Založbo Aristej (Aristej Publishing House) was founded in 1993 by Emica Antončič, when her family suggested that she publish as picture books the stories she thought up for her firstborn daughter. Thus the creation of Založba Aristej arose from everyday parenting practice, and the Ada collection was the beginning of the publishers’ program of children’s fiction.

A year later Založba Aristej accepted into its program the journal Dialogi, Slovenia’s second oldest journal of culture, and revamped it editorially. In 1998 it began publishing academic works in the humanities and social sciences in the Dialogi book collection. Since 2007, in collaboration with the Society for Analytical Philosophy and the Philosophy of Science, it has also published the journal Analiza.

Today Aristej is predominantly an academic publishing house specializing in the humanities and social sciences. Books in the fields of anthropology, philosophy, sociology and social psychology, cultural studies, linguistics and others are published as part of the Dialogi collection as well as outside it. A prominent part of its activity is devoted to children and young people: children’s fiction is published in the Iva and Puppet Stage (Lutkovni oder) collections and outside them, and a special feature is the popular humanities Concepts (Pojmovniki) collection, aimed primarily at young readers.

The company has built up a good reputation through its selective and high quality program based on fresh and original ideas. Many of Aristej’s books have opened up new fields and topics which prior to that time had not been treated in Slovenia. In this way, some specializations have also developed, for example Slovene phonetics, analytical philosophy, theatre, puppet theatre and drama for children.