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 oy 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.

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 from 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.