dLib.si - collections

250 treasures for 250 years

Through the diversity of material and the multi-layered narratives they carry, the richness of our library collection is revealed again and again: the intertwining of priceless, irreplaceable and simply beautiful books and other curiosities preserved on our shelves. All of these materials - be it the Costerianum, a unique fragment of the Coster printer, Trubar's Ta celi novi testament (This Whole New Testament), Valvasor's Slava vojvodine Kranjske (Glory of the Duchy of Carniola), Vega's logarithm book, Prešeren's Poezije (Poems) or the proclamation on the opening of the Lyceum Library, portraits, scores, maps and the famous 57th issue of Nova Revija (New magazine)- reveal the NUL's diverse mission and its vitals role in collecting, preserving and transmitting the recorded traces of rich Slovenian creativity.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of NUL, we have selected 250 treasures from the NUL collection to be specially showcased throughout the festive year 2024. These highlights were presented through publications on the MMC RTV Slovenia portal, poster exhibitions along the Krakovski embankment and in the Jakopič promenade in Ljubljana, as well as on social media.

Compositions of Vladimir Lovec

Vladimir Lovec (1922–1992) was a composer and a conductor who also worked as a music critic and a publicist. He finished his studies of composition and conducting at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana under the mentorship of professors Lucijan M. Škerjanc and Danilo Švara respectively. The many carefully planned activities with regard to his 100th birth anniversary show just how strongly he influenced the younger generations of musicians who had the chance of knowing him either as a professor and the principal of the Music School Koper or as a conductor of the Orchestra of the Centre for Music Education Koper for which he wrote his Concertino for Flute and Piano. The Music Collection of the National and University Library preserves the complete legacy of Vladimir Lovec, donated to the Library by his wife Zdenka Lovec and by the Centre for Music Education Koper in 1993. The inventory of the composer’s documentary material is available in the collection Zapuščina skladatelja Vladimirja Lovca, while this digital collection contains the autographs of his original compositions and his music that was published by the Editions of the Society of Slovene Composers.

Compositions of Josip Ipavec

Josip Ipavec (1873-1921), the youngest of the composers from the famous Ipavec family of doctors and musicians, began composing music as a secondary school pupil. As a student, he devoted himself mostly to a solo song, while the last of his works was an operetta, called Prinzessin Tollkopf.

During his life, only five of his compositions were printed. With his pantomime Hampelmännchen (1901), the piano version of which contained stage directions was given both Slovenian and German covers, Josip Ipavec became known as the composer of the first Slovenian ballet. One of his compositions, the men’s chorus Imel sem ljubi dve, became especially popular and has thus been reprinted in many songbooks. Many compositions of Josip Ipavec were initially left as manuscripts. Some of them were lost.

In 2021, the year dedicated to Josip Ipavec, we established a digital collection consisting of the composer’s handwritten music, study notes, and the original libretto for his operetta, as well as the many transcriptions of his compositions. The composer’s manuscripts were sourced from his legacy, obtained by the National and University Library in the years 1964 and 1991.

Igor Krivokapič the composer : a collection of music scores and audio recordings

Igor Krivokapič belongs to the middle generation of Slovenian composers. During the last thirty years, he has composed numerous compositions for various musical groups and attracted renowned Slovenian musicians to perform them. His large orchestral ensembles include four symphonies, three concerts, and music for brass orchestra. He pays special attention to the selection and testing of less recognizable and even overlooked musical instruments, thus fulfilling his mission, which is reflected in his many chamber compositions. He revived the helicon trumpet once used by cavalry, and he encouraged the creation of a family of these instruments, which he also successfully teaches as a professor at the Conservatory of Music and Ballet in Ljubljana. As a contemporary composer, he believes in the ancient roots of musical language - through generations, on the level of the unconscious, they continue into the future in his work as well. The future is guaranteed due to his careful and responsible attitude towards musical record, and willingness to exhibit his compositions without any restriction.

Hren's Choirbooks

Tomaž Hren (1560-1630), the Bishop of Ljubljana, was the leading person in Carniola during the Anti Reformation period. His duty was to carry out ecclesiastical reform in the spirit of the Tridentine Council. He ordered the destruction of Protestant books, with the Pope's permission he preserved only the Dalmatin Bible; he was aware of the power of the vernacular language in the strengthening of religion. He worked to set up a printing house in Ljubljana. The texts in the Slovenian language that he approved were solely of a Catholic religious nature, and he edited and reviewed them himself. He financially supported many\nartists, especially musicians dealing with liturgical music. Hren’s choir books represent a selection of a diverse liturgical works that were popular in the Inner Austria - masses, magnifiers, litanies, psalms, hymns, Marian antiphons and short chants. Compositions in the Hren’s choir books were mostly created by Italians from Venice and other northern Italian regions. There are five\ndifferent writings in the books: three intertwine, indicating the existence of a workshop in Graz where the main writer Georg Kuglmann came from, while according the other two scripts it can be assumed that the compendium was not entirely transcribed in one place.

Glasbena matica

By publishing "good Slovenian compositions for church, school and home”, the Cultural Society Glasbena Matica, founded in 1872, had fulfilled its objective to spread singing and to educate a huge number of amateur singers. It began publishing Slovenian songs and collecting folk songs, in 1882 it founded a music school, in 1891 a choir, and began its concert activity. The first Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra which functioned between 1908 and 1913, and the Orchestral Society, founded in 1919, fulfilled the wishes of the society members to establish a concert orchestra. By setting up the conservatory in 1919, Glasbena matica achieved its most important goal - to provide music education for professional musicians. By the end of the Second World War, almost Slovenian three hundred works of sheet music had been published by Glasbena Matica. The works - collections of vocal compositions, arrangements of folk songs for men and mixed choirs, were intended mainly for amateur singing and performing musical works. In the years between the two world wars, several solo songs and piano compositions for youth were printed, as well as textbooks for piano, violin and singing.