Ivan Cankar was born on 10 May 1876 in a modest wooden house in Klanec in Vrhnika–the “hill of the poor,” as he himself called it. From these humble beginnings, which stayed with him throughout his life, emerged one of the towering figures of Slovenian literature.

The Manuscript Collection of the National and University Library (NUK) preserves the greater part of Cankar’s literary legacy–his works and letters, which offer a window into his world. In his correspondence, Cankar reflected upon family, friendship, love, ideals, material hardship, ambitions, and disappointments. The digitised letters complement numerous photographs and postcards from NUK’s Pictorial Collection, which also contains portraits and caricatures of the writer. The recollections of his contemporaries have appeared in literary journals on various occasions since Cankar’s death.

This collection takes us along the paths of the writer’s life, which lead from Vrhnika to the places where he lived as a pupil and student, through his friendships and loves, and finally to the scenery of Rožnik, the refuge he affectionately called his home.

Through the diversity of material and the multi-layered narratives they carry, the richness of our library collection is revealed again and again: the intertwining of priceless, irreplaceable and simply beautiful books and other curiosities preserved on our shelves. All of these materials - be it the Costerianum, a unique fragment of the Coster printer, Trubar's Ta celi novi testament (This Whole New Testament), Valvasor's Slava vojvodine Kranjske (Glory of the Duchy of Carniola), Vega's logarithm book, Prešeren's Poezije (Poems) or the proclamation on the opening of the Lyceum Library, portraits, scores, maps and the famous 57th issue of Nova Revija (New magazine)- reveal the NUL's diverse mission and its vitals role in collecting, preserving and transmitting the recorded traces of rich Slovenian creativity.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of NUL, we have selected 250 treasures from the NUL collection to be specially showcased throughout the festive year 2024. These highlights were presented through publications on the MMC RTV Slovenia portal, poster exhibitions along the Krakovski embankment and in the Jakopič promenade in Ljubljana, as well as on social media.

Friderik Irenej Baraga (1797–1868) was the most prominent Slovenian missionary of the first half of the 19th century as well as a pious literature writer and an ethnographer. He was doing missionary work among North American native tribes for twenty-five years, first among the Ottawa tribe in L'Arbre Croche on Lake Michigan, and later also along the Grand River. As he opposed the liquor dealers and the government, who were forcibly evicting these tribes from their territories, he had to retreat to the regions around Lake Superior, where he then worked among the Chippewa tribe in La Pointe, L'Anse, and Fond de Lac. Baraga's “Description of the Customs of North American Native Tribes” was the first history book on the indigenous population of the area published in Europe. In addition to various devotional works and prayer books, he also published the first grammars of the Chippewa and Ottawa languages.

The collection consists of Baraga's works as well as biographical and other studies about his life and work.

Peter Dajnko (Črešnjevci pri Gornja Radgoni, 1787–1873, Velika Nedelja), priest, linguist and writer, is the most prolific Styrian writer of the Prešeren era. He made his mark in Slovenian literary history mainly with the Dajnčica script, which he presented in the Lehrbuch der Windischen Sprache (1824), in which he formulated norms and regulations for the Eastern Styrian literary language. He wrote many works in the new font, in which he presents himself as a translator of demanding biblical texts, as a writer of independent prose works, and as a systematic popular-professional teacher. His works preserve priceless records of Eastern Styrian Slovenian from the first half of the 19th century. They are important ethnological material about life in the village at that time and a source for researching the regional ritual language and Slovenian apiculture terminology.

The collection presents individual copies of Dajenko's works, as well as articles and some studies dealing with his life and work.

After studying medicine in Paris, Balthasar Hacquet (1739 or 1740–1815) became a soldier in the French navy, and later also a military surgeon. In 1766, he accepted the job of a mine surgeon and obstetrician in Idrija. He remained there as Scopoli's successor until 1773, after which he worked in Ljubljana as a lecturer in anatomy, surgery and obstetrics at the Ljubljana Lyceum and at the midwifery school. Between 1774 and 1787 he was the secretary of the Society for Agriculture and Applied Arts in Carniola. From 1785 to 1787 he lectured on agricultural and handicraft chemistry. In addition to his medical and lecturing work, he also dedicated himself to the research of geological, botanical, geographical, ethnographic and other characteristics of today's Slovenian territory. He described them in the work Oryctographia Carniolica, as well as in traveller’s journals, and individual studies. In 1777, he attempted to climb Triglav, but was only able to reach Mali Triglav. He succeeded in climbing to the top two years later, and supposedly repeated the climb in 1782. He was also a member of the Zois circle.

The collection presents Hacquet's works as well as biographical and other studies on his life and work.

Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (1723–1788) studied in Vienna and in Innsbruck. In 1753, he passed the state exam needed for an independent practice of the medical profession under Gerard van Swieten in Vienna. He was sent to Idrija, which until then did not have a permanent physician. Between 1754 and 1769, he worked there as a mine physician, and established schooling for metallurgical and chemical education. Already in his youth he was interested in botany, and in the early 1860s he began to explore the Julian Alps. In 1760, he published the book Flora Carniolica, the first scientific work on nature in Slovenia, in which he described around 1,100 plant species from the north-western part of Slovenia. He also corresponded with Carl von Linné about his discoveries. He was a member of many prominent European scientific institutions. He published twenty-one works in the fields of botany, zoology (mainly entomology), mineralogy with crystallography, metallurgy and chemistry, as well as other natural and applied sciences.

The collection presents individual copies of Scopoli's works as well as biographical and other studies on his life and work.

Karel Destovnik Kajuh was born in Šentvid pri Zavodnju. When he was only six years old, he started to go to primary school in Šoštanj. He continued with his schooling at the gymnasium in Celje and later had to transfer to the gymnasium in Maribor due to forbidden literature found on him by local gendarmes.

The circumstances under which he lived helped him mature very early on. His verses represent a combination of social activism and lyricism that was rare in the poetry of the time. In them, the feelings of great sadness exist alongside those of unlimited happiness. As a poet, Kajuh dealt with social themes with utmost sensitivity. In his poetry, which he began writing as a secondary school boy faced with everyday hardships of commoners and which later reached its full potential at partisan recitations, one can observe his passion for bettering the world and bringing people closer to one another. His love poems are considered to be the purest in his lyrical achievement.

Beside the manuscripts of poems of Karel Destovnik Kajuh, this collection includes photographs, letters, and correspondence, all preserved by the Manuscript Collection of the National and University Library.

Diplomat and travel writer Baron Sigmund von Herberstein (1486–1566) became a member of the imperial council in 1515, and in the same year started his long and successful diplomatic career. By 1553, he had made almost seventy trips abroad, mainly to Switzerland and Spain, and to Denmark, Bohemia, and Hungary. Between 1516 and 1526, he visited the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Moscow on several occasions and became ambassador to the Moscow Grand Duke Vasily III. Ivanovich. In 1541, he successfully concluded negotiations on a ceasefire with the Ottoman Sultan Sulejman. He was proud of his knowledge of the Slovene language. More than once he emphasized that knowledge of the Slovene language has been an advantage in his diplomatic endeavours.

The collection presents Herberstein's works from the collections of NUL, the Ivan Potrč Library, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, and other collections. It includes the famous Moscow notes, other travelogues and memories written or published during Herberstein's life, studies dealing with his life and work, and his portrait.

Aleksander Jakob Videčnik, a senior administrative officer and a retired director of the Celje City Savings Bank (Celjska mestna hranilnica), was born on 11 December 1920 in Celje. He studied the system of cooperative societies and saving banks, especially the work of Mihael Vošnjak and the cultural history of the Upper Savinja Valley. He began writing and publishing in his early life. After arriving in Mozirje in 1977, he continued to write articles for the Celje local newspaper. He became secretary of the Mozirje Tourist Association and was the editor of the local newspaper Savinjske novice and an active member and president of the Mozirje Cultural Association. He was awarded several national decorations, such as the Medal of Labour (1960), the Order of Labour with Silver Wreath (1988), and the Order for Merits of the Republic of Slovenia (2002). In 2013, the Public Fund for Cultural Activities of Slovenia (JSKD) bestowed him the silver reward for his lifetime contribution in preserving and studying the rich cultural heritage and folk tradition of the Upper Savinja Valley.

Resumed after: Roman Mežnar: Aleksander Videčnik, Celjskozasavski.si Photo: Vlado Lamut

Theologian and historian Johann Ludwig Shönleben (1618–1681) was the author of numerous orations, theological works, sermons, historical works, genealogies of Carniolan noble families, as well as philosophical works and plays. He was also among the initiators of Mayr's Ljubljana printing press. Among his most important historical works are Aemona vindicata (Salzburg: Haan, 1674) and Carniolia Antiqua et Nova (Ljubljana: Mayr, 1680–1681), which comprises a chronicle of Carniolan territory from the late antiquity until the year 1000. Schönleben invited Johann Wiechard Valvasor to help him with the chronicle's preparation and their cooperation later resulted in one of the most important works of Slovenian historiography – Valvasor's Die Ehre dess Hertzogthums Crain. He is known as one of the first librarians whose catalogs have been preserved to this day. Namely, he was in charge of editing the Ljubljana library collection of the provincial governor Wolf Engelbert count Auersperg.

The collection contains Schönleben's works from the National and University Library, and the Ljubljana City Library that were suitable for digitization.

The collection is a digital monument to Baron Jurij Vega (1754-1802), a Slovenian diverse scientist whose theories and inventions often influenced the course of world history. Although he was born poor, he became a cosmopolitan and scientist: he excelled especially in mathematics and mathematical sciences and was esteemed for his inventions in the field of physics and engagement in the field of ballistics, astronomy, etc.

In Slovenia, he is widely known for his logarithmic tables published in 1783 Logarithmische, trigonometrische, und andere zum Gebrauche der Mathematik eingerichtete Tafeln und Formeln which in addition to other contents includes Vega’s improved calculation of logarithms.

His fundamental works (logarithms, manuals) have been digitized between 2006 and 2008 under DIZZIS – Razvoj digitalne zbirke znanstveno-raziskovalnih in strokovnih publikacij project. The experts of the Institute for Mathematics and Physics in Ljubljana, the Slovenian Research Agency, and the National and University Library of Slovenia have contributed some recent scientific articles.

Josipina Turnograjska (1833 - 1854) was an extremely talented, exceptionally well educated and broad-minded woman. She wrote more than thirty stories and was the first to deal with the subject of Veronika Deseniška. However, only a few of her poems are preserved. She was a good piano player and a composer as well. She published her works in the Slovenska bčela monthly and the Zora newspaper. Before the age of twenty, she was already known and respected; her works were translated into some other Slavic languages beyond the borders of the Hapsburg monarchy. She wrote only in the Slovenian language.

Josipina Urbančič and Lovro Toman - at that time he was a law student, met in August 1850, and in autumn, when Lovro returned to Graz, they began to exchange letters. They soon confessed love for each other. Their passionate correspondence provoked gossip in Preddvor, Kranj, and Ljubljana. Some people were so curious that they opened the letters and many had been lost. Lovro and Josipina were married on 22 September 1853. The family moved to Graz. Josipina Turnograjska, the first Slovenian female poet and writer, died there on June 1, 1854.