The historical source, the manuscript collection of Slovenian place names from Metelko’s Legacy, which is kept by the Slovenian National and University Library, has been published in two volumes. The first volume contains the transcription and translation of the German-Slovene lists of 3,178 place names from Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola and the Villach department of Carinthia from 1823, compiled by district clerks. The material is supplemented by a bilingual list of 446 place names, including towns, market towns, parishes, vicariates, local chaplaincies and the names of seigneuries, estates, small seigneuries, manors, castles and monasteries, all of which Metelko recorded in a small notebook.

Volume 2 contains the localization of places and their identification with modern name forms, as well as a linguistic commentary on the name forms attested in the clerks’ lists and Metelko’s notebook, with references to older and more recent historical records. The names are arranged by seigneuries in the same order as in the original manuscript and are presented in four parallel columns: the modern Slovenian form, the genitive form, the Slovenian form from Metelko’s material, and the historical German form. For easier orientation within the name material, the book is accompanied by a comprehensive name index. The volume also includes Metelko’s additional instructions for recording the genitive forms of Slovenian place names.