Hermann Schenk

Hermann Schenk (* March 5, 1653 ; † February 17, 1706 ) was the librarian of the St. Gallen Monastery from 1680 to 1682/1683, from 1692 to 1692 and from 1705 to 1706 .

Life

Father Hermann, whose real name was Christoph Schenk, came from Constance . In 1668 he is attested in the monastery of St. Gallen, where he made his profession on June 29, 1671 . In 1674 he became a subdeacon , in 1676 a deacon . He was ordained a priest on June 12, 1677, the primacy followed on June 24 of the same year. He was known across Europe for his erudition.

Act

Father Hermann worked as a sub-archivist from 1678. On October 25, 1680, he was appointed librarian and apostolic notary . From October 1682 to June 1683 he stayed in Milan for study purposes (mathematics) . Back in St. Gallen, he returned to his post as librarian and received the well-known Benedictine scholar Jean Mabillon , with whom he maintained regular correspondence in the following years. In 1684 he was appointed prefect of the St. Gallen monastery school . In 1687 he acted as Princely Secretary of Celestine Sfondratis and at the same time as Deputy Governor in St. Gallen. On November 3rd of the same year he was sent to Rorschach to take over the office of master chef. In 1692 he worked again as a librarian in St. Gallen for a short time after he had previously been sent to the Murbach monastery to do temporary work . On June 15, 1693 he was appointed kitchen master and teacher of Greek, followed by other monastic office activities. In 1696 he accompanied Celestine Sfondrati, who had just been elected cardinal , to Rome . Back in St. Gallen, on March 7, 1697, he was appointed governor in Ehaben . From 1705 he is again attested as a monastery librarian in St. Gallen. In the same year he became a councilor and feudal provost .

Father Hermann was known for his erudition. He mastered Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, French and Spanish and appeared as the author of numerous printed and unprinted writings. Jean Mabillon was in close contact with him. In 1702 he received a call to Vienna to take up the post of imperial librarian there. At the abbot's behest, however, he had to renounce this office.

literature

• Gall Heer : Johannes Mabillon and the Swiss Benedictines. A contribution to the history of historical source research in the 17th and 18th centuries. St. Gallen 1938, pp. 104-106, 158-216, 299 f.
• Rudolf Henggeler : Profession book of the princely. Benedictine abbey of St. Gallus and Otmar in St. Gallen. Einsiedeln 1929, pp. 339 f., No. 381.
• Franz Weidmann : History of the library of St. Gallen from its foundation around the year 830 up to 1841. Edited from the sources on the millennial jubilee. St. Gallen 1841, p. 84.

Web links

• Karin Marti-Weissenbach: Schenk, Hermann. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

predecessor	Office	successor
Dionys Mattlin	Librarian from St. Gallen 1680–1683, 1692–1693 and 1705–1706	Constantius von Sonnenberg