<i>Diarium</i> patra Žige Škerpina: Kronika potovanja iz Ljubljane v Valladolid leta 1740

In 1740, Father Žiga Škerpin (Sigismundus Skerpin, 1689‒1755) attended the General Chapter of the Franciscan Order in Castile as a represent­ative of the Croatian and Carniolan Province of the Franciscan Order. During the journey from Ljubljana to Valladolid and back, which lasted from 24 January to 10 September, he recorded his experiences. After the return, he completed the manuscript Diarium oder Kurze beschreibung der Raiß, which is kept in the Franciscan Monastery in Kamnik. The text is in German, except for a few passages in Latin. Škerpin travelled through Carniola, Carinthia, and Tyrol, along the border between the Holy Roman Empire and the Swiss Confederation, and then through Alsace and Burgundy to the south, as he wanted to see as much of France as possible. He also stayed in France for a long time on his way home: from Valladolid he travelled through southwestern France and stopped for several days in Paris and Versailles. In the Habsburg hereditary lands, the journey went smoothly: Škerpin spent the night in Franciscan and other monasteries, and he was also received kindly by the secular authorities. When he travelled along Lake Constance and the Rhine, he often found himself in a politically and religiously different environment, for example in the Protestant areas of the Swiss Confederation (e.g. Basel). He encountered the greatest difficulties in France, partly because he did not know French. He regularly com­plained about the lack of respect of the French towards the clergy, their general inhospitality and high prices. Regardless, he was taken by the orderliness of French ecclesiastical, state, and city institutions, especially monasteries, universities, and hospitals, and the grandeur of architectural and engineering achievements, such as roads, bridges, forts, water pumps, and canals. He felt more accepted in Spain, where he noticed a great respect for priests, especially the Franciscans.