Fra Cyprian

Fra Cyprian , bourgeois Franz Ignaz Jaschke (* 1724 in Polkwitz ; † 1775 in Lechnica Monastery ) was a Camaldolese monk . Cyprian possessed versatile knowledge of the natural sciences. He was a botanist , physician , pharmacologist , mechanic and cosmologist .

biography

He was a monk in monasteries in Częstochowa , Brno , Nitra and in 1756 he took over the management of the pharmacy in the Lechnica Monastery , which he made one of the most important in the whole Kingdom of Hungary .

The healer and surgeon was also known as an author of pharmacological and botanical works. In 1766 the "Herbarium" appeared , which in its 97 pages comprehensive botanical part describes 272 plant species of the Pienines and the Tatras in Greek, Latin, Polish and German and also names their use for medicinal purposes. This work also includes a medical section with the description of various diseases and their cures. The herbarium is located in the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava.

Allegedly, Cyprian is said to have also constructed a flying machine and attempted flights on the monastery hill (Kláštorná hora). He has built his own flying machine, which he has strung with ropes. According to my research, Cyprian tested his device for the first time from an eight-meter-high monastery wall, as a result he had to feel a little buoyancy, otherwise he would not have dared to climb the five hundred meter high monastery mountain and throw himself off the cliff. If you visit this place yourself, from which Cyprian made his legendary leap, you don't have to be a huge fantasist to be overwhelmed by the thought of flying. You can see for yourself how the cliff of the Klosterberg descends into the valley with its 70 degrees. According to the stories, Cyprian jumped from this cliff after his two helpers had helped him to hold his two wings, which helped him to do an act that is unique in the history of mankind, and flew with a steady flight and landed on the square the monastery intact. Back then it was like a pact with the devil. This is one of the reasons Cyprian was imprisoned afterwards and his flying machine was called the devil's carriage. According to the author (Hefty, Frigyes), his aircraft should have worked like a paraglider , so it had no lift in the sense that we know it with today's wings, but the air flowing up from below had caught on the surfaces and thus the Resulting lift that was as small as the propulsion. So this aircraft was able to glide through thirty degrees, which was enough to fly to the monastery square. He steered his marvel with the usual weight adjustment like Otto Lilienthal later . There was a river between the mountain and the square, so our claim that this experiment could have been worse is justified. Thus, Cyprian became the first to fly in Hungary and even in the whole world.

In Červený Kláštor an exhibition was set up on the work of the monastery pharmacist in one of the monk houses.