Valvasor and Edmond Halley

On the Question of the Polymath’s Membership of the Royal Society and consequences of His Breaking Off contact with it

Abstract

The carniolan polymath Janez Vajkard Valvasor (1641–1693) most probably never learned officially that on december 14, 1687 the royal society had accepted him as a member. Prior to this, his written contacts with the royal society had been cut off in an unexplained manner. A letter by the renowned astronomer Edmond Halley dated january 1688 that was never received by Valvasor mentions along with the news of the acceptance of his membership also the royal society’s verses of praise intended for publication in the glory of the duchy of Carniola. The verses were lost along with the letter and were therefore not published in the introduction of Valvasor’s monumental work of 1689. The contribution includes the first publication of the slovene translation of halley’s letter. Another letter that was discovered in London and which was unknown up to the present further highlights Halley’s views on Valvasor.