Description
Theatrum Memoriae Nobilis ac Almae Societatis Unitorum (1688-1801)
Spominska knjiga ljubljanske plemiške družbe sv. Dizma
- Hardcover: 3 v. : col. ill. ; 34 cm, 304pp facsimile
- Binding: wooden covers – covered with black velvet, silver plated corners
- Language: Slovenian, English, German
- Publish Date: 2001
- Publisher: Mladinska knjiga
- Shipping Weight: 15 kg
- Condition: Good
- Dimensions: 27 x 34 cm
De-luxe limited (200 copies) edition – facsimile after the original manuscript) + 2 vol. of studies.
The manuscript was created between 1688 and 1801 (113 years) and represents the chronicle of the Ljubljana society of St. Dizme. Each of the 195 members of this fraternity contributed its luxuriously decorated leaf with a emblem in which it was included on the top of the Latin rivers, a chosen German member’s name, in the middle of a personal or family coat of arms with a member’s life motto, the date of enrollment, and the subsequent year of death and, in some cases, some other comments. Over the years, 187 full-length illuminations have been accumulated, some of which have been supplemented with gilding. Other inscriptions in the memorial book are in German. The book is illustrated by at least twelve illuminators, but most of them are not known. Andrej Trost, Simon Tadej Volbenk Grahovar, Bartolomej Ramschissl and Matija Greyscher stand out among the well known. The only portrait is the image of Wolfgang Sigismund Künpach, but not included directly in Künpach’s presentation, but is placed at the beginning of the book; with this he was given special honor as the founder. Most of those enrolled do not have a curriculum vitae, since after the death of Janez Gregor Dolničar (l.1799), the first secretary of the company, his successors did not record the biographies of the deceased.
Via illuminations we can follow the development of fine arts, from rich baroque to light handball and ultimately to the language of enlightenment. Although it is not a book of emblems in the narrow sense of the word, but as a memorial book by the company of educators, the Ljubljana manuscript is also, on a global scale, one of the important monuments of emblematic.
