[3] Valvasor was born in the town of Ljubljana (Laibach), at the time the principal city of Duchy of Carniola, today the capital of Slovenia, to an aristocratic family originally from Bergamo, Italy.

[6] He was the twelfth child born to Bartholomäus and Anna Maria Freiin von Rauber, who only lived at Medija Castle in Izlake but also had a town residence in Ljubljana at Old Square.

[7] Graduating in 1659 at the age of seventeen, he did not choose to continue his studies at a university but decided to broaden his horizons by meeting learned men on a journey across Europe.

Shortly after marrying 13-year-old Anna Rosina Grafenweger in 1672, Valvasor acquired Bogenšperk Castle near Litija, where he arranged a writing, drawing and printing workshop.

Valvasor spent a fortune on the publishing of his books; towards the end of his life, his debts forced him to sell Bogenšperk Castle, his vast library and his collection of prints.

Upon the proposal of Edmond Halley, who was not only an astronomer but also a geophysicist, and in 1687 his extensive treatise on the hydrology of intermittent Lake Cerknica won him a fellowship of the Royal Society.