![A street name in Trun GR, but so much more. Caspar Decurtins made a mark on the political culture of Surselva that can still be felt clearly today.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/via-caspar-decurtins-schild-titel-300x225.jpg)
Minor language, monumental work
In his ‘Rätoromanische Chrestomathie’, unconventional Graubünden politician and cultural scholar Caspar Decurtins (1855-1916) created the most important older source text on the Romansh culture of his home canton. And did so while accomplishing a great deal more.
![Caspar Decurtins, painted by Balthasar Caratsch, 1895.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/caspar-decurtins-gemalt-von-balthasar-caratsch-1895-246x300.jpg)
![Melusine playing with the dragon’s tail: mythical creatures occasionally escape the written word to adorn building walls, where they fire the imagination and encourage their sagas’ retelling. Sgraffito on a house in the Engadin village of Cinuos-chel.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/melusine-300x287.jpg)
![‘Igl uors en Val Sumvitg’ – the saga of bears in the Val Sumvitg (top right) in a questionnaire collecting folklore for the ‘Rätoromanische Chrestomathie’, 1887...](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/fragebogen-zur-volkskundlichen-materialsammlung-300x239.jpg)
![…and then printed (bottom left) in the second volume of the Decurtins’ monumental work, which appeared in 1901.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/ratoromanische-chrestomathie-300x232.jpg)