As part of the celebration of the day marking Slovenia's membership of the UN on 22 May 1992, Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec will unveil a portrait of Herberstein and address the diplomatic corps.

The Foreign Ministry is also scheduled to launch an exhibition based on Herberstein's book "Gratae posteritati" which takes a look at his diplomatic missions spanning more than four decades through the first half of the 16th century.

The exhibition will be put on by the Ivan Potrč Library of Ptuj, which will donate a copy of the book to the ministry on the occasion.

Born in Vipava in 1486, Herberstein was a Carnolian diplomat and writer who travelled around much of Europe in conducting dozens of diplomatic missions.

His most notable work dealt with Russia, since his ability to speak Slovene - at the time an emerging language, which shares Slavic roots with Russian - allowed him a previously undocumented level of interaction with the country and its people.

The culmination of his experience in Russia was "Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii" (Notes on Moscovite Affairs), a major work on Russia and its society, which was published in Latin in 1549 and in Slovenian two years later.