Georg Helwich

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Bookplate by Georg Helwich, with family coat of arms
Georg Helwich, page no. 67 from his work "Syntagma monumentorum et epitaphiorum" , written by hand, around 1625
Title page of Georg Helwich's "Nobilitas Ecclesiae Moguntinae" , Mainz 1614

Georg Helwich (born July 21, 1588 in Mainz , † 1632 in Mainz) was a Catholic priest, cathedral vicar and an early historian of the Archdiocese of Mainz .

Life

Georg Helwich was the son of the Mainz cathedral provost Lorenz Helwich from Osthofen . The Provost of Mainz and Bishop of Worms Georg von Schönenberg became his godfather.

In 1605 Helwich received the tonsure and entered the clergy, in February 1608 he received his doctorate in philosophy in Mainz. He became a priest and from 1610 worked as vicar at St. Alban's Abbey , outside Mainz. Later he also advanced to Mainz Cathedral Vicar. Helwich died in Mainz in 1632 during the Swedish occupation of the city and was buried in the now- defunct Weißfrauenkirche on today's Schillerplatz . This church was bought by the French general Jean-Baptiste Lauer (1758-1816) in 1803 , who had a military hospital set up there. The graves of the church were cleared, including that of Georg Helwich. The Mainz scholar Franz Joseph Bodmann (1754–1820) was present and reported that Lauer had taken Helwich's skull and kept it from then on as a historical relic in his study. After his death, his family would have taken him to the general cemetery for burial.

historian

Georg Helwich was very interested in history and collected inscriptions, family trees and documents relating to the Mainz Cathedral , the cathedral chapter , the diocese of Mainz , the city and the surrounding area of ​​Rhine-Hesse .

Between 1611 and 1623 he traveled to the more important places of the Archdiocese of Mainz and recorded all the inscriptions, monuments, altars etc. in the individual villages, often combined with interesting local historical information from the population that was given to him. He documented the research results by hand in the book "Syntagma monumentorum et epitaphiorum" , which he also provided with many coats of arms drawings . The unique manuscript is currently in the Martinus library in Mainz, the library of the seminary, and consists of 474 pages on which around 1200 inscriptions (mostly grave inscriptions) and 2300 drawings of heraldic coats of arms are recorded.

In 1614 Helwich published his printed work “Nobilitas Ecclesiae Moguntinae” in Mainz in which he lists all clerics of the Mainz cathedral chapter between 1500 and 1614, in the same year also his chronicle of the bishops of Worms , 1631 as “Antiquitates Laurishaimenses” under the title “Wormatiensis Chronici” “ , That of the Reichskloster Lorsch . Several smaller genealogical publications were also made during the author's lifetime, such as the family tables of the Riedesel zu Camburg, printed in Frankfurt in 1631 .

Family tables and genealogical material collected by Georg Helwich served in 1707, long after his death, as a source for the work printed by Friedrich Knoch in Frankfurt : “The highest ornament of Teutsch-Land and excellence of the Teutsche nobility - also presented in the Reichs-Freyen Rhenish knights out of the same descended and adjoining families so sworn to high stiffers or incorporated 150 years ago into laudable knighthood ” . Here Helwich, next to the editor Johann Maximilian Humbracht (1653–1714), is posthumously named as co-author on the title page and it says about him: “… through the genealogist, who was very famous at the time, Mr. Georg Helwig Vicarium des Hohen Domb Stifft Mayntz, collected faithfully ... "

Georg Helwich and his collections are often cited as a source of data on historical persons from Mainz or the Rhine-Hessian area, although his main work "Syntagma monumentorum et epitaphiorum" , which is only printed in excerpts, has so far only been insufficiently evaluated despite its importance for local history.

Fritz Arens wrote in his work: "The inscriptions of the city of Mainz from early medieval times to 1650" about Georg Helwich:

“The spiritually most important of the Mainz inscription collectors, if one excludes the auxiliary bishop Würdtwein , was undoubtedly the Mainz vicar Georg Helwich. He is the first collector of medieval and modern inscriptions that we know here and carried out this activity on such a large scale as was no longer achieved by an individual. Helwich personally deciphered and copied the many inscriptions, then transferred them to his beautiful manuscript volumes, to which the coats of arms painted with watercolors were added. He did this job not only in Mainz, but also in 70 places in Rheinhessen and Rheingau , in Worms and Speyer . "

- The inscriptions of the city of Mainz from early medieval times to 1650

Digitized works of Helwich

literature

  • Heinrich Helbig: Cathedral Vicar Georg Helwich, his life and works . In: History sheets for the Middle Rhine Bishoprics Volume 1 (1883–1884) columns 93–95, 123–128 and 153–156 online
  • Annelen Ottermann: Where do our books come from ? Provenances of the Mainz City Library in the mirror of ex-libris . Mainz 2011, pp. 51-58 online

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rüdiger Fuchs on the date of birth
  2. ↑ Source on the Vicarie an St. Alban, Mainz
  3. ↑ Website on the Weißfrauenkloster Mainz
  4. ^ KA Schaab: History of the City of Mainz , Volume 1, P. XXII, Footnote 2, Mainz, 1841; (Digital scan)
  5. ↑ On visiting the diocese
  6. ^ Wilhelm Stricker:  Humbracht, Johann Maximilian von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, p. 383 f.
  7. ^ The inscriptions of the city of Mainz from the early medieval period to 1650 . Page 18
personal data
SURNAME Helwich, Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Georg Helwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cathedral vicar in Mainz, historian, genealogist
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1588
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH 1632
Place of death Mainz