Astronomical interests of Valvasor, FRS
Astronomical interests of Valvasor, FRS

Summary/Abstract: Baron Janez Vajkard Valvasor is well known for his records of important Carniolan and Croatian writers, astronomers, and other scholars. In this article, his astronomical interests are placed in connection with his fellowship of the Royal Society of London and his correspondence with Thomas Gale and Edmund Halley. Through Valvasor’s correspondence with the Royal Society, young Halley became Valvasor’s personal friend. Halley’s visits to the regions of today’s Slovenia, Italy and Croatia are systematically listed for the first time to show how the new Newtonian physics spread to the Central European audiences by Halley’s personal contacts in Trst, Ljubljana, and Rijeka. An emphasis is placed on Valvasor’s astronomical books. Valvasor’s library was second only to Auersperg’s in their part of Central Europe and eventually it became an integral part of Metropolitana, the library of the Zagreb Archbishopric.

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