The illustrious highborn sir johann weikhard valvasor

Janez Vajkard Valvasor (1641-1693) was a 17^th century scholar and an author for all ages. He was driven by a noble curiosity and a feeling that he must put all his talents to the service of his country. Today, we not only admire his ambitious plans and works, but also the surprisingly modern working method which he employed for the compilation of The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola. This method was a blend of field work and library studies. He was a cosmopolitan and a patriot who could converse both with the greatest European scholars and the most simple of his fellow countrymen from Carniola. In short, he was a true gentleman.

He was born in a townhouse in Stari Trg, a square in Ljubljana. His father Jernej Valvasor often resided in the town, where he performed important duties for the provincial estates. His mother Ana Marija Valvasor came from the old noble family of Ravbar; she was Jernej's second wife and she bore him seventeen children, Janez Vajkard being the twelfth.

The Valvasor family castle was Medija. Jernej Valvasor greatly improved living conditions there and erected several new outbuildings. He also built a tomb where the members of the family, mostly children, were buried. The castle was home to Jernej's wife and children for most of the year. Janez Vajkard's father died when he was ten years old. At the time he was already attending the Jesuit school in Ljubljana. Graduating 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 region of Vojna Krajina (Militärgrenze) in Croatia.

At Bogenšperk Castle, Johann Weikhard Valvasor created suitable working conditions for the realisation of his ambitious plans: the printing of engravings and illustrated books, the drawing of maps and writing of numerous works. Valvasor bought the estate following his marriage to Anna Rosina Grafenweger from nearby Slatna in 1672. The castle was home to his family, himself and his associates and it housed a writing, drawing and printing workshop. Valvasor spent a fortune on writing and publishing books. Towards the end of his life he was forced to sell Bogenšperk Castle, his vast library and collection of prints. With the profits he paid debts and bought a townhouse in Krško, where he spent the rest of his life.

Bogenšperk Castle near Litija

Apart from Valvasor's works (the library and collection of engravings is now kept at the Zagreb Metropolitan Library) only few possessions of the Valvasor family have survived in Slovenia: Bogenšperk Castle, where Janez Vajkard created a home for his large family, a piece of wallpaper from his library, a piece of faded lace from the tomb at Medija, some family portraits and several documents, including the well-known testament of his mother, in which she disowned Valvasor's older brother for having fallen in love with and married a "lowborn" girl in Graz.

At Bogenšperk, Valvasor created an important collection of books on various subjects. These books testify to the broad range of his interests, his broad horizons and immense knowledge. He also compiled an extensive collection of prints - ten thousand - which served as an inspiration to himself, his associates and other commissioners of paintings.

Valvasor was also a collector, owning collections of minerals, coins, measuring devices and various curiosities. These collections, which had been compiled across Europe since the Renaissance, are forerunners of modern museums. One such collection was kept by Prince Auersperg in his Ljubljana mansion. The exhibits are not from Valvasor's collections but serve as an illustration of the interests of Ljubljana collectors from the past.

Geodesic Measuring Devise,  Wood, Bone, Brass, 1630

In his Die Ehre deß Hertzogthums Crain, Valvasor accurately listed mineral deposits and how individual minerals can be put to use. As an experienced alchemist, he was well acquainted with the properties of minerals.

Valvasor was a keen natural scientist and on his travels across Europe and Carniola he associated with alchemists who performed various experiments. He certainly kept his own laboratory at the castle. He recorded many of his own and other findings on glass, colours, enamel, precious stones, gypsum, wax. cosmetics and other topics in six manuscript books (which unfortunately have not survived). His treatise on the phenomenon of Cerkniško Jezero, a lake in Notranjska, still valid today, earned him membership of the scholarly British Royal Society.

The Townhouse in Krško	Medija Castle