The monograph deals with Baron Sigmund Zois (1747‒1819) as a central figure of the last two decades of the eighteenth and the first two decades of the nineteenth century in the Duchy of Carniola and in the Slovenian lands. Its purpose is not to comprehensively capture all dimensions of Zois’s life and work, but to present the latest research in this field and thus stimulate new research, since archival sources are far from exhausted. The authors of the monograph deal with Zois’s Enlightenment, poetry and linguistics, his accomplishments for the development of the Slovenian language in the Illyrian Provinces and the Habsburg Monarchy, his geological activities, library, palace in Breg in Ljubljana, gardens in Ljubljana and Brdo pri Kranju, preserved personal objects, as well as the musical activities, cultural patronage and iron foundries of the Zois family. Studies confirm that Zois’s efforts made a permanent contribution to the development of science and art in Carniola and significantly accelerated the development of Slovenians into a modern European nation.