Written by Gerald Stone, 1989
Abstract
Although Die Ehre des Hertzogthums Crain was written in German, the Slovenian language is nevertheless quite well represented. There is only one Slovenian text included in this work, a greeting poem in Slovenian verse by F. Siezenheim, published under the pseudonym of J. Sisentchelli. Valvasor however, also made frequent use of Slovenian words and even of whole Slovenian sentences. In his topographical descriptions of Carniola, he nearly always gave local place names in Slovenian as well as in German, and in discussions of flora and fauna, of habits and customs, and so on common names in Slovenian were used. Valvasor’s Slovenian words were used in daily life in the 17th century. Yet from the viewpoint of a modern observer, they seem to be rather specialized. Die Ehre des Hertzogthums Crain contains, for example, the names of at least fifty bird species. The value of this book for the history of the Slovenian language is beyond dispute, since Slovenian sources from that age are not exactly abundant, in particular material with secular content.