Michael Denis

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Johann Nepomuk Cosmas Michael Denis

Johann Nepomuk Cosmas Michael Denis , also Sined the Bard (born September 27, 1729 in Schärding , Bavaria , † September 29, 1800 in Vienna ) was an Austrian Catholic priest , writer, translator, librarian and zoologist.

Life

Michael Denis was taught the Latin language at an early age by his father, Johann Rudolph Denis. In 1739 the then ten year old came to the Jesuit grammar school in Passau , which he successfully completed in 1747. In the same year Denis joined the Jesuit order in Vienna .

After the novitiate, Denis worked as a grammar and rhetoric teacher at the Jesuit colleges in Graz and Klagenfurt . In this role he wrote his neo-Latin school dramas and the didactic epic Palatium Rhetoricae ("Palace of Rhetoric"). In 1757 he was ordained a priest. In 1759 he was appointed professor at the Theresianum in Vienna and remained in this position until the Jesuit order was abolished in 1773. From then on, until the academy was dissolved, he headed the Garellische Library. From 1784 he was curator of the court library in Vienna.

In addition to the school dramas already mentioned, Denis' literary work also includes Neo-Latin and German poetry and German hymns. The lyrical works he published mostly under the pseudonym Sined the Bard (where Sined is an anagram of his surname). He also wrote library studies and textbooks as well as the first Austrian reading book in 1762 .

He became known throughout the German-speaking world for the first German translation of the works " Ossians " (1768/69), which were enthusiastically received throughout Europe as the alleged works of a Gaelic bard, but were a contemporary invention by the Scot James Macpherson . He is also the author of the well-known Advent hymn Tauet, Heaven, the Righteous and the Easter hymn The Savior Has Risen .

Denis helped the Austrian natural scientist Johann Ignaz Schiffermüller for several years to collect and process the butterflies in the Vienna area. As a result, the Systematic Directory of Butterflies in the Vienna Region was published in 1775 . The butterfly collection in the Imperial Court Natural History Cabinet burned down in 1848.

From 1801-1802 the literary estate of Denis, who died in 1800, was edited in two volumes by Joseph Friedrich von Retzer (1754-1824).

In 1874, Denisgasse in Vienna- Brigittenau (20th district) was named after him. His epitaph is on the outer wall of the parish church of St. Andreas Hütteldorf in the 14th district of Vienna .

Works

literature

Web links

Commons : Michael Denis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Denis, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Denis, Johann Nepomuk Cosmas Michael; Sined the Bard (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Jesuit, author, translator, librarian and zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1729
PLACE OF BIRTH Schärding
DATE OF DEATH 29th September 1800
Place of death Vienna