks mountain range from Carantania and bordering the March of Friuli to the west. Due to rare mentions in sources and a lack of data it is largely unknown to historians. It was mentioned at the end of the 8th century in the History of the Lombards by Paul the Deacon, who characterised it as Carniola, patria Sclavorum ("Carniola, the Homeland of Slavs"). The capital of Carneola was Carnium, nowadays Kranj. Peter Štih, a specialist in the Middle Ages of the area, characterised the Carneolans (Carniolenses) as a separate tribe with its own ethnic identity. Some historians are of opinion that Carniola was not a principality but only a region.

Sources

• Rajko Bratož, ed., Slovenija in sosednje dežele med antiko in karolinško dobo : začetki slovenske etnogeneze = Slowenien und die Nachbarländer zwischen Antike und karolingischer Epoche : Anfänge der slowenischen Ethnogenese, 2 zv. Ljubljana, 2000;
• Timotej Knific, »Carniola Sclavorum Patria : Autochthons, Invaders, Neighbours«, v Trudy VI Meždunarodnogo kongressa slavjanskoj arheologii. Moscow, 1997. S. 314-323;
• Peter Štih, »Carniola, patria Sclavorum«, Österreichische Osthefte 37 (1995). Pp. 845-861;
• --, »Kranjska (Carniola) v zgodnjem srednjem veku«, in Zbornik Brižinski spomeniki, Dela SAZU, II. razr., 45. Ljubljana, 1996. Pp. 13-26;
• --, Ozemlje Slovenije v zgodnjem srednjem veku : osnovne poteze zgodovinskega razvoja od začetka 6. stoletja do konca 9. stoletja. Ljubljana, 2001;
• --, »Plemenske in državne tvorbe zgodnjega srednjega veka na slovanskem naselitvenem prostoru v Vzhodnih Alpah«, v Slovenci in država, Razprave SAZU I/17, Ljubljana, 1995.
• -- in Vasko Simoniti, Slovenska zgodovina do razsvetljenstva. Ljubljana, Klagenfurt, [1995].