Dr Josip Žontar was one of the leading Slovenian historians. His research activity fo-cussed on four topics: local history, economic and social history, history of Southeast Europe, and legal ...history. Žontar especially marked the field of local history with his extensive monograph on the history of the city of Kranj (1939). His research work on the subject of Slovene cities weaves in both economic and legal history. Žontar also engaged in essential issues of Slovene historiography, most notably in a paper entitled “Principles of Slovene History and the Problems of Archives” that he presented at a con-ference of Slovene historians in 1939. He advocated ambitious and responsible historical scientific research, and his work reflects rigorous use of archival sources. His cooperation with Professor Eberhard von Künßberg was connected with Žontar’s contribution to the Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch (DRW) and particularly interesting. Professor Eberhard (Georg Otto) Freiherr von Künßberg (1881–1941) was one of the most authoritative German legal historians of the first half of the 20th century and one of the most import-ant contributors to the DRW. He started as an assistant, became editor and ended up leading the project for two and a half decades.
Razprava je nastala na podlagi še neobjavljene korespondence med Josipom Žontarjem in Eberhardom Künßbergom. Najprej je predstavljeno njuno raziskovalno delo. Korespondenca je povezana z Žontarjevim ...sodelovanjem pri Nemškem pravnozgodovinskem slovarju, ki ga je vodil Künßberg. Künßberg je Žontarja povabil k sodelovanju leta 1937, ko je Žontarja obiskal v Kranju. Leta 1938 je po udeležbi na mednarodnem zgodovinskem kongresu v Zürichu Žontar Künßbergu vrnil obisk v Heidelbergu. Takrat si je Žontar ogledal tudi arhiv, zbran v okviru Nemškega pravnozgodovinskega slovarja. Njuno sodelovanje in izmenjava strokovnih mnenj ter tiskov je trajala vse do Künßbergove smrti leta 1941. Žontar se je nato še dopisoval z vdovo Katarino von Künßberg.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, four benches were established in the Carniolan provincial assemblies-those of the prelates, lords, knights, and of the cities. According to a list of 1577, ...26 prelates, 17 lords, 94 knights, and 12 cities (149 altogether) constitued the provincial assembly. In reality, far fewer members took part in provincial assemblies than were on the list. Undoubtedly, the greatest change in their structure was caused by a decree of the provincial prince on the expulsion of the Protestant nobility on 1 August 1628, since membership of the provincial assembly was now granted to new individuals. The assembly operated in the form of negotiations between the provincial prince and the estates, which approved taxes and military assistance to the provincial prince. A procedure for approval of taxes and military assistance at the provincial assemblies became established after 1500, when the provincial assemblies convened regularly, despite the fact that, legally, the taxes were extraordinary ones. In the sixteenth century, the provincial prince, as a rule, summoned the provincial assembly once a year. The estates were not granted the right to convene the provincial assembly. However, apart from their judicial collegiate bodies, they met freely at boards which were summoned on their own initiative at least from the 1530s onwards. Formally, the provincial board could also be convened by the provincial governor, but in practice, it was mainly called by commissioners or the provincial administrator. The boards met several times a year, more frequently than the usually annual provincial assembly-the Grand Board, mostly four times a year. The boards were a kind of smaller provincial assembly. In 1622, the Little Board consisted of four members of the provincial assembly from the bench of the prelates, four from the bench of the lords, three from the bench of the knights, and one representative of the cities (from Ljubljana); the Grand Board consisted of six prelates, eight counts from the bench of the lords, nine knights, and three towns.
