The Old Book Collection includes Ivan and Franja Tavčar’s Library from the Visoko Mansion, the Barons Oblak von Wolkensperg’s Library from the Puštal Castle near Škofja Loka, a collection of religious publications and a collection of old monographs daring back to 1800–1950.

If you’d like to see the collection, ask at the museum reception.

For the sake of ensuring the necessary standards concerning the conservation of old books, the collection can only be visited in the company of a museum attendant.

The collections came to the museum as a whole, i.e. as bequests of large personal libraries; the only exception to this is the collection of old monographs dating back to 1800–1950, which was compiled at the museum from the 1970s onwards from the withdrawn materials that used to belong to the closed branch schools, societies and social and political organisations from Škofja Loka and the wider Škofja Loka area.

The collections include hundreds of books that were published before 1800 and are considered cultural monuments due to their age. However, their age, rarity or provenance are not the only reason they are so interesting and important; an equally important feature is their content, which offers insights into the development of particular sciences and disciplines, and into human life in various fields in the past. In addition, the book bindings of numerous books can be considered rare examples – particularly valuable are those that are entirely original and coincide with the creation of the books. For instance, the collections contain a parchment binding dating from 1681, brocade paper bindings, half-leather bindings with handmade marbled paper or the even older paste paper, alum-tawed pigskin bindings with debossing, bindings made of tanned goatskin leather with marble impressions, beech bindings, brass clasps, paper bindings with a beech veneer in the base, gilded edges etc.

For this reason, the significance of many of these books goes beyond the local area and the books are part of Slovenian written cultural heritage.

A particularly valuable collection is Ivan and Franja Tavčar’s Library from the Visoko Mansion, which has been kept at the museum since the end of the Second World War. This is an extensive library containing more than 600 titles, of which around 200 are antiquarian editions, i.e. editions published prior to 1800.

The books date back to the period from the 16th to the 20th centuries and are written in German, Latin, French, Italian, Slovenian, Czech, Serbian and Croatian. The library has surprisingly few books on law, there are, however, numerous other interesting titles, such as Robinson Crusoe by the Enlightenment author Daniel Defoe, many books by ancient writers, women’s magazines, cookery books, textbooks, calendars, astronomy and science books, and handbooks. Among these, the title that the merits special attention is a handbook titled Georgica Curiosa aucta oder Adeliches Land Leben from 1715/1716. It was intended for noblemen, containing advice on how to manage their estates and families; it was a special type of literature in German-speaking countries. Its age and rarity make this book very valuable, and due to its rich content and illustrations, it is also a cultural and historical source for the study of the way of life back in the day. Only three copies of our edition are listed in the Cobiss shared database.

There is also a very large number of religious titles (about 150 books) and it can be assumed that these books belonged to the Kalan family, from whom Ivan and Franja Tavčar bought the Visoko Mansion. It is also possible that the books with religious content used to belong to the abolished monastery libraries, which Mayor Tavčar took over as withdrawn library titles and brought to Visoko. It is not known whether this was actually the case, there is no doubt, however, that part of the books used to belong to monastery libraries, as they are marked with stamps. One of these books is the 1778 manuscript philosophy textbook titled Institutiones Universae Philosophiae, which has already been digitised in full and is available on our website.

The library attests to Ivan and Franja Tavčar’s broad education, their varied interests, their attention to current global social and cultural events, painting a picture of two interesting intellectuals that lived here at the time. Thus, it makes an important contribution to a more in-depth and comprehensive museum presentation of the life and work of Ivan Tavčar, PhD, and his wife, the political activist and humanitarian Franja Tavčar.

About Ivan and Franja Tavčar Collection

About Visoko Mansion

Since 2019, the expert work on the new permanent collection has been carried out in collaboration with an external specialist, Conservation and Restoration Councillor Blanka Avguštin Florjanovič, MA. Our aim was to set up an open depository where books and other printed materials would be stored in accordance with all the necessary conservation standards, while also being presented to the greatest extent possible and available to experts and interested members of the public. Thus, the museum aims to promote research on literary materials and to provide direct contact with Slovenian written cultural heritage.

Preventive procedures and conservation and restoration treatment, including the cleaning and fumigation of all the books, at the Restoration Centre of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, was carried out under the supervision of Vito Dolničar. A multi-year restoration process of Ivan and Franja Tavčar’s Library is also underway; it involves minimal treatment to stabilise the damage and prevent further fragment deterioration and loss. The aim is to preserve the original character of the collection, with all its structures and the wide range of historical materials that are no longer available. This will preserve the unique appearance of the entire collection, which allows research into the materials and the lives of people at the time when a particular book was created.

We have established a collaboration with the Digital Resources Department at the National and University Library of Slovenia, where at least three rare books from our collections will be digitised every year. The digitised materials will be available on the Škofja Loka Museum’s website and in the Digital Library of Slovenia.

Curator of the collection: Simona Žvanut, PhD

Expert participation in the design of the collection and the conservation and restoration treatment: Blanka Avguštin Florjanovič, MA, Conservation and Restoration Councillor, Archives of the Republic of Slovenia

Assistant to the curator: Gregor Gartner

Wooden library furnishings made by Matija Hiršenfelder

Blanka Avguštin Florjanovič is a Conservation and Restoration Councillor at the Book, Paper and Parchment Conservation and Restoration Centre of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia. She continued her basic graphic education at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, where she graduated in 2002 with a degree in Library Science and Book Studies. She continued her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design at the University of Ljubljana, where she obtained a Master’s degree in 2011 with a thesis titled Minimal Treatment of Medieval Bindings. In addition to her formal education in Slovenia, she received parallel training in medieval bindings – between 1997 and 2010, she studied under Prof Dr Christopher Clarkson from Oxford. Her work on the oldest bindings has led her to collaborate with a wide variety of experts from all over the world.

Since 2003, she has been passing on her knowledge both one-on-one and in the form of courses to Slovenian and foreign conservator-restorers, as well as Erasmus students. She is an active member of the Slovenian Society for Conservation-Restoration and a member of the Archival Society of Slovenia. In 2011, the Slovenian Society for Conservation-Restoration awarded her the Mirko Šubic Award in recognition of her conservation and restoration work on Jurij Dalmatin’s Bible.


Matija Hiršenfelder is a restorer and replicator of joinery, arts and crafts maker, and a woodworker crafting custom-made products. After completing his vocational training as a model cabinet maker, he worked for ten years at the Litostroj factory and also completed the woodwork technical school in Škofja Loka. He has occasionally worked in a theatrical studio as a prop maker for theatre and opera. Since 2000, he has been working as a self-employed entrepreneur, mentoring local and foreign students, and exhibiting his handicrafts both locally and internationally. Among other things, he has made furnishings for the Škofja Loka Capuchin Library, which is considered one of Slovenia’s most valuable libraries. In 2010, he was awarded the Zlata Vitica Handicraft Achievements Award by the Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Slovenia in recognition of his work in the field of local crafts and arts.