From the early 1780s on, Linhart began frequenting a circle of Slovene enlighteners who met in the Zois Mansion in Ljubljana. There, he met several intellectuals, including Sigmund Zois, Valentin Vodnik, Jernej Kopitar, Jurij Japelj and others, in whose company he developed an interest in Slovene language, culture and history. He wrote two plays in the Slovene language and then began a project to write the first comprehensive history of the Slovene Lands but did not finish it. He unexpectedly died in Ljubljana in the night from 14 to 15 July 1795, around the midnight, from aortic aneurysm. He has a tombstone in the Navje memorial park in Ljubljana, alongside other important personalities of Slovene history, but it is not certain that he has been indeed buried there.