Franciscan Library 
and Museum with 
Pinacotheca in 
Ljubljana
Jan Dominik Bogataj oFM*
The Franciscan Museum and Pinacotheca of the Franciscan Friary in 
the center of Ljubljana represent, together with the renovated library, 
a newly conceived cultural and art-historical section of the Friary as 
the mother house of the Slovenian Franciscan Province of the Holy 
Cross. The library currently holds ca. 70,000 book units, including 
precious books such as incunabula – one-seventh of all incunabula in 
the country – and can thus boast the title of Slovenia’s most extensive 
monastic library. The newly designed museum showcases some of the 
friary’s key cultural and artistic objects.
This heritage dictates an obligation to preserve the artifacts carefully 
– yet opens the question of public accessibility. The purpose of the 
renovated library and the new museum is to offer, on the one hand, 
a detailed presentation of typically Franciscan or Franciscan-related 
exhibits or personalities and, on the other hand, to create a modern 
museum with a diverse collection for a broader range of visitors. The 
design of the new Franciscan Museum and Pinacotheca is thus a 
synthesis between a historical presentation of Franciscan identity in 
Ljubljana and the display of a broader cultural and artistic heritage 
interesting for the widest possible audience.
THE MUSEUM WITH PINACOTHECA
At the entrance of the museum, visitors are greeted by a chronogram. 
The sum of the highlighted Roman letters, number 2023, represents 
the year of the museum’s foundation, while the content of the chro-
doi: https://doi.org/10.4312/clotho.5.2.151-158
* University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Theology, Poljanska cesta 4, SI-1000 
 Ljubljana; jan.bogataj@teof.uni-lj.si.
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JAN DOMINIK BOGATAJ OFM152
nogram illustrates the two-fold design of this new exhibition place, 
the museum with a gallery and the library. 
In prInCIpIo LoCVs MVsIs fVIt,
nVnC hIC
VnICo qVI artes InspIrat, 
InspIratIo Ipsa et artIfeX est,
CantIbVs CanVnt CoLores LItteraeqVe
Initially, this was a place for the Muses,
Now, a place where
The only Inspirer of art, who is
The Inspiration itself and the Artist,
Is glorified with songs of colors and letters
The museum premises consist of two units: the Treasury and the Pi-
nacotheca. The Treasury displays the key precious objects and books 
from the library collection. The most significant works of art from 
the friary’s collection hang in the Pinacotheca.
Treasury
The items in the Treasury are presented in thematic sections in chro-
nological sequence. The Franciscans’ history in Ljubljana covers eight 
centuries, from the 13th to the 21st century. The exhibition thus begins 
with the oldest medieval document in the collection: the privilege (Ad 
consequendam gloriam) of Pope Clement IV from 1265, which granted 
the Order of Friars Minor that no other monastery, church, or oratory 
of other religious orders would be within a circle of more than 500 
meters of their monasteries.
The late Middle Ages are represented by a fantastic polychrome 
Gothic statue of the “Madonna of Rožnik” from the middle of the 
15th century. This is one of the extremely rare surviving Gothic (sacral) 
objects in central Slovenia, currently on loan from the National Gallery.
The written heritage is represented by two manuscript codices 
from the early 15th century, a Bible and a collection of sermons. The 
collection continues with several incunabula bound into manuscript 
fragments, often richly illuminated, a manuscript psalter for the chanted 
prayer, and manuscripts in Hebrew and Arabic. This is followed by 
a presentation of selected incunabula and other older prints. Among 
these, the second edition of Copernicus’ seminal work De revolu-
tionibus orbium coelestium (1566) is an exceptional rarity. Among the 
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FRANCISCAN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM WITH PINACOTHECA 153
key Slovenian publications are a copy of Jurij Dalmatin’s Bible (1584), 
Primož Trubar’s personal copy, which includes his signatures; the 
first edition of Prešeren’s poem “Krst pri Savici” (“The Baptism on 
the Savica”) (1836) adorned with the author’s dedication to his fellow 
lawyer, Judge Josef Pillman; and a manuscript collection of poems by 
Prešeren’s contemporary and friend, Fr. Benvenut Crobath. 
The museum display continues with the Baroque period: next to 
a vitrine with the liturgical vestments and utensils, one can find a 
significant but hitherto almost unknown source, the Bosna Seraphica 
chronicle, written in 1780 by Fr. Maver Fajdiga (the so-called “Fajdiga 
Chronicle”). Fr. Fajdiga describes the history of the Franciscan Order 
in the Balkans, with particular attention to all the Franciscan friaries 
of the then-Croatian province.
The museum further preserves two important ethnological col-
lections founded by Slovenian missionaries: the Bishop of Marquette, 
Frideric Irenaeus Baraga (1797–1868), and the missionary to China, 
the Franciscan Fr. Engelhard Avbelj (1887–1928). The first collection 
includes objects from the daily life of the Ottawa and Ojibwe Indians 
of the Great Lakes region of North America and Baraga’s dictionary of 
the Ojibwe language. The second collection includes various artifacts 
from Chinese culture and Catholic prints in Chinese.
The museum also displays the work of Fr. Stanislav Škrabec 
(1844–1918), the instigator of Slovenian phonetics and one of the great-
est Slovenian linguists. When Fr. Škrabec had to flee to Ljubljana to 
escape death and destruction of the First World War, he brought with 
him his copies of the covers of the magazine Cvetja z vertov svetega 
Frančiška [Flowers from the Gardens of St Francis], where he recorded 
his linguistic findings. The author’s handwritten comments give these 
copies exceptional value.
Two objects by the Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik, also a member 
of the Order of St Francis, represent the 20th century. Plečnik’s red 
monstrance, explicitly designed for the Franciscan church in Ljubljana, 
is considered one of his central liturgical works. Below the monstrance, 
the visitors can observe one of Plečnik’s two unique chess sets, which 
he made specifically for the Franciscans in Ljubljana. 
The museum’s installation concludes with a thematic section de-
dicated to the difficult period of World War II when the Franciscans 
also found themselves in a difficult situation between the two sides 
involved in the Civil War. The display includes some scarce inter-war 
prints and documents, above which two flags hang: the original flag 
of the Kingdom of Italy, which flew at the Friary during the Italian 
occupation (1941–1943), and a copy of the old Slovenian flag, which 
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JAN DOMINIK BOGATAJ OFM154
was hung on the church bell tower by the Slovenian resistance fighters 
during the war.
Pinacotheca
The gallery installation comprises a selection from the broader col-
lection of artworks the Friary holds. The chronological arc of the 
artworks on display stretches from the 16th to the 20th century but 
focuses on the Baroque period when most of the paintings now owned 
by the friary were created. Still, the collection starts with two icons: an 
older representation of Mother of Consolation and St John the Baptist 
that probably belongs to the Cretan school of the 16th century and a 
Baroque copy of the Black Madonna of Brno with an artfully carved 
and gilded frame. 
Two Baroque canvases follow: the Adoration of the Shepherds 
by an unknown Venetian master of the Bassano tradition and the 
Sorrowful Mother of God by an unknown, probably southern Ita-
lian or Spanish painter. The installation then introduces the central 
figure of the local Carniolan Baroque, Valentin Metzinger, who was 
closely associated with the Franciscans throughout his life and is 
represented by three canvases. The next painting is St. Bonaventure 
by Anton Cebej, which means that the collection’s paintings include 
half of the “Big Four” of Carniolan Baroque painting, completed by 
Fortunat Bergant and Franc Jelovšek. 
The era of the so-called fading of the Baroque at the end of the 
18th century is effectively represented by two late Baroque painters: 
Leopold Layer, author of one of the quintessential Slovene paintings, 
the merciful image of Our Lady Help of Christians from Brezje, and 
the Bavarian painter Janez Andrej Herrlein, who brought his unique 
style of painting to Carniola. The transition in the subject matter of 
Slovenian painting at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th 
centuries is illustrated by two works by the Šubic brothers. Firstly, one 
can admire a painting of Janez Šubic, St. Anthony of Padua, which still 
retains traits of late Baroque Pietism in its early celestial sphere. Then, 
there is Visitation of the Virgin Mary by his brother Jurij Šubic, opening 
the door to early 20th-century realism – and thus also to Impressionism 
and Expressionism – and is therefore considered one of the seminal 
works of Slovenian painting. The collection is completed by two works 
that already embrace this Impressionist enthusiasm: Rihard Jakopič’s 
intriguing small canvas, The Baptism in the Jordan from around 1900, 
and Matej Sternen’s sketch for the ceiling frescoes of the central nave 
of the Franciscan Church in Ljubljana.
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FRANCISCAN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM WITH PINACOTHECA 155
THE LIBRARY OF THE FRANCISCAN FRIARY 
History of the library
The Library of the Franciscan friary in Ljubljana, the oldest  continuously 
operating library institution in Slovenia, is the richest monastic 
library in this area. Its eight-hundred-year history is depicted by an 
anaphoric Latin inscription at the entrance to the gallery, focusing 
on the critical years of its functioning: 
s. XIII condita, s. XIV incensa, s. XV observantibus tradita, s. XVI 
partim dispersa, s. XVII iterum congregata, s. XVIII locupletata et 
trans fluvium translata, s. XIX nova domo accepta, s. XX confun-
dendo salvata, a. D. MMXXIII vero renovata
 
Founded in the 13th century, burned in the 14th century, handed 
down to observants in the 15th century, partly dispersed in the 
16th century, reassembled in the 17th century, enriched and trans-
ferred across the river in the 18th century, received in a new home 
in the 19th century, saved through confusion in the 20th century, 
and genuinely renewed in the year 2023
The origins of the library date back to the early 13th century, when 
the Franciscans settled in Ljubljana in 1233 at the invitation of the 
Patriarch of Aquileia, Bertold V. A friary was built by the Conven-
tuals on today’s Vodnik Square. This friary must have had at least an 
armarium, a place for the most essential books needed for communal 
life and worship. Valvasor’s large panorama of Ljubljana suggests 
that the library was located in the western wing, in the corner of the 
cloister. In 1382, the library burned to the ground but was rebuilt 
between 1403 and 1412. 
When the province adopted the Observant reform in the 15th 
century under the Auersperg family, who were provincial governors, 
the Conventuals had to leave the friary. It was then occupied by the 
second branch of the Order of Friars Minor, the Observants, who 
were intensely involved in the collection of books, librarianship, and 
education. During the Catholic Reform, the Franciscans abandoned 
the friary almost completely and emigrated from Ljubljana in 1596. 
On their return in 1602, many books were temporarily moved to 
the Franciscan friary in Graz. From 1596 to 1602, when the friary 
was taken over by the Imperial Hospital, many books were lost or 
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appropriated by the hospital administrator. In 1609, the monks asked 
him, through Bishop Tomaž Hren, to give them the books and the 
library inventory.
The formal founder of the library was Fr. Sigismundus Škerpin 
(1689–1775), theologian, provincial, general visitator of the provinces 
of Hungary, Austria, Bavaria, Venice, and Rome, and general definitor. 
He secured a special fund to purchase books, to which citizens of 
Carniola and Ljubljana contributed as donors. The library collection 
grew, and from 1733 to 1735, the friary built a new extension deco-
rated with a painted ceiling and furnished in baroque style. Škerpin 
traveled extensively and purchased or received many books that are 
now part of the friary library during his journeys. In the second half 
of the 18th century, the entire collection comprised over 4000 vo-
lumes. No less than 2672 volumes bear Škerpin’s ex-libris. Although 
it begins with the personal characteristic of an ex-libris (Ab A. R. P. 
Sigismundo Skerpin), it also emphasizes the communal purpose of his 
purchases (pro Bibliotheca Labacensi PP. Franciscanorum). Škerpin’s 
entire project was one of the central contributions to the Ljubljana 
baroque “scholarly renaissance,” the library was one of the richest 
collections in Carniola.
In 1784, the friary of the barefoot Augustinians in nowadays 
Prešeren Square was abolished by Joseph II and given to the Francis-
cans, who took over the pastoral care in the newly established parish, 
carrying out school activities and social work. The Franciscans also 
brought books and documents from their previous location in today’s 
Vodnik Square. There is no precise information about the library’s 
location and layout during the initial period of the Franciscans’ 
stay in Prešeren Square. One exception is the mention in Fajdiga’s 
chronicle that Fr. Lenart Košar, monastery guardian between 1814 and 
1823, had new library premises built or the existing ones enlarged. 
The present two-story building with two library galleries on the site 
of the friary was built according to the plans of architect Raymund 
Jeblinger from Graz after the earthquake of 1896, during the time of 
the guardianship of Fr. Hugolin Sattner.
In 1919, a reading room was added to the library. In 1933, the 
library was renovated since it was already very neglected. During 
World War II, almost all the duplicates of the books were removed, 
leaving only the covers and some other fragments of the bindings 
(about 200 items of membra disiecta). Before World War II, the 
library attempted a complete reorganization of the layout of the 
material by subject, which was only partially implemented. This 
may have saved the books from the German occupiers, but after the 
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FRANCISCAN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM WITH PINACOTHECA 157
war, the Visitor General ordered that the old layout according to size 
(formats) should be introduced. In 1970, the library premises were 
almost demolished in favor of a shopping center on the new “Boris 
Kraigher platform,” but the 1952 decree on protecting the library’s 
monuments prevented this.
Between 2022 and 2023, the library was extensively renovated 
following the strict guidelines of the Institute for the Protection of 
the Cultural Heritage of Slovenia. The electrical wiring was replaced, 
new integrated lighting was installed to replace the old 1960s lighting, 
the window sashes were thoroughly refurbished, and the wooden and 
ceramic floors were renovated. The discovery of a dangerous wall 
fungus that had been dormant for decades has helped ensure that 
the building is thoroughly restored. Many of the artworks have been 
reinstalled. In January 2023, the library became the first Franciscan 
library in Slovenia to join the mutual bibliographic system, Cobiss.si, 
and cataloging began with the entry of all incunabula. A new archive 
room has also been set up in the corridor next to the library, where 
provincial, friary, and parish archival material is stored. There is also 
a new layout of the books: the ground floor and the first gallery now 
house the historical part of the collection (printed up to around 1850), 
while the second gallery houses later items. To solve the problem of 
space constraints, later periodicals and fiction have been excluded.
Library collection
The historical and modern parts of the library’s collection total 
around 70,000 items. The library has undergone several cataloging 
attempts in the past. The earliest catalog dated from 1491, when the 
friary in Vodnik Square was abandoned by the Conventuals and 
occupied by the Observants. Unfortunately, this manuscript catalog 
was likely destroyed. There were several attempts at various catalogs 
from the early and late 20th century, but none were complete.
The Škerpin books alone are printed in ten different languages: 
Arabic, Flemish, French, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Chaldean, Latin, 
German, Spanish, and German. In addition, the collection also 
includes books in Dutch, Old Czech, and other languages, mainly 
European. The works are classified into 14 subject groups. The li-
brary also contains a considerable amount of modern manuscripts, a 
collection of sheet music by Hugolin Satner, a large amount of older 
photographic material and older periodicals, a collection of church 
pictures, a collection of postcards, a collection of small prints, a 
numismatic collection, a collection of decorations, documents, and 
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diplomas, and a collection of posters and maps. A unique feature of 
the library is an extensive collection of more than three thousand 
prayer books in over fifteen languages. The library’s diverse material 
is displayed in eight exhibition cases on the ground floor. The exhi-
bition concludes with showcases in which the arc of history extends 
to the present with the contemporary scholarly and literary work of 
the Franciscans from the Ljubljana Friary.
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