CURIOUS COLLECTION OF CURIOUS DEATHS IN THEATRUM MORTIS HUMANAE TRIPARTITUM BY JOHANN WEICHARD VALVASOR: CONTEXT, SOURCES, INVENTION

Theatrum mortis humanae tripartitum (1682) by the Carniolan polymath Johann Weichard Valvasor (1641–1693) can be classified under the genre of allegorical moral-didactic poetry, very popular in the Baroque age. The chapter Varia genera mortis, where 35 death cases are presented in short epigrams by Valvasor and illustrated with engravings made after the original drawings of Slovenian draughtsman Johann Koch, has so far not been an issue of scholarly research, despite its interesting iconography. The article focuses on the iconography of the Varia genera mortis, its artistic context and its genesis. For the first time the direct literary sources of author’s inspiration are identified and his relation to the tradition of the Renaissance and Baroque genre of picturesque death stories established.