Topographia Ducatus Carniolae modernae
Topographia Ducatus Carnioliae modernae is the title of a book published by Johann Weichard Valvasor in 1679. The cities, markets, monasteries, castles and palaces in what was then the Duchy of Carniola , which is now the central part of Slovenia , are depicted on contemporary copperplate engravings .
Book viewing
" TOPOGRAPHIA DUCATUS CARNIOLIAE MODERNAE that is Controfee of all Stätt, Märckht, Clöster, vndt castles, as they are anietzo in the Hertzogthumb Crain. Bred to Wagensperg in Crain in 1679. With strange diligence by Johann Weichart Valvasor . "
The author adorned the title page of his work with this inscription , next to it the state house, the new market and the mountain castle of the city of Ljubljana (today Ljubljana ) are shown. An angel with two trumpets and flags hovers over the city. On one flag is a tribute to Carniola, on the other is the coat of arms of Carniola.
After the title page there is a Latin dedication from Valvasor to the Carniolan estates on two pages and then on two further pages a Latin congratulation from Paul Ritter-Vitezović . This is followed by the 319 copper engravings on which Carniolan cities and markets, castles, palaces, monasteries and mines are shown. At the end of the book, Valvasor added a directory:
“INDEX Belongs to the Cranean Topographia, which is divided into four parts, as in OV that is upper quarter, in MV that is middle quarter, in UV that is lower quarter, and in IV that is inner quarter, which is at Kharst, Peug , Istreich and Wipach. "
This register consists of two sections. The more extensive German part, with twelve pages, lists the objects in alphabetical order with the German name, describes the geographical location in the country and lists the respective landlord. The second section names the places and castles shown on two pages: “in Crainerian language ”.
The 320 copper engravings are made in landscape format and have the dimensions of approx. 210 mm wide and approx. 115 mm high. They were all made in Valvasor's graphic workshop at Wagensperg / Bogenšperg Castle in Lower Carniola / Dolenjska. Valvasor had the text pages of the "Topographia" printed by the book printer Johann Baptist Mayr , who has been based in Ljubljana since 1678 .
On many excursions that took him all over his home country, Johann Weichard drew the respective castle buildings or settlements from nature and collected them in sketchbooks. These images later served the graphic artist as a template for the production of the actual printing plate. The names of the engravers who worked on the "Topographia" are only partially known. 81 engravings and the title page were created by Andreas Trost , the Croatian artist Paul Ritter-Vitezović contributed 60 sheets and Peter Mungerstorf produced 36 engravings . A considerable part of the copperplate engravings are unsigned or have been given abbreviations that cannot be assigned.
The artistic quality of the picture compositions is not uniform and in some cases varies considerably. Otherwise it is noticeable that for the engravers only the depiction of the buildings was apparently important, while the landscape surrounding the object was designed by the graphic artist fairly freely and at his own discretion.
Noteworthy
Valvasor later used more than 200 pictures from “Topographia” to illustrate his life's work: “ The Honor of the Hertzogthums Crain ”. Since the printing plates were too wide for the “Ehre” book format, they had to be trimmed by 40 to 50 mm. This affected the composition of the picture and some revealing details were lost.
Only a small number of original pieces of the Topographia Ducatus Carnioliae modernae have survived. Usually these are not complete, as topographical views have always been used as wall decorations. A complete copy is one of the book rarities.
A facsimile edition of the work was published by Verlag Dr. Dr. Rudolf Trofenik in Munich and with Cankarjeva Založba in Ljubljana. The editing was done by Branko Reisp , who also wrote the preface .
literature
- Branko Reisp: Kranjski polihistor Janez Vajkard Valvasor , Ljubljana, 1983. German summary pp. 353–383.
- Branko Reisp: Johann Weikhard Valvasor and his Topographia Ducatus Carnioliae modernae from 1679 . Bound, pp. 1–63, of the facsimile edition, Dr. Dr. Rudolf Trofenik, Munich 1970.
- Irmgard Palladino et al. a .: Johann Weichard von Valvasor (1641–1693) , Vienna, Cologne, Weimar, 2008. ISBN 978-3-205-77719-9
