The article centres on the last documented years of Janez Mihelič (* 1750, † not before 1796), the co-author of the first Slovenian poetry almanac Pisanice od lepeh umetnost and collector of proverbs. The existence of the manuscript collection Kraynski Pregovori, the first independent collection of Slovenian proverbs, was merely acknowledged in the report written by Mihelič’s mentor Marko Pohlin, and before that, it was metaphorically alluded to in the poem by Mihelič and Pohlin in Pisanice (1779). Until now, it has been an unknown fact that Mihelič suffered from severe paranoia, which cost him his positions as the parish priest and dean of Svibno near Radeče at the age of forty years. He retreated to the South Tyrolian dioceses of Brixen and Trento, where he returned to his service as priest. In 1796, every trace of him was lost. In 1809, Žiga Zois, prompted by Jernej Kopitar, tried in vain to locate Mihelič’s collection of proverbs, which was also of interest to the founder of Slavic studies, Josef Dobrovský.