Bonavita Blank

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Bonavita Blank

Bonavita Blank , actually Joseph Anton Bruno Blank, (born March 23, 1740 in Würzburg ; † February 26, 1827 ibid) was a German naturalist, fossil collector and professor of natural history in Würzburg.

Franciscan monastery in Würzburg

Life

Blank studied at the Jesuit-run grammar school in Würzburg and became a member of the Minorite Order in 1755, in which he was ordained a priest in 1763 . He was active in the order as a teacher and preacher, was a confessor in the women's convent Paradies near Schaffhausen for a short time , became secretary of the Order of Minorites in 1786 and in 1789 superior of the Monastery of Minorites in Würzburg. In addition, from 1792 he was professor of philosophy and natural history at the University of Würzburg . He received the title of clergyman from the Grand Duke Ferdinand .

He had his own art gallery with mosaic pictures made from natural objects such as lichens, mosses, bird feathers (which he called musiv paintings), and a valuable natural objects cabinet (in which he invested over 20,000 guilders from his own money over the years), which he paid for a pension in 1803 sold to the University of Würzburg. At first it was in a hall of the Franciscan monastery (to which he allowed everyone free access), after it was sold to the university in its old auditorium. The collection was a kind of tourist attraction at the time and Blank published a catalog of the collection in 1795. In old age he still wrote a textbook on mineralogy, which his successor Ambrosius Rau (1784-1830) also used for his lectures. He was in scientific exchange with the important geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner .

His collection consisted mainly of fossils from Franconia. During his time in Schaffhausen he also collected Swiss fossils.

His brother Benignus Siardus Blank, also a spiritual advisor, also had an extensive collection of fossils and antiquities in Würzburg, which could be visited for a fee.

He was a member of the Mineralogical Society of Jena and was elected member (matriculation no. 1010) of the Leopoldina on October 25, 1798 with the academic surname Zeuxides .

Fonts

  • Natural history cabinet in the so-called Franciscan monastery in Würzburg, collected and organized by Bonavita Blank , Franz Xaver Rienner, Würzburg 1795 Google Books
  • Short report on the increase and the establishment of the Blankischer Naturalien-Cabinet in Würzburg. Published instead of the promised supplements, Franz Xaver Rienner, Würzburg 1802 Google Books
  • Manual of Mineralogy, Franz Ernst Nitribitt, Würzburg 1810 Google Books
  • Handbook of Zoology, Nitribitt, Würzburg 1811

literature

  • Modest Hahn: The art cabinet in the Minorite monastery in Wirzburg. The only one of its kind, Franz Ernst Nitribitt, Wirzburg 1792 Google Books
  • Franz Georg Benkert: Joseph Bonavita Blanks spiritual advice, philosophy and the Holy Scriptures Doctor, ..., short biography, Stahelische Buchhandlung, Würzburg 1819 Google Books
  • Klaus-Peter Kelber , Martin Okrusch : The geological exploration and mapping of the Würzburg city area from the beginnings to 1925, Mainfränkische Hefte 105, 2006, 75–115 PDF

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ AM Köl: Bonavita Blank's [...] music paintings or mosaic art works [...]. Wurzburg 1796.
  2. ↑ Actually, the Monastery of the Minorites, but called the Franciscan Monastery.
  3. ^ Johann Daniel Ferdinand Neigebaur : History of the Imperial Leopoldino-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists during the second century of its existence. Friedrich Frommann , Jena 1860, p. 242 (archive.org)
personal data
SURNAME Blank, Bonavita
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blank, Joseph Anton Bruno (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German paleontologist and clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1740
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1827
Place of death Wurzburg