A False Valvasor Unintentionally Helps Uncover the Hidden Destiny of True Valvasors

Two “Outcasts” from the Valvasor family in mid-17th century and the polymath’s cleansing of the family tree

Abstract

The frauds that the false Jurij Sigmund Valvasor committed by sending letters to the Hanover and Polish Courts were the acts of a man of unknown name and origin, who, as a result, ended up in detention in 1714. The fraudster’s false claims of kinship with the family of Carniolan Barons of Valvasor immediately spurred an official investigation into his identity. Thus in Graz, the only local Valvasor, Gregor Ferdinand, an estates-of-the-realm gunsmith master, was interrogated. He knew nothing about the detained supposed relative; however, his brief answers to six questions unintentionally reveal precious facts about two real Carniolan Valvasors and their descendants. The first was his father Jurij Sigismund; the second his father’s cousin Janez Ditrih. The former was cousin and the latter brother of the famous polymath Janez Vajkard Valvasor (1641-1693). Until now, very little was known about the destiny of these two men: both married women of a lower class; this was opposed by their relatives, who made them leave Carniola. As a result, Janez Vajkard Valvasor omitted their descendants from the Valvasor family tree; he only made the laconic remark that they had left the province and proclaimed them deceased. It now turns out that their fate was sealed in the same year of 1657, that neither had gone far away and that their sons met accidentally in Graz at the beginning of the 18th century. Invaluable new data from a short statement of the gunsmith master Valvasor frin 1715 have helped connect the scarce facts into a mosaic. The facts about his family that Janez Vajkard Valvasor wanted to hide came to light with the help of a false Valvasor, a fraudster, who may have chosen his family name after the very polymath Valvasor.