BOOKS ABOUT KARST AND SUBTERRANEAN IN AUERSPERG'S "PRINCE'S" LIBRARY OF LJUBLJANA
Stanislav JUŽNIČ - (36/2,2007)
For the first time the karst research books at the former Ljubljanian
Auersperg “Prince’s” library were put at the limelight by
using the recently found manuscript catalogue 1668 (transcribed
in 1762) and sales catalogues of 1982 and 1983. During the baroque
times of Volf Engelbert Auersperg the science of karst was
not born yet. The researchers had to wait for another century
until the most fundamental facts about karst were proved by
Carniolan scientists Hacquet, Gruber, and others. Nonetheless
Volf collected several important books about karst with famous
authors Aldrovandi, Ferrante Imperato, Johann Joachim Becher,
Tommasso Buoni, Jakob Joannes Wenceslaus Dobrzensky de Nigro
Ponte, and Athanasius Kircher. The special concern was put
on the Count Volf Engelbert and his brother Prince Janez Vajkard
interests in karst phenomena and their mutual influence on the
younger visitors of their Ljublanian palace, especially Schönleben
and Valvasor. Volf and Janez owned several manors at now Slovenian
and Croatian karst. Janez Vajkard personally managed the
first systematic research of subterranean animals in Postojna cave
as a part of his Postojna Manor.
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