Johann Josef Klauser

Johann Josef Klauser , also Jan Josef Clauser (born March 20, 1705 in Prague ; † July 31, 1771 ibid) was a Bohemian tax officer, archivist, court printer and owner of a very important private library .

Life

Josef Klauser's father was Andreas Bernhard Klauser (1656–1721), a surveyor and overseer for the fortification work on the Lesser Town in Prague . After studying philosophy and law in Prague, Josef Klauser began his professional activity at the Royal Fiscal Office in Prague, where he was appointed chancellery in 1729. In 1754 he was transferred to the Prague Financial Procuratorate . Klauser's interest was in old manuscripts from an early age. As a recognized diplomat , he was released from archival work shortly afterwards in connection with the upcoming reorganization of the old Lieutenancy and Chamber Register at Prague Castle . He completed the necessary additional training with the Viennese court archivist Theodor Anton Taulow von Rosenthal. In 1757 Klauser was appointed head of the Lieutenancy and Chamber Archives (the later Bohemian Gubernal Archives , from which today's Prague National Archives emerged) with an annual salary of 1000 guilders . At the beginning of the 1760s he reorganized the Eger city ​​and palace archives. In 1761 Klauser married Johanna Sophie Teply, who was married to the Prague court printer Franz Carl Rosenmüller († 1745) in her first marriage (1737) and to Franz Ignaz Kirchner († 1758) in her second marriage (1748), whereby he was k. k. Became a court printer. Klauser wrote a large number of manuscripts on the relations of serfdom , archives , land law , genealogical matters and numismatics . He was a well-known collector of old books, manuscripts, documents and coins. Due to his diverse interests and activities, he was one of the most important personalities of the Bohemian rebirth . Josef Klauser died of typhus in Prague in 1771 .

Klauser bequeathed one of the largest private libraries in Prague, some of which (6,000 books, including 500 manuscripts) were sold by his widow to the Strahov monastery library for 2,000 guilders in 1775 and have been preserved to this day. After her death (1780), the Hofbuchdruckerei was sold to Johann Ferdinand Ritter von Schönfeld in 1782 , who in 1787 acquired further books and above all manuscripts from Klauser's estate and added them to the so-called Schönfeld aristocratic archive. This included a large collection of coats of arms. This part has been considered lost since about the 1840s.

Works (selection)

• Explanation of the Landt Maasz, which is legal in the Kingdom of Böheim [manuscript in 4 volumes, original in the Strathov monastery library]. Prague 1760.
• Convenient measuring book. With attached morning, evening, confession and communion prayers. Prague 1765.
• Chronicle of the country and the city of Eger [handwritten summary of older city chronicles in 7 volumes, original in the episcopal archive in Leitmeritz ]. Prague 1769.

literature

• Josef Bergl: The archive of the Ministry of the Interior in Prague . In: Communications of the Association for the History of Germans in Bohemia (supplements to the archives) . tape 64 , 1926, pp. 40 ff .
• Josef Kollmann: Archivář JJ Klauser. (K 200. výročí jeho úmrtí) . In: Archivní časopis . tape 21 , no. 4 , 1971, p. 234-247 .
• Jaroslav Pošvář: Královský registrátor a impressor JJ Klauser (1705–1771) . In: Právněhistorické study . tape 12 , 1966, pp. 177-186 .
• Josef Volf: O starých sběratelích knih . Prague 1937, p. 212-231 .
• Johann Ferdinand von Schönfeld (Ed.): General catalog of the first 6000 family names, their coats of arms and shields, which the famous archivist Joseph Klauser zu Prague from all majestic coats of arms, documents and books of coats of arms, dedications, tombs, churches and altars, then of bells, Has collected prayer chairs, windows and doors for more than 30 years . Prague 1818 ( google.de ).