Valvasor’s Unknown Offspring up to the Present

Abstract

Both genealogies of polyhistor Janez Vajkard Valvasor (1641-1693), published at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th centuries, end with the first generation of his offspring. Until recently, his subsequent descendants had been completely unknown. Less than a half of his children had survived childhood. Their subsequent life stories were relatively similar: none of them passed away in their own home and as many as five out of six died in monasteries. The youngest daughter, Regina Konstancija, whose married name was Dienersperg, has been recently rediscovered after having disappeared into oblivion for over a century; she was the only one of Valvasor’s children to bear children herself. While the family tree of her first daughter, Countess Paradeiser, died out in Carniola in 1823 the Styrian branch of her second daughter, mar. Dienersperg, has been continuing to the present. Her last child, who had lived in Slovenia, died a tragic death in 1941. The majority of Valvasor’s descendants still live in Austria. Of his many talents and interests, they inherited primarily his love of uniform, with a number of officers having served in different armies, but at least some of them also inherited the affinity for the written word. On the other hand, Valvasor’s material legacy had already been lost in the first generation of his children. Among his descendants, the knowledge of their famous ancestor passed into oblivion relatively swiftly.