Kronika is the central Slovenian review for Slovenian local history. It is published by the Historical Association of Slovenia.
The Demise of the Katzenstein Family and their Castle
Even though Katzenstein Castle and its noble lineage have already received ample attention from Slovenian historiographers and castellologists, no article has so far provided a comprehensive explanation of how, after long serving as part of their clientele, the Katzenstein family turned away from the Counts of Cilli in the early fifteenth century and became vassals of the Habsburg dukes. By drawing on a systematic overview of archival records as well as several hitherto unexamined sources, the life of the last generations of the Katzenstein family, which joined the ranks of the Habsburg vassals, can now be reconstructed in more detail. Their final break with the Cillis was caused by the unsettled debt that Count Frederick II collected by force, most probably in the spring or early summer of 1442. The destruction of Katzenstein Castle also sealed the fate of its last, completely impoverished owners.
Copyright (c) 2026 Tomaž Lazar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
An Oil Lamp from Emona with the Depiction of a Gladiator
In 2024, archaeological excavations, carried out in the area envisaged for the construction of the Emonika residential complex in Ljubljana, revealed the previously unresearched segment of the northern burial grounds of the Roman colony of Emona (Colonia Iulia Emona). In one of the graves, an oil lamp was unearthed, bearing the depiction of a murmillo-type gladiator (also mirmillo or myrmillo) and an inscription field in the shape of a tabula ansata, featuring a letter B. The article aims to examine the significance and context of this extraordinary find.
Copyright (c) 2026 Julijana Visočnik, Bernarda Županek, Ana Kovačič https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The First Three Decades of Life of Ljubljana’s Notable Protestant Lenart Budina (1500–1573)
The article presents the first thirty years of life of Lenart Budina, who was born in or near Carniola’s capital in 1500 and died there in 1573. Budina is best known as the first rector of the Protestant-run Estates School in Ljubljana. Primary focus is on questions concerning Budina’s birth, the identity of his parents, his studies in Leipzig and Freiburg im Breisgau, employment at the printworks of Johann Froben in Basel, his teaching position in the nearby Rheinfelden, as well as his contacts with Erasmus of Rotterdam, Heinrich Glarean, and other humanists. Attention is drawn to Budina’s possible connection to the court of Ferdinand I and the circles surrounding the Papal curia in the years prior to his return to Ljubljana about 1533. The author also specifically addresses the issue of how much importance Budina ascribed to learning Greek, the basics of which he could pass on to his students after returning to his native town as a “Latin teacher.”
Copyright (c) 2026 Lilijana Žnidaršič Golec https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Probate Inventory of the Senior Mining Magistrate Ulrich Pitton
The article analyses the probate inventory of Ulrich Pitton, a burgher of Kranj (Ger. Krainburg) and senior mining magistrate in Carniola and Gorizia between 1616 and 1634. In its opening segment, the article presents an account of his life story to the extent that can be determined from scanty written sources. The second part presents and examines his material legacy, which was inventoried less than a month after his death in 1635. The probate inventory and other sources paint Pitton as a relatively well-off burgher, merchant, and landowner.
Copyright (c) 2026 Gašper Oitzl https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Female Violence and Interpersonal Enmities in the Lenart Market Town Council Registers (1640–1740)
This article examines ‘everyday’ interpersonal disputes that escalated into violence, documented in the market town council registers of Lenart v Slovenskih Goricah between 1640 and 1740, with particular emphasis on the role that women played in enmities in a small urban settlement. The analysis has proven vital not only for understanding ‘female’ enmities, but also for gaining a more nuanced insight into the societal dynamics and gender roles of the period. The role of women in disputes and their settlements was typically distinct from that of men; while often relegated to the background in the sources, it was far from insignificant. The article thus also challenges the perception that the use of violence was an exclusively male domain.
Copyright (c) 2026 Veronika Kos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Until now, the Marian column in Ljutomer has received no methodical consideration. The author of the article examines it by drawing on available archival sources and a more thorough stylistic analysis. The market town judge (Marktrichter) Matija Petek, who commissioned the column, as well as the year of its commissioning (1729) and restoration (1854), respectively, are stated on the monument’s inscription plaque. Johann Jacob Schoy was most probably the master craftsman selected for creating the stone figures. Only a few elements have been preserved from the original Baroque monument after the architecture of the Marian column was completely transformed in the mid-nineteenth century. The transformation, minutely documented in archival sources, was carried out by two master craftsmen from Radkersburg (Radgona): the stone carver Anton Spranger and the painter and guilder Johann Klein. The article complements the existing knowledge regarding the processes of commissioning and restoring public Baroque monuments.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jure Donša https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The Toponymy of the Old Part of Ljubljana through Time
An investigation into toponymy that has survived in Ljubljana from the time when it was still a walled urban settlement (until the end of the eighteenth century) or from the period before the mid-nineteenth century, when it rapidly entered the industrial era, sheds light on major differences in the continuity and preservation of old names between the Slovenian capital on one hand and the historical centres of other European capitals and urban settlements on the other. The primary aim of the article is to determine how many early toponyms have been preserved in Ljubljana and what fate befell street names that had disappeared. The article is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the overall characteristics of Ljubljana’s urban toponymy (names of streets, roads, and squares)—i.e., its content and the processes of change—and the second part is conceived as a stroll through the old town core, presenting the reader with individual toponymic and micro-toponymic examples and, through them, with the dynamics of change and transformation. Many instances of renaming occurred for ideological reasons after the Second World War, reaching their highest intensity in 1952. Barring a few exceptions, the former names have never been reinstated after the end of the communist period.
Copyright (c) 2026 Boris Golec https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The article opens with an outline of the criteria applied in the early collecting of historic furniture at the Maribor Regional Museum and its predecessor institutions. This is followed by information on the makers of eight pieces of furniture from the museum’s collection, presented chronologically according to their years of birth. The study is limited to craftsmen who established their workshops up to the year 1900: Wiesauer, Lacher, Ballin, Quittner, Blaschitz, Potočnik, Stojan and Rath. Alongside each maker, the selected piece of furniture is discussed in greater detail, and other works by these makers held in the Maribor furniture collection are also identified. The article brings together findings derived from primary written and material sources and records known commissioners, owners, or users of this furniture from Vuhred, Fala, Viltuš and Maribor.
Copyright (c) 2026 Mirjana Koren https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Jakob Aljaž: Between the Public Image of the Symbol of Slovenian Identity and Financial Hardship in Old Age
The article discusses Jakob Aljaž’s efforts between 1925 and 1926 to obtain a substantial increase in his congrua and an honorary pension proposed by the local authorities in Radovljica in 1926. It identifies the main factors underlying his acute financial insecurity: pasture dues were difficult to collect; the forests of the Dovje benefice, constrained by legal restrictions and a reforestation order, produced no income; and a long-standing dispute with Bishop Anton Bonaventura Jeglič over the allocation of timber-sale proceeds remained unresolved and unfavourable to Aljaž. More broadly, Aljaž’s financially ambitious public initiatives exceeded his means, leaving him with minimum savings and inadequate provision for old age. On the state side, limited recognition of his public service and prevailing administrative–political considerations created a paradox: even though his congrua was modestly increased in September 1925 and the Minister of Finance expressed support for further assistance, the Ministry of Religious Affairs ultimately rejected this gesture of goodwill, while the proposal for an honorary pension received no substantive discussion.
Copyright (c) 2026 Željko Oset https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Germanization of Toponyms under the German Occupation of Upper Carniola between 1941 and 1945
The article presents the process of Germanizing Slovenian toponyms or place names in Upper Carniola under the German occupation between 1941 and 1945. In undertaking this task, the occupation authorities largely relied on German place names from the time of Austria–Hungary and in some areas by introducing entirely new German designations. This usually occurred in cases where the former German designation was derived from the Slovenian original and too difficult to pronounce for German speakers, or it bore an excessively Catholic connotation. In major Upper Carniolan towns, where the system of street addresses had already been in place, the practice of (re)naming streets and squares reflected not only the tendency to Germanize but also to reinforce the political hegemony of the German National Socialist Party (NSDAP) by introducing designations after famous German historical and cultural figures as well the leaders of the German National Socialist movement.
Copyright (c) 2026 Damjan Hančič https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Rudeneck Castle was built in the second quarter of the fourteenth century as a rather large new two-part main residence for the Lords of Altenburg (Slo. Vrbovec), which sparked a feudal war. After the conflict, the significance of the castle and the Lords of Altenburg waned. By the sixteenth century at the latest, the original castle core had been abandoned. A detached Gothic great tower was preserved, next to which a new Renaissance-style building was constructed soon after 1578 to serve as the personal country residence of Ljubljana’s bishop Janez Tavčar. Once it lost its residential and economic significance, the castle became increasingly neglected from the first third of the seventeenth century onwards and was ultimately abandoned soon after 1681. Although its remnants are rather modest, they nonetheless allow for an interpretation of building development. The article also provides concise architectural-historical analyses of the Haslach (Slo. Lešje) manor or mansion and the former Rudenstein Castle (Slo. Rudenštajn), both of which were historically and spatially linked to Rudeneck Castle.
Copyright (c) 2025 Igor Sapač https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Based on the analyses of preserved built structures, old depictions and photos, particulars regarding the history of the property, as well as appropriate analogies, it is possible to determine the main development phases of one of the most recognizable historical castle architectures in the Upper Savinja Valley. The castle was most probably built in the second half of the twelfth century and underwent at least three expansions during the Late Middle Ages. In the sixteenth century, it obtained its outer wall with three cylindrical towers and in the seventeenth century it was transformed into a Renaissance-style residence of Ljubljana’s bishops. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the castle underwent no major construction work. The medieval castle core was demolished in the eighteenth century. In 1900, it was restored and added a Historicist chapel sometime between 1917 and 1920. After it was destroyed in the Second World War, the castle underwent a gradual and thorough restoration during the second half of the twentieth century.
Insights into the Peasant Rebellion in the Seigneury of Gornji Grad in the Early Seventeenth Century
Drawing on the existing literature and the analysis of archival material, the article discusses the selected aspects of the peasant rebellion raised by the subjects of the seigneury of Gornji Grad (Ger. Oberburg) between 1602 and 1607, when the seigneury was under the administration of Tomaž Hren, Bishop of Ljubljana. The article focuses on two main thematic clusters. The first discusses the reasons and circumstances of the rebellion and highlights a few concrete events, especially those that unfolded before 1602 and in the early phase of the rebellion. The second part of the article deals with the question of how the rebellion was addressed by the secular and ecclesiastical authorities, with a particular focus on the role of the provincial princely commission, papal nuncios, and the final decision made by the nuncio Salvago from 1607. The article aims to shed light on the early and closing phases of the rebellion, which has not received much attention in the literature so far.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nina Ošep, Lucija Pečnik https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The written heritage of the library of the Franciscan friary in Nazarje
The article offers a comprehensive study of the Franciscan library in Nazarje, one of the key cultural centres of the Upper Savinja Valley since the seventeenth century. The first part, based on sources such as the Diarium Conventus Nazarethani and early inventories, critically revisits the origins of the library and rejects the long-standing thesis of its Bosnian provenance. Instead, it shows that the collection developed gradually from the friars’ arrival and through donations, notably the bequest of Ludvik Umek in 1752. The second part presents the first systematic survey of more than twenty-six medieval manuscript fragments—liturgical, hagiographic, legal and even secular texts—preserved in bindings, shedding new light on the transfer of earlier materials into the collection. The third part addresses the turbulent fate of the library in the twentieth century, especially wartime destruction, dispersal, and later rediscovery of supposedly lost books. The article thus combines a historical, codicological, and cultural heritage perspective.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jan Dominik Bogataj, Anja Božič, Bernardin Domen Iljaš https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Early Administrative Slovenica from the Upper Savinja Valley (1604–1842)
The Upper Savinja Valley is an area from which several early Slovenian administrative texts or records are already known, dating to before the mid-nineteenth century: a decree of the diocesan synod and a translation of a papal breve, both from Gornji Grad, and two oath forms for newly admitted dwellers of the market towns of Rečica ob Savinji and Mozirje. Through recent discoveries, new documents have surfaced, most notably tithe registers and two documents that are unique in the entire Slovenian area: the only probate inventory of a serf in Slovenian and the only last will of a serf drawn up by a priest. The article presents an overview of all hitherto discovered Slovenian administrative records from the Upper Savinja Valley, with a particular focus on those that have so far not been published and discussed.
Copyright (c) 2025 Boris Golec https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Pilgrimages and Pilgrimage Churches in the Upper Savinja Valley during the Baroque Period
The article provides an insight into the pilgrimages and pilgrimage processions that took place in pre-Josephinian parishes of the Upper Savinja Valley during the Baroque period. Based on information from registers and visitation records, the calendar of pilgrimage processions is presented, followed by a systematic discussion of all the pilgrimage churches in the area.
Copyright (c) 2025 Metoda Kemperl https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Miren’s Exiled Shoemaker Cooperative in the Savinja Valley
The article aims to reconstruct the experience of Miren’s exiled shoemaker cooperative in the Savinja Valley during the First World War. It draws on two sources, the history of the cooperative, written by its long-standing leader Anton Vuk, and the diary for part of 1917, kept by its secretary Leopold Kemperle. When Italy entered the war, the inhabitants of Miren were evacuated as early as 23 May 1915. The leadership of the shoemaker cooperative (established in 1907) chose Altenburg Castle (Slo. Vrbovec) at Rečica in the Savinja Valley as a suitable accommodation for its workshops and settled workers in the nearby area. Even in exile, the organization continued to abide by its cooperative principles by systematically ensuring material supply and the production of military and civilian footwear, by provisioning the refugee colony with food, clothing, firewood, and coal, and by distributing refugee and military support.
Copyright (c) 2025 Petra Svoljšak https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
What Did a Teacher Graduate Write in Herle’s Logbook in Solčava About Climbing Ojstrica in August 1881?
The logbook from Herle’s tavern in Solčava, which was publicly presented by Prof. Tine Orel in the mountaineering gazette Planinski vestnik in 1963, also contains a report on the ascent that four young men—Fran Skaza and Miha Levstik, both students at the teachers’ training institute in Maribor, and two mountaineers from the Woschnagg (Slo. Vošnjak) family from Šoštanj–made to Mount Ojstrica in August 1881. On returning to the valley, Miha Levstik wrote a dramatic three-page report of their ascent in the mountaineering logbook in Solčava. The article presents an annotated transcript of the report. Mention is also made of several connections of schools and teachers with the Savinja Alps at the end of the nineteenth century. The central role in establishing mountaineering societies was played by the teachers Miha Kos and Fran Kocbek, the authors of the first Slovenian mountain guide from 1894.
Copyright (c) 2025 Branko Šuštar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Liberation of the Upper Savinja Valley in Autumn 1944
Based on archival material and postwar literature, the author presents the Upper Savinja Valley during the Second World War, with an emphasis on the existence of a liberated territory in this area between September and December 1944. The Partisan forces leveraged the temporary weakness of the occupying forces and, with a strategy of simultaneous attacks across the wider area, liberated the entire Upper Savinja Valley, where they established a public administration system. However, because the presence of such a free territory threatened the strategic passage through the Lower Styrian and Slovenian territory, the occupiers recaptured the Upper Savinja Valley and kept it under control until the end of the Second World War.
Copyright (c) 2025 Klemen Kocjančič https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The article discusses the life and mountaineering career of Branko Zemljič (1887–1961), a teacher, cultural worker, and long-time secretary of the Savinja branch of the Slovenian Mountaineering Society. His work is placed in the broader context of the development of mountaineering in Slovenia at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and in the first decades of the twentieth century, when the mountains were not only a place for spending free time but also a site of national and cultural struggle. Special attention is paid to Zemljič’s efforts to strengthen the Slovenian presence in the Savinja part of the Kamnik–Savinja Alps. The article also highlights the “story” from his youth about the area of the Korošica mountain pasture below Mount Ojstrica or, rather, his personal account of the national struggle linked to the symbolic significance of mountain huts. Zemljič’s work shows how everyday efforts of individuals were intertwined with questions of identity, and his legacy offers valuable insight into the formation of the Slovenian mountaineering space.
Savinjska branch of the Slovenian Mountaineering Society
Copyright (c) 2025 Peter Mikša, Matija Zorn https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Grohot Mountain Pasture over Time: Work, Kinship Relations, and Ownership
Mountain pastures are high-altitude grazing areas where farmers move their cattle in the warmer months of the year. This practice facilitates a more efficient agricultural activity as well as the preservation of local traditions, ways of knowing, and landscapes. Whereas most mountain pastures in Slovenia are communal, the overwhelming majority of alpine grazing lands in the Solčava area are under individual ownership. A special place among them belongs to the Grohot common mountain pasture, which is also the only shepherd’s settlement in the area under discussion. The article draws on ethnographic research and is thematically divided into three segments: farm chores, the significance of kinship relations, and ownership. Grohot was once a dairy cow mountain pasture, where women dairy farmers took care of milk production, whereas today hired herders tend to the grazing cattle. Kinship structures, which enable the transmission of knowledge and resources, are of utmost importance for the preservation and functioning of the high-altitude grazing land. The history of Grohot reflects broader changes in ownership and agricultural policy during the twentieth century, ranging from grazing rights, nationalization, and denationalization to Slovenia’s integration into the European Union, which points to the blending of local practices with national and European influences.
Copyright (c) 2025 Elizabeta Vršnik https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Climate and Hydrological Changes in the Upper Savinja Valley since the 1960s
The article discusses climate and hydrological changes in the Upper Savinja Valley since the 1960s. The area is characterized by diverse geological structures, a rugged surface, and torrential watercourses. Most of the area is covered by forest. Climate changes are reflected in rising average annual temperatures, decreasing annual precipitation, and a significantly shorter snow cover period. Hydrological changes are reflected in decreasing average minimum, average mean, and average maximum annual river discharges. In addition to water quantities, watercourses also exhibit changing discharge regimes. As the Upper Savinja Valley is susceptible to extreme water events, the article highlights some of the most significant ones in the last century and attempts to predict how they will develop in the future.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mauro Hrvatin, Matija Zorn https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Nazarje in the Last Decade of the Monarchy: a Look Through Newspaper and Archival Sources
The article examines religious and social life in Nazarje between 1909 and 1921, drawing on the monastery chronicle, visitation records, and brief newspaper reports. World events, particularly the First World War and the subsequent disintegration of the Habsburg Monarchy, followed by the creation of a new state, significantly affected the life of this pilgrimage site and its inhabitants. The prewar years were characterised by festivities, vibrant social life, and various forms of religious observance. At the onset of the war, the monastery chronicler and newspaper reporters focused on mobilisation, the experiences of local inhabitants on the frontline, and various forms of humanitarian aid. A special chapter concerns the refugees from Gorizia, to whom the parishioners extended their utmost solidarity, including the establishment of a school for refugees. The article discusses the impact of scarcity, requisitions, and the earthquake of 1917, as well as the May Declaration Movement, the fighting for the northern border, and Nazarje’s reception of refugees from Carinthia. The visitation record from 1921 provides further details, describing the religious vitality and social engagement of the parish. The article thus offers an illustrative microhistorical insight into the intricate links between war, migration, religious observance, and solidarity in Nazarje’s local community.
Copyright (c) 2025 Miha Šimac https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
At the beginning of the twelfth century, the entire Upper Savinja Valley was a large landholding of the Bavarian Diepold de Chagere, centred in Gornji Grad (Ger. Oberburg). In 1140, he donated it for the establishment of a Benedictine monastery, while a smaller part was handed over to Aquileia. During its 333 years of existence and extensive colonization, the monastery formed a cultural landscape with approximately 750 farms and market towns of Gornji Grad, Ljubno (Ger. Laufen) and Rečica (Ger. Rietz). The Aquileian estates with the castles of Gornji Grad, Vrbovec (Ger. Altenburg) and Mozirje (Ger. Prassberg) were fiefs in the hands of local families from the end of the thirteenth century. The most influential political forces were the Counts of Heunburg and the Lords of Sanneck. In 1286, the Heunburg family, with their seat in Mozirje, also became hereditary advocates of the Benedictine abbey in 1286. After their extinction in 1322, they were succeeded by the Sannecks (from 1341, the Counts of Cilli). The monastery was incorporated into the newly established diocese of Ljubljana in 1461 and abolished in 1473. Gornji Grad continued to flourish as the secondary residence of the bishop of Ljubljana.
Copyright (c) 2025 Miha Kosi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Ljubljana’s Elderly in the Nineteenth Century
The article analyses factors associated with mortality in the elderly during three five-year periods of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the area of the St Peter parish, also known as Šempeter Suburbs in Ljubljana. It presents physicians’ approach towards elderly patients, as well as the status of public hygiene in the city and the particularities of the area under discussion. The records of city and provincial physicians Fran Viljem Lipič, Viljem Kovač, Friedrich Keesbacher, and Franc Zupanc linked the issue of the city hygienization or, more specifically, the establishment of drinking water supply system, sewage disposal, and appropriate housing conditions to a declining morbidity rate and increasing life expectancy of the population.
Copyright (c) 2025 author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Social Care System in Slovenia Immediately after the Second World War, with a Particular Focus on Ljubljana
Based on archival collections on social care of the People’s Republic of Slovenia and data of the Ljubljana City People’s Committee, the author analyses measures that the state and society developed and implemented to improve the overall living conditions of vulnerable persons and groups after the Second World War. She presents possibilities and forms of providing social protection to adults, youth, and children in need at the time when the war-ravaged and financially drained state endeavoured to improve the quality of life through the development of broadly based forms of social care and appropriate infrastructure.
History and Topography of Water Supply in Kranj until the Early Twentieth Century
Kranj’s location on a pier above the confluence of the Sava and Kokra rivers made its water supply difficult. Until 1842, there were only three private deep wells (known so far) in the town. Most inhabitants had to gather water from both rivers and store it in house cisterns. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there were unsuccessful attempts to collect water from the Sava River using a pumping device. After a fire destroyed the town in 1749 mainly due to a lack of water, the town authorities revived the old plans to build a new water supply system. The pipeline connecting the Kokrica River and the main town well in 1751 did not function properly. In 1771–1772, Gabrijel Gruber, a professor of mechanics in Ljubljana, built a water pump on the Sava River. In 1862, it was replaced by a new one, which, combined with three public deep wells, continued to provide the town with water for more than a decade after the construction of the modern water supply system in 1911.
Deattribution of Works Previously Assigned to the Baroque Sculptor Franz Christoph Reiss
The article presents a systematic analysis of all sculptures made for church interiors that have so far been uncritically assigned to the Maribor-based sculptor Franz Christoph Reiss (1688–1711). The basis for the comparative analysis are the altar of St Francis Xavier at Ptujska Gora, where Reiss’s authorship is confirmed with documents, and the altar of St Florian in Maribor Cathedral, which is rightfully assigned to him. Based on comparisons to the works mentioned above, most works previously attributed to Reiss may be excluded from the oeuvre of his workshop. While the great altar in the Franciscan church in Varaždin was probably created in the workshop of the sculptor Lorenz Kaiser from Maribor, other pieces originated from at least six—for the time being unidentified—sculpture workshops that operated at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The Fate of the Co-Author of Pisanice Janez Mihelič and of the First Independent Collection of Slovenian Proverbs
The article centres on the last documented years of Janez Mihelič (* 1750, † not before 1796), the co-author of the first Slovenian poetry almanac Pisanice od lepeh umetnost and collector of proverbs. The existence of the manuscript collection Kraynski Pregovori, the first independent collection of Slovenian proverbs, was merely acknowledged in the report written by Mihelič’s mentor Marko Pohlin, and before that, it was metaphorically alluded to in the poem by Mihelič and Pohlin in Pisanice (1779). Until now, it has been an unknown fact that Mihelič suffered from severe paranoia, which cost him his positions as the parish priest and dean of Svibno near Radeče at the age of forty years. He retreated to the South Tyrolian dioceses of Brixen and Trento, where he returned to his service as priest. In 1796, every trace of him was lost. In 1809, Žiga Zois, prompted by Jernej Kopitar, tried in vain to locate Mihelič’s collection of proverbs, which was also of interest to the founder of Slavic studies, Josef Dobrovský.
collection of proverbs Kraynski Pregovori
Baroness Maria Theresa Oršić, Née Baroness Wintershoffen. Her Lineage, Marriage, and Books
The article centres on Baroness Maria Theresa Oršić, née Baroness Wintershoffen (1671–1710), from the Styrian town of Kozje (Ger. Drachenburg). It is divided into three thematic clusters. In the first part, it presents the origin of the baroness’s primary family of Wintershoffen, which came from Bavaria to Styria in the sixteenth century and had become extinct by the early nineteenth century. The second part describes the baroness’s marriage to the Slavonian nobleman Baron Anton Oršić, which culminated in a divorce. The third part discusses her settling down in Ljubljana and her estate listed in her probate inventory. Special consideration is given to her library, which was remarkably extensive and diverse for that period.