Janez Vajkard Valvasor

Baron Janez Vajkard Valvasor (also "Johann Weikhard Freiherr von Valvasor") (baptized on May 28, 1641 - September 19, 1693), was a Slovenian nobleman, scholar, and polymath, member of the Royal Society.

Janez Vajkard Valvasor was born in May 1641 in Ljubljana, Carniola (present-day Slovenia) to father Jernej and mother Ana Marija b. Ravbar.

The Valvasors resided in a family castle Medija in Izlake. Janez Vajkard's father died when he was ten years old. At the time he was already attending the Jesuit school in Ljubljana. Graduating in 1658 at the age of seventeen, he did not choose to continue his studies at a university but decided to broaden his horizons by meeting learned men on a journey across Europe. This journey lasted fourteen years and it even took him to northern Africa. During this period, he joined the army in the Austrian-Turkish war, where he became closely acquainted with the conditions in the Military Frontier in Croatia.

Shortly after marrying Anna Rosina Grafenweger in 1672, Janez Vajkard acquired the Bogenšperk castle near Litija, where he arranged for a writing, drawing and printing workshop. Valvasor spent a fortune on writing and publishing books to the extent that towards the end of his life he was forced to sell the Bogenšperk Castle, his vast library and his collection of prints.

His extensive treatise on the hydrology of the intermittent Lake Cerknica won him the membership of the Royal Society in London in 1688. Valvasor was a pioneer of studying the karst phenomena.

His most important work remains the monumental "The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola" ("Die Ehre deß Herzogthums Crain" in German, "Slava vojvodine Kranjske" in Slovenian), published 1689 in 15 tomes, totalling 3532 pages and including 528 illustrations and 24 appendices, which provides a vivid description of the Slovenian lands of the time.

Valvasor died in September 1693 in Krško, and is buried in the family tomb in Izlake.

Works

*Dominicae passionis icones, 1679, reprint 1970 COBISS|ID=261635
*Topographia arcium Lambergianarum id est arces, castella et dominia in Carniolia habita possident comites a Lamberg; Bagenspergi (Bogenšperg), 1679 COBISS|ID=75121664, reprint 1995 COBISS|ID=50098688
* Topographia Archiducatus Carinthiae modernae: das ist Controfee aller Stätt, Märckht, Clöster, undt Schlösser, wie sie anietzo stehen in dem Ertzhertzogthumb Khärnten; Wagensperg in Crain (Bogenšperg), 1681 COBISS|ID=87695872; Nürnberg, 1688 COBISS|ID=87695872
*Carniolia, Karstia, Histria et Windorum Marchia, Labaci (Ljubljana) 1681 COBISS|ID=217886464
*Theatrum mortis humanae tripartitum: figuris aeneis illustratum : das ist: Schau-Bühne des menschlichen Todts in drey Theil : mit schönen Kupffer-Stichen geziehrt vnd an Tag gegeben; Laybach, Saltzburg (Ljubljana, Salzburg); 1682 COBISS|ID=53622528
*Topographia Archiducatus Carinthiae antiquae & modernae completa: Das ist Vollkommene und gründliche Land - Beschreibung des berühmten Erz - Herzogthums Kärndten; Nürnberg 1688, COBISS|ID=87695872
* Opus insignium armorumque ... ;(1687-1688) COBISS|ID=33650176
* Die Ehre dess Hertzogthums Crain:" das ist, Wahre, gründliche, und recht eigendliche Belegen- und Beschaffenheit dieses Römisch-Keyserlichen herrlichen Erblandes"; Laybach (Ljubljana) 1689 COBISS|ID=29952257

External links

* [http://www.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=(Surname='Valvsor')Entry in Royal Society]
* [http://istrianet.org/istria/illustri/non-istrian/valvasor/index.htm Istria on the Internet, Relevant non-Istrians: Johann Weichard Freiherr von Valvasor]
* [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jbourj/money4.htm Valvasor on the Slovenian 20 Tolars banknote]