Abstract
In the paper we try to research the theme and the context of Murko's inauguration lecture O předchůdcích ilyrismu. Sjednocení Jihoslovanů (About the Beginners of Illyrism, The Ruination of South Slavs).
The lecture was on 23. 10. 1920 at Charles University in Prague, first published in the monthly paper Nové Athéneum in the year 1920. Matija Murko, as a scholar in Slavic comparative linguistics, folklore and literary history, began the research about South Slavic literatures in Graz and there he became interested in the role of Protestantism and Antiprotestantism (recatholisation) in Croatian, Slovenian, Bulgarian and Serbian culture.
He researched the problem during his Leipzig period, so in fact he presented in the lecture the main ideas of this problem. He also showed great knowledge of the history of South Slavic languages and writings in this area.
He stressed the historical research of linguistics - because he was accepted at Charles University as the professor of South Slavic languages and literatures. With the comparative method he also underlined the history of different cultures.
In the reconstruction of the meaning of the lecture we find political ideas. The contextual aspects construct the symbolic codes of the lecture: we could analyse in the paper the Czech, Jugoslav and European historical and cultural context.
We can reconstruct also the understanding of slavistics of his time: the model of collective languages and histories science and culture.