Hitherto Unknown and Surprising Findings about the Life, Family, Death, Gravesite, and Legacy of Janez Vajkard Valvasor

Abstract

Despite two scholarly monographs, in addition to an extensive bibliography, on polyhistor Janez Vajkard Valvasor (Jochann Weikard Valvasor, 1641 – 1693) some aspects of his personal life, family, and legacy have not yet been precisely determined. It seems that Valvasor was not entitled to use the rank of baron, and that most of his thirteen children were born while he was travelling “abroad”. Although it is true that he died in Krško the house that since 1859 had been generally known as the one in which he had passed away is not the correct one. The fact that Valvasor was buried in the family tomb in Medija remains equally vague for he had not been “officially” registered in Medija. His widow, who inherited only a minor part of his legacy, had to rely on her own resources and on the benevolence of her relatives. After over a century, yet new facts concerning their youngest daughter Regina Konstanzia have been discovered. According to them, Regina was the only Valvasor’s child who had grandchildren and whose descendants have been traced to the present.