Societas eruditorum incognitorum in terris Austriacis

Societas eruditorum incognitorum in terris Austriacis
Societas eruditorum incognitorum in terris Austriacis
Olomouc palace of Joseph von Petrasch
Founder(s) Joseph von Petrasch
Franz G. Giannini[1]
Type learned society
Founded 1746
Location Olomouc, Moravia, Kingdom of Bohemia
Coordinates 49°35′24″N 17°15′43″E / 49.58999°N 17.26190°E / 49.58999; 17.26190Coordinates: 49°35′24″N 17°15′43″E / 49.58999°N 17.26190°E / 49.58999; 17.26190
Key people Johann Christoph Gottsched[2]
Matthias Bel[3]
Ludovico Antonio Muratori[3]
Angelo Maria Quirini[3]
Theodor Anton Taulow von Rosenthal[1]
Johann Chr. von Jordan[1]
Oliver Legipont[1]
Magnoald Ziegelbauer[1]
Hieronymus Pez[1]
Dissolved 1751
Location of Olomouc in
The Czech Republic
Location of Olomouc in   The Czech Republic is located in Czech Republic
Location of Olomouc in
The Czech Republic
Coordinates: 49°35′42″N 17°15′32″E / 49.595°N 17.25889°E / 49.595; 17.25889

Societas eruditorum incognitorum in terris Austriacis (English: The Society of Anonymous Scholars in the Austrian Lands) was the first learned society in the lands under control of Austrian Habsburgs. It was established, formally, in 1746 at the university and episcopal town of Olomouc in order to spread Enlightenment ideas. Its monthly journal, "Monatliche Auszüge" was the first scientific journal in the Habsburg Monarchy.

Contents

Background

When the Habsburgs took over the Czech throne in 1526, as many as nine out of ten inhabitants of the crown lands were protestants.[4] Olomouc, as the episcopal seat became a centre for the counter-reformation, with the Jesuits taking over the local college in 1566. In 1573 the college was promoted to University status, and the special papal seminary, the Collegium Nordicum was established in 1578. Initially competing with the schools run by the Hussite "Bohemian Brethren", the Jesuits obtained an effective monopoly after the Thirty year's war: this brought savage re-Catholization and Germanization to the Czech population. The Jesuit monopoly was however challenged because the Moravian nobility wanted to expand the range of areas taught beyond just theology and philosophy. In 1679 secular legal studies were introduced at the University, and in 1725 the Academy of Nobility was established in Olomouc. Both these developments met with fierce opposition from the Jesuits.[5]

It was the strong Jesuit reaction[6] which led an alumnus of Faculty of Philosophy of Olomouc University, Joseph von Petrasch,[1] to join with another locally based aristocrat, Francesco G. Giannini in obtaining the consent of empress Maria Theresa for the establishment the learned society in 1746.[7] Von Petrasch was a noble of Slavonian origin who at one stage had studied Law at Leiden and who had also pursued a career as an adjutant to Prince Eugene of Savoy which had left him with the financial means to support the Societas eruditorum from his private wealth.

Objectives

The society set itself the goals of advancing the sciences, in particular the natural sciences, mathematics, numismatics, and the history of scientific research, along with philology and literature. In the religious conflicts of the time between protestants and catholics, the Societas eruditorum took an objective and pragmatic approach, and it had members in both camps.

Members

Petrasch was able to recruit many members from across Central Europe, eager to spread Enlightenment ideas with a journal of their own.[8] The members included local members of the nobility, state officials (such as Theodor Anton Taulow von Rosenthal and Johann Chr. von Jordan), and Benedictine ecclesiastical historians (Benedictines such as Oliver Legipont, Magnoald Ziegelbauer and Hieronymus Pez.[1] Its so-called "corresponding members" included the north German dramatist, critic, and German language reformer Johann Christoph Gottsched[2], the Slovak founder of Hungarian history-writing Matthias Bel, leading Italian scholars Ludovico Antonio Muratori and Angelo Maria Quirini and the Czech Bonaventura Piter[3] as well as the Archbishop of Kraków Andrzej Stanisław Załuski and the Cardinal Domenico Silvio Passionei.[9]

The members were designated as "anonymous" in order to avoid repressions from the state censors.[3]

Journal

The society was publishing the first scientific journal in Habsburg Monarchy, the Olmützer Monathlichen Auszüge Alt- und neuer Gelehrter Sachen (English: Olomouc's Monthly Excerpts from Old and New Erudition), with each issue having some 80 pages. The journal was on sale in Olomouc, Brno, Prague, Vienna, as well as by book sellers in Nuremberg, Wrocław, Leipzig or Bautzen.[10]

Focus

It was especially concerned with the reform and promotion of the German language as well as with spreading the Enlightenment ideas.[3] The society was propagating various streams of contemporary thought. Two of them were of particular importance: the philosophical rationalism of Christian Wolff, a practical approach to philosophy which in Moravia was combined with the Catholic reformism of Ludovico Antonio Muratori; and the school of critical historiography stemming from Jean Mabillon.[1]

The German focus of the Society was not so much aimed against Czech language, rather against the prevailing use of Latin as lingua franca as well as against the Gaul-mania of the high German society.[3]

The Society received state protection, but opposition from within the Jesuit-dominated town, ongoing problems with Vienna-based censors,[3] as well as disagreements from within the Society itself, led to its premature demise. Nevertheless, its periodical represented a landmark: the first attempt within the Habsburg monarchy to unite the learned, the dilettanti and the curieux and to bring them into contact with the pan-European Respublica literaria.[1]

See also

  • Josef Vratislav Monse

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j (English) Teich, Mikuláš, Bohemia in history, Cambridge University Press, p. 80, http://books.google.at/books?id=zfxITVc66KMC&lpg=PA165&dq=societas%20incognitorum%20eruditorum&as_brr=3&hl=cs&pg=PA165#v=onepage&q=societas&f=false 
  2. ^ a b (English) Van Horn Melton, James, Absolutism and the Eighteenth-Century Origins of Compulsory Schooling in Prussia and Austria, Olomouc: Cambridge University Press, p. 80, http://books.google.com/books?id=2f69mKhTDNQC&lpg=PA80&dq=Societas%20eruditorum%20incognitorum&hl=cs&pg=PA80#v=onepage&q=Societas%20eruditorum%20incognitorum&f=false 
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h (German) Koschmal, Walter; Nekula, Marek; Rogall, Joachim, Deutsche und Tschechen:Geschichte, Kultur, Politik, C.H.Beck, http://books.google.com/books?id=7Bps8KR9-9EC&lpg=PA70&dq=Societas%20eruditorum%20incognitorum&hl=cs&pg=PA70#v=onepage&q=Societas%20eruditorum%20incognitorum&f=false 
  4. ^ Náboženství a moderní česká společnost, David Václavík, Grada Publishing a.s., 2010, page 53
  5. ^ See History of University of Olomouc
  6. ^ (Czech) Geryk, Josef, Osvícenské právnictví - základ novodobého práva, Brno: Masarykova Univerzita, http://is.muni.cz/th/56141/pravf_d/Disertacni_prace_Osvicenske_pravnictvi-zaklad_novodobeho_prava.txt 
  7. ^ (Czech) Slavik, František Augustin, Vlastivěda moravská: Země a lid, Díl 1, Brno: Muzejní a vlastivědná společnost v Brně, p. 827 
  8. ^ (English) Becker-Cantarino, Barbara (2005), German literature of the eighteenth century: the enlightenment and sensibility, Boydell & Brewer, p. 284 
  9. ^ Zimprich, Richard (1974). Olmütz als deutsche Hochschulstadt in Mähren. Esslinger am Neckar: Bruno Langer Verlag. 
  10. ^ (German) Šimeček, Zdeněk (2002), Geschichte des Buchhandels in Tschechien und in der Slowakei, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, http://books.google.com/books?id=MivtAc06cGgC&lpg=PA35&dq=Societas%20eruditorum%20incognitorum%20in%20terris%20Austriacis&hl=cs&pg=PA35#v=onepage&q&f=false 

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Societas incognitorum — Der Petrasch Palast (tsch.: Petrášův palác) am Obernring Nr. 25 in Olmütz Die Societas incognitorum (voller Name: Societas incognitorum eruditorum in terris Austriacis) war eine Gelehrtengesellschaft im Sinne der Aufklärung in der Zeit des… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • The Baroque Cycle — Societas Eruditorum redirects here. For the first learned society in the lands under control of Austrian Habsburgs, see Societas eruditorum incognitorum in terris Austriacis. Neal Stephenson (center) makes use of historical figures as characters… …   Wikipedia

  • Palacký University of Olomouc — Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci Latin: Universitatis Palackianae Olomoucencis Established 1573 (1573) (as a universit …   Wikipedia

  • Olomouc — Coordinates: 49°35′38″N 17°15′3″E / 49.59389°N 17.25083°E / 49.59389; 17.25083 …   Wikipedia

  • Ludovico Antonio Muratori — Ludovico Antonio Muratori. Ludovico Antonio Muratori (October 21, 1672 – January 23, 1750) was an Italian historian, notable as a leading scholar of his age, and for his discovery of the Muratorian fragment, the earliest known list of New… …   Wikipedia

  • Magnoald Ziegelbauer — (1689, Ellwangen in Swabia – 14 January 1750 at Olmütz) was a Benedictine monk and an ecclesiastical historian. Life He took vows at the Benedictine monastery of Zwiefalten on 21 November 1707, where he was ordained priest on 21 March 1713 and… …   Wikipedia

  • Domenico Silvio Passionei — A painting of Cardinal Passionei from the 18th century Domenico Silvio Passionei (December 2, 1682 – July 5, 1761) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Born in Fossombrone near Urbino, Marche, he went to Rome in 1695, where he… …   Wikipedia

  • Oliver Legipont — (born at Soiron, Limburg, 2 December 1698; died at Trier, 16 January 1758) was a German Benedictine bibliographer. Life Having received his early education from the Franciscans at Verviers, he proceeded for higher studies to Cologne. There he… …   Wikipedia

  • Matthias Bel — (de) Bél Mátyás (hu) Matthias Belius (la) Matej Bel (sk) Matthias Bel Born March 22, 1684(1684 03 22) Ocsova, Kingdom of Hungary …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”