1954 Ivan Selan Topographical View Map the Julian Alps, Lake Bled, Slovenia

Ivan Selan (Johan Selan, Bazelnu; November 18, 1902 - September 29, 1981) was a Slovenian self-taught cartographer, artist, and counterfeiter active in the mid-20th century. He was born into a farming family in Savelji, not far from Ljubljana. He had a staggering 28 siblings, 11 of whom died in infancy, and 17 of whom grew to adulthood. He never expressed great interest in agriculture, instead being drawn to books and sketching. Despite a professed lack of interest in farming, at 14, he was designated heir to the family farm of Šimnov, near Suhadole. As he matured, he kept his money in the Peskov Savings Bank of Ljubljana, a fateful choice. The bank went bankrupt in a corruption scandal. Frustrated with the dire setback, Selan turned to his artistic talents to recoup and began rampantly counterfeiting money. Although his counterfeiting was exposed, instead of being convicted, he became famous. He was acquitted in the regional court and then invited to work as an engraver at the Military Geographical Institute in Belgrade. There, he mastered mapmaking and topographical rendering. A year later, he returned to his family farm, where he took additional work making local maps on commission. Despite considerable success, he was again involved with counterfeiting, this time apparently without his knowledge. (He was told that he was making game currency.) This time, he was convicted and served 7 months of hard labor. During World War II (1939 - 1945), he repeatedly ran afoul of occupying German authorities, who accused him, without evidence (though he was almost certainly guilty) of collaborating with the Partisans by providing maps showing German positions and supply lines. He also advocated that Slovenian territory historically extended north of the Danube nearly to Vienna. Following the war, he was able to fully dedicate himself to cartographic pursuits, producing numerous maps for private commissions, government agencies, schools, and tourism. Selen produced maps of all parts of the Balkans, including Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Selen died still at work on his maps in 1981. For this short summary, we are indebted to Marko Žerovnik's comprehensive biography Ivan Selan Od ponarejanja denarja do slavnega kartografa. More by this mapmaker...