LIPOLD, Marko Vincenc
* 19. 1. 1816, Mozirje, Slovenia
† 22. 4. 1883, Idrija, Slovenia
mining engineer, geologist
L. attended the gymnasium in Celje, studied law in Graz and Vienna, and afterwards mining in Banska Štiavnica. Despite excellent study results and two faculty diplomas, he had to wait five years for a post. Between 1842 and 1849, he worked as a lawyer and mining expert in different parts of the monarchy, and after that as a geologist at the Royal and Imperial Geological Institute of Vienna until 1867, where he participated in the systematic geological mapping of the monarchy. After being overlooked for the post of first geologist, he left this state office after 17 years. Afterwards, he returned to Slovenia and for the next 16 years, until his death in 1883, led the mercury mine in Idrija. His geological and palaeontological works on Idrija have, in some ways, remained unsurpassed to this very day. In 1873, at the Vienna World Exhibition, he presented a geological map of Idrija with geological profiles and precise descriptions of the complicated composition of the territory of Idrija, for which he received a special medal. As a manager of a mine, he derived from the geological structure of ore beds. His discussions on old ore beds of Idrija (1879) are of special importance, since they founded the still valid hypothesis on the sublimation origin of this area. L. was less successful in solving the social problems of the workers.
L. is considered one of the most important Slovene geologists, who published 212 scientific works. In the second half of the 20th century, the so-called »Idrija geodetic school« with Ivan Mlakar, Ladislav Placer, Jože Čar, and others, referred to L.'s tradition.
