Valvasor Vajkard Janez: Die Ehre dess Hertzogthums Crain: das ist, Wahre, gründliche, und recht eigendliche Belegen- und Beschaffenheit dieses ... Römisch-Keyserlichen herrlichen Erblandes / ... durch selbst-eigene

Janez Vajkard Valvasor: Die Ehre dess Hertzogthums Crain: das ist, Wahre, gründliche, und recht eigendliche Belegen- und Beschaffenheit dieses ... Römisch-Keyserlichen herrlichen Erblandes / ... durch selbst-eigene ... Historisch-Topographische Beschreibung, in funffzehen, wiewohl in vier Haupt-Theile unterschiedenen, Büchern, wie auch häuffigen Abrissen und zierlichen Kupffer-Figuren, ausgebreitet, von Johann Weichard Valvasor

4 volumes

Reissue from 1970

Valvasor, Johann Weichard (Slovene Janez Vajkard), Slovenian polyhistorian of Italian origin (Ljubljana, 28 V. 1641 – Krško, 19 IX. 1693). He comes from a noble family that came to Kranjska from Bergamo (Italy) in the 16th century. After studying rhetoric with the Jesuits in Ljubljana, he traveled to Germany (1659), Italy (1669), Africa, Switzerland and France, and during 1663–64. fought against the Ottomans in Slavonia in the service of N. Šubić Zrinski. From 1670 he studied history, mathematics, archaeology, magic and alchemy in Lyon. In 1672, he returned to his homeland and bought Wagensberg (Bogenšperk) castle near Litija, where he organized a rich collection collected during numerous travels (10,000 books, art collections, manuscripts, prints, coins, noble coats of arms, mathematical instruments, artifacts, etc.). He turned the castle into a cultural center where he gathered participants to create a geographical-historical-ethnographic work in which he would give a complete picture of Carniola, and in 1678 he also established a workshop and printing press for copper engraving there and began publishing cartographic, topographical and historiographical works about Carniola and Carinthia. Among his helpers were P. Vitezović Ritter and several masters from the Netherlands and Germany. Although he fought again against the Ottomans in 1683 at the head of the Styrian detachments, his military career did not hinder his scientific career. Thus, in 1687, he became a member of the Royal Society in London. However, due to high costs, he had to sell the castle and all his collections in the end. The library and the graphic collection were bought in 1690 by the Bishop of Zagreb, A. I. Mikulić, and thus founded the Metropolitan Library. The graphic sheets are located in the Metropolitan Library of the Zagreb Archdiocese. Main works: Topography of the present Vojvodina of Carniola (Topographia ducatus Carnioliae modernae, 1679), Complete topography of the old and current Archduchy of Carinthia (Topographia Archiducatus Carinthiae antiquae et modernae completa, 1681) and Glory of the Vojvodina of Carniola (Die Ehre des Herzogthums Crain, 1689). In his works, individual Croatian cities are also graphically and historically treated.

"Glory of the Duchy of Carniola" (German: Die Ehre dess Hertzogthums Crain) represents the peak of Baron Janez Vajkard Valvasorj's work. The work was published in Nuremberg in 1689. Valvasor wrote it in German, so that it would be comprehensible to the widest possible readership, and in that way he could more easily present his homeland to foreigners. Together with his collaborators, Valvasor collected data that today are an invaluable source for depicting the life of today's Slovenia, Istria and Croatia up to Zagreb at the end of the 17th century. The fourth book is dedicated to Croatia.