ABSTRACT
On the territory of present-day Slovenia there are twenty towns which originate in the Middle Ages. Thirteen of them were at that time within the borders of the Duchy of Carniola, the territory of which, together with the capital, Ljubljana, now belongs almost entirely to the Republic of Slovenia, whereas the other seven towns lay in the Duchy of Styria, the northern three-quarters of which, including the capital, Graz, now form part of the Republic of Austria. Within this area, with the exception of a few smaller German enclaves, the peasant population in the countryside was totally Slovene. The situation in the towns, on the other hand, poses a specific problem which I wish to address (Figure 7.1).
