Pisma Franca Franza baronu Erbergu (1832–1840)

Josef Kalasanz Baron Erberg (1771–1843), a wealthy collector and patron with connections to the imperial court, spent the last years of his life in voluntary solitary confinement in his manor house in Dol near Ljubljana. Nevertheless, he wanted to be kept informed of what was going on, so he hired an Austrian army captain named Franz Franz (1779–1840), who spent his retirement years in Ljubljana, as an informant. Franz sent almost daily letters to Erberg between 1832 and 1840, thus creating a kind of chronicle of Biedermeier Ljubljana. The main part of the publication is a scholarly and critical transcription of just over 1800 of Franz's (German) letters to Erberg, supplemented by an introductory study and an index of names. The letters contain mostly local news about Ljubljana and its inhabitants, mainly about the high society. The lower classes are mentioned less frequently, usually in connection with accidents and violent deaths. The areas that Franz frequently mentioned in his letters were illness and health, social life (the Casino, the theatre), travel, as well as reports from other parts of the monarchy. The publication was the basis for the studies published in a separate monograph entitled Podobe bidermajerske Ljubljane ('Images of Biedermeier Ljubljana').