INSCRIPTIONS of SOME HISTORICALLY KNOWN PERSONS in POSTOJNSKA JAMA Podpisi Nekaterih Znanih Zgodovinskih Osebnosti V Postojnski Jami
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COBISS: 1.01 INSCRIPTIONS OF SOME HISTORICALLY KNOWN PERSONS IN POSTOJNSKA JAMA Podpisi nekaterih znanih zgodovinskih osebnosti V Postojnski jami Stephan Kempe1 & Hans-Peter Hubrich1 Abstract UDC 551.435.84:003.071(497.471) Izvleček UDK 551.435.84:003.071(497.471) Stephan Kempe & Hans�Peter Hubrich: Inscriptions of some Stephan Kempe & Hans�Peter Hubrich: Podpisi nekaterih historically known persons in Postojnska jama znanih zgodovinskih osebnosti v Postojnski jami Imenski rov (Rov starih podpisov), the Old Cave (Stara jama), Imenski rov oz. Rov starih podpisov, je edini del Postojnske was the only part of Postojnska jama known for several centu- jame, ki je bil poznan pred odkritjem notranjih delov leta 1818. ries until 1818 when Luka Čeč discovered the access to the in- Članek opisuje dokumentiranje približno 400 starih podpisov ner parts of the cave. Here we documented ca. 400 inscriptions. iz Postojnske jame in100 podpisov iz Predjame. Približno 19 About 100 more were also recorded in the historic part of Pred- podpisov, kar je manj kot 5% vseh, pripada znanim zgodovin- jama Cave. From these signatures we correlated 19 with inde- skim osebnostim. Od teh je zanesljivih 15, medtem ko je ide- pendently historically known persons, less than 5% of the total. ntiteta podpisnikov Bellegarde, Kotze, Mihanovć in Karl von The correlation is firm for 15 names, but only tentative for Belle- Zur vprašljiva. Najstarejši znani podpisnik je Johan Melchior garde, Kotze, Mihanović and Karl von Zur. The oldest one is that Ott(o), slikar, ki je služil Johanu Antonu Eggenberškemu of Johann Melchior Ott(o) of 1642, a painter in the service of (1610-1649), takratnemu lastniku postojnskega gradu. Temu Johann Anton zu Eggenberg (1610–1649) the owner of the Cas- je Ott narisal tudi grb. Drugi najstarejši je podpis Jožefa An- tle of Adelsberg at the time, whose coat of arms Ott drew as well. tona Nagla iz leta 1748, ki je v latinščini podpisan tudi v Pred- The next oldest is the name Josef Anton Nagel 1748 who also left Latin inscriptions in Predjama cave and in Sloup Cavern, jami in v Sloupski jami na Moravškem. Vsi drugi podpisi Moravia. All other inscriptions of historic persons are younger znanih osebnosti so mlajši od leta 1800, med njimi tudi pod- than 1800 including those of Franz Graf von Hohenwart, Joseph pisi Franca Jožefa Hohenwarta, Josipa Jeršinoviča plemenitega Petsch Ritter von Löwengreif and Alois Schaffenrath (each with Löwengreifa in Alojza Shaffenratha. Vsi od slednjih so se pod- several inscriptions). Noteworthy are also the signatures of Josef pisali večkrat. Omembe vredni so tudi podpisi Josefa Eggen- Franz Eggenhöfner (1801 or 1809, and 1820; developer of Grotta höffnerja, ki je za turizem uredil vhodni del Pečine na Hudem di Padriciano), Johann Natterer (biologist, 1815, who stayed 19 letu pri Padričah, Johanna Nattererja, bio loga, ki je živel 19 let years in Brazil and laid the basis of the zoological department v Braziliji in postavil temelje zoološkega oddelka v dunajskem of the Natural History Museum in Vienna), Karl Beyrich (1819, Naravoslovnem muzeju, Karla Beyricha (podpis iz leta 1819), botanist who died during an expedition in Arkansas, 1834), botanika, ki je leta 1834 umrl med odpravo v Arkansasu, Giuseppe de Volpi (1820, from Trieste who published first evi- Tržačana Giuseppeja del Volpija (podpis iz leta 1820), ki je prvi dence of the cave bear presence in Postojnska jama), Johann objavil dokaze o prisotnosti jamskega medveda v Postojnski Fercher, mine supervisor, and his team of miners from Idrija jami, Johana Fercherja, rudniškega nadzornika, ki se je z ekipo who signed during their survey of the cave in 1833, Johann Rit- idrijskih rudarjev podpisal med merje njem jame leta 1833, Jo- ter von Hauer (1836 in Pisani rov, Vienna, Imperial Councelor hanna Ritterja von Hauerja (podpisal se je leta 1836 v Pisanem of War and Palaeontologist), Ivan Andrej Perko (the later direc- rovu) vojnega svetovalca Imperija in paleontologa iz Dunaja in tor of the cave) and several cave guides. Members of the nobility večih jamskih vodnikov. Podpisani so tudi različni pripadniki or state employees include Bellegard, Adrienne Brandis Desenf- plemstva in državni uslužbenci, med drugim Bellegarde, Adri- fans and her brother Karl Graf Desenffans, Carl von Kotze, and enne Brandis Deseffans in njen brat Karl Graf Desenffans, Carl Mihanović. von Kotze in Mihanović. Keywords: Postojnska jama, Imenski rov (Rov starih podpisov), Ključne besede: Postojnska jama, Rov starih podpisov, sPred- Predjama, inscriptions, historic persons. jama, podpisi, zgodovinske osebnosti. 1 Institute for Applied Geosciences, University of Technology Darmstadt, Schnittspahnstr. 9, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany, e-mails: [email protected], [email protected] Received/Prejeto: 13.5.2008 ACTA CARSOLOGICA 40/2, 397–415, POSTOJNA 2011 Stephan Kempe & Hans-Peter Hubrich INTRODUCTION With more than 10.000 caves on register, Slovenia repre- 2. along the main passage, specifically in the Congress sents one of the European regions with the highest cave Hall, around the big curtain, near the leaning column density. Two cave systems, that have attracted histori- and in many other places (by number probably the cally large numbers of visitors, are Postojnska jama and most inscriptions); Predjama. They play a prominent role in the early history 3. in the Vivarium Proteus (numerous inscriptions); of speleology (e.g., Shaw 1992). There, several hundred 4. near the entrance and end of Nemški rov (few inscrip- visitors have documented their presence over the last five tions; compare Kempe et al. 2006a); centuries by inscribing their name and date of visit on the 5. in Pisani rov (Erzherzog Johann Grotto; mostly on one cave walls. In addition we find many initials, some short stalagmite; compare Kempe et al. 2004); prayers and, more rarely, coat of arms, small sketches or 6. on a block at the apex of the Calvary; short texts. Because of the varying shape and quality of 7. at the entrance of the Tartarus (limited to one panel; the cave walls and its flowstone cover inscriptions occur compare Kempe 2005); in groups that we termed panels (for an example see Fig. 8. in the Male jama (mostly at both ends); and 1). Sometimes an explorer might have inscribed himself 9. in Črna jama. to document that he was the first to reach this point but most often inscriptions were placed where other people Most of the inscriptions postdate the discovery of had already left their token, a human habit not unlike to the main passage of Postojnska jama in 1818, older in- “territorial marking” practiced by many quadrupeds … scriptions can therefore only befound in Imenski rov and in Črna jama. Those in Črna jama are, however, al- most illegible due the pronounced weathering caused by seasonal exchange of air, while those in Imenski rov are mostly preserved beautifully. Due to its easy accessibil- ity, this passage was visited early on. Hohenwart (1830, 1832a, 1832b) and Volpi (1821) published copperplates with inscriptions copied by Schaffenrath from the Imen- ski rov. There the oldest date given is 1213. However, in our photographic documentation of the entire Imenski rov and its 17 panels conducted in February 2007, we were not able to relocate this inscription and nobody else apparently knows where to find it. Due to the fact that Schaffenrath copied Arabic numerals, it is doubtful that this inscription is from that time, since in the 13th centu- ry most dates were written with Roman numerals. Most Fig. 1: Flowstone-framed detail of Panel 12 of the Imenski rov, probably Schaffenrath simply misread the date, with Postojnska jama with inscriptions of “Ottilenfeld 1814, “Cor- 1575 as a possible alternative. The oldest clearly readable rada”, “Franz Himer”, “Johann Melchior Ott” associated with the date that we found in our survey was 1412. But even this coat of arms of Eggenberg and with “Johan Paul Sarcher 1642 date is of questionable authenticity because of the type of den 6. Iuni” among others (for scale: Hans-Peter Hubrich). numerals used. In 1412 the Arabic “4” should have been written as the upper half of an “8”. Postojnska jama was known as “Adelsberger Grotte” Predjama cave was known as “Lueger Höhle” origi- until the end of the k.k. (Imperial-Royal) Austrian Mon- nally. Its southernmost entrances are situated just below archy. It has one of the longest traditions as a show cave the castle of Lueg, today Predjamski grad. It is open in world-wide. Its high attraction is, for example, docu- the summer for visitors as a through-trip, while in win- mented by its entry into the Austrian National Encyclo- ter only the lower passage up to Velika dvorana (the paedia in 1835 (Vol. 1, 18ff, for text see Appendix). In Large Hall) is accessible in order to protect the local bat the system, today explored to a total length of 20.57 km colonies from disturbances. Here, in February 2007, we (Kranjc & Kempe 2007), we find many thousand inscrip- documented about 100 inscriptions in 22 panels. The tions concentrated in the following passages: best known inscription in Predjama is that of Joseph An- 1. in the old cave (Imenski rov (Rov starih podpisov), ton Nagel made in 1748 (Kempe et al. 2006b). Name Cave or Old Cave, compare Kempe 2003 and Here we will discuss 19 signatures mostly from Kempe et al. 2006b); Imenski rov that can be related to persons that are also 398 ACTA CARSOLOGICA 40/1 – 2011 INSCRIPTIONS OF SOME HISTORICALLY KNOWN PERSONS IN POSTOJNSKA JAMA known from other historic sources. This is just a first analysis, concentrating specifically on the older signa- tures and on German language sources. THE INSCRIPTIONS The nature of the inscriptions investigated varies widely. overwriting, smearing or by the diffusion of color, from The following elements may be present: Initials, family fading or the encrustation of later flowstone deposits.