The Iconotheca Valvasoriana, an invaluable literary treasure, carefully guarded for centuries in the Metropolitan Library, in Zagreb, Croatia, now on silk squares, whispers stories about our exceptional polyhistor, J. W. Valvasor and the duchy of Carniola (1641―1693).

With the silk squares of the Iconotheca Valvasoriana, we would like to encourage discussions about J. W. Valvasor and his heritage, reflected in the mosaic of our personal, social and cultural identity, our sense of self and our place in the world.

I came across the Iconotheca Valvasoriana collection, its Vol. 18, Plants and Animals in Carniola, by chance. I was taken by the beauty of the binding, the covers, and of course, the pages with drawings and watercolors, which are increasingly more certain to be the work of J. W. Valvasor. Drawings of plants, as we still see today on meadows and forest edges, but with an invisible connection to the time 350 years ago.

I started exploring additional information, reading articles and books about J. W. Valvasor and specifically about the Collection.

During his 14-year journey through Europe and North Africa (1659―1672), Johann Weichard Valvasor was collecting books, manuscripts, graphics by respected masters of the15th, 16 th, and 17th centuries, as well as other objects. He kept them all at the Bogenšperk Castle, where he also established a graphics workshop and printing works.

He arranged the collected graphics, the 7,752 sheets, by theme, technique and nationality of the authors and bound them into 18 volumes, which together form the art collection Iconotheca Valvasoriana. Unfortunately, J. W. Valvasor was later compelled to sell the collection, along with the library that numbered 2,500 books. The collection was purchased by the Zagreb Archdiocese, and it has since been kept in the Metropolitan Library in Zagreb.

In 2008, over 330 years later, we acquired the collection in Slovenia thanks to the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the 8-year work of a group of experts led by Dr. Gostiša, a hundred facsimile copies of the collection, which had previously been scientifically reviewed and translated into several languages, were printed. Most of them have been donated to libraries in Slovenia (NUK, Krško, Brežice, …) and around the world, and given as gifts of state.

An exceptional cultural and historical monument of European importance, highly appreciated and recognized among our expert community, among connoisseurs, but not among general public. It seems to be less widely known that J. W. Valvasor, in addition to publishing the Glory of the Duchy of Carniola, was also a great innovator, a technical genius, inventor of a special techniques of thin-walled metal statue-casting, and initiator of scientific, evidence- and observation-based approach to explaining phenomena, the first to explain the functioning of the intermittent lake, and was, in 1687, elected into the Royal Society of London, joining Newton, Halley and other geniuses of the time. Finally, besides leaving us rich descriptions of life and nature at the time, unique even at a European scale, he was also a storyteller who wrote tales from legends, folk tales, anecdotes and personal experiences that inspired later generations of writers.

All the above, as well as the values ​​he stood for and lived himself, namely his curiosity, thirst for new knowledge, perseverance, his dedication and courage, so relevant today and important in the future, have aroused the desire in me to contribute to spreading awareness of the rich cultural heritage that he had built and handed down to us.

Kindly invited to the presentations and events we organize for small groups and families at Galleria, at Cigaletova Street 5, Ljubljana, upon appointment.