Complete translation of the most important scientific and artistic work of our past
The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (Die Ehre des Hertzogthums Crain) is one of the most important Slovenian symbols, a foundation stone of Slovenian history, a polyhistorian work published in 1689 in Nuremberg in German language. It is Baron Johann Weikhard von Valvasor's most influential work and still remains on of the most important scientific works about Slovenia, encompassing all knowledge of that time's about the area of today's Slovenia and its people. It is one of the best-known and most comprehensive books written by a Slovenian, a book that raised awareness of Slovenians and bound the Slovenian nation together.
The complete work comprises of 15 volumes, bound in four tomes, which encompass 3,552 large-format pages; in addition there are 24 appendixes and 528 copper engravings. Valvasor described Carniola in terms of its history, geography, topography, medicine, ethnology, biology, geology, and other fields of science. The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola is thus the first systematic approach to present our history, land, and ways of life. Even today, in the beginning of the 21st century, it satisfies most of the contemporary criteria of serious scientific work.
Until very recently, only few fragments have been translated to Slovenian …
- Unsurpassable Baroque masterpiece in every respect.
- Most frequently quoted and referenced book in Slovenia.
- Valvasor spent his entire fortune on working on this book.
- The author does not only concentrate on Carniola but also describe the entire world of that time.
- The four tomes contain knowledge in a quantity that is hard to imagine even today.
- Encyclopedia and chronicle of Carniola, one of the most influential works of such kind in the world.
- The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola is not a dull encyclopedia but a personal account of Valvasor, exciting and humorous, but scientific from the first page on.
- Unique scientific and historic book but at the same time a great source of stories, myths, accounts, legends, anecdotes, morals and ideas, in which such great poets as Anton Tomaž Linhart and France Prešeren found an inspiration.
- The Glory contains a number of historical letters and documents that were preserved only through this book; originals and other transcripts had been lost in the course of history.
- The Glory is much more than a book; it is a cultural and historical monument, one of the Slovenian greatest, and a true literary masterpiece.
- The prestigious first edition of the first complete translation is a unique family heritage and investment opportunity. Because there will be no reprint of the book in this form, the value of the first-edition copy will only rise in the next decades.
»The accounts and descriptions in The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola are so numerous that I cannot find words to explain it all to you. I cannot see nor describe with words, I cannot even comprehend the scope of knowledge in the book. It is similar to counting all the stars in the sky, one cannot count not even those one can see, let alone the ones that are too high in the sky for our eyes to see them. And yet there was someone who had counted everything that God and his servant Nature created in one small land of Carniola.«
