Johann Pezzl

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johann Pezzl, contemporary silhouette .

Johann Pezzl (* 30th November 1756 in Mallersdorf ; † 9. June 1823 in Vienna ) was a writer and librarian of the Enlightenment .

Life

Johann Pezzl was in his early creative phase a radical, anti-clerical enlightener who was compared to Voltaire in his time . The son of a monastery baker attended a monastery school, the Lyceum in Freising , and in 1775 became a novice of the Benedictines of the Oberalteich monastery . After a year he left the order. From 1776 he studied law at the Benedictine University of Salzburg, which was oriented towards the Enlightenment . There he met Johann Kaspar Riesbeck , who introduced him to other educational pamphlets and introduced him to Bavarian Freemasons and Illuminati circles. Between 1780 and 1783 his letters from the novitiate appeared in Zurich , in which he opposed the unworldly monasticism with an enlightened, cosmopolitan bourgeoisie. It was immediately banned in Kurbayern . When a commission of inquiry was investigating him in Salzburg in 1780, he went to Zurich and in 1783 published his novel Faustin, based on Voltaire's Candide, or the philosophical century. The book became very popular and can "be described as an Illuminati novel " (Helmut Perl). On an educational trip through Europe, the hero of the title finds ecclesiastical intolerance and philosophical lack of freedom everywhere, until he finally arrives in Vienna, where he is taken with the government of Joseph II .

He also carried out this movement privately: Pezzl had lived in Vienna since 1784, where he initially looked after the library of Count Wenzel Anton Kaunitz . His best-known book Reise durch den Baierischen Kreis was published that year . In 1785 he entered the Masonic Lodge "Zum Palmbaum" and also belonged to the circle around the Masonic lodge " To true harmony " of the Viennese Illuminati Ignaz von Born . He also frequented the Greiner salon, in the circle around Caroline Pichler . In 1791 he became an official in the court cipher office. Pezzl's later writings and books deal primarily with Vienna and Austria , including descriptions of the city ​​in the style of Louis-Sébastien Mercier . He is considered an "important Viennese enlightener", topographer and moral character who also contributed to the emergence of Austrian national consciousness. Admittedly, his late writings were sharp-tongued criticism of the Enlightenment and Josephinism .

In the 17th district of Vienna , Pezzlgasse is named after him.

Works

  • Letters from the Novitiate (1780–83, 3 volumes)
  • Journey through the Zurich area (1783)
  • Faustin or the Philosophical Century (1783, new edition 1982)
    • Faustin ou le siècle philosophique (1784, French translation)
  • Journey to the East Indies and China, undertaken on the orders of the King from 1774 to 1781. (1783, author Pierre Sonnerat , translated from the French by Johann Pezzl, 2 volumes)
  • Journey through the Baierischen Kreis (1784, new edition 1982; audio CD "With Johann Pezzl through Bavaria, 1784", 2000)
  • Moroccan letters (1784) (In addition counter-writing by Altötting curate priest Josef Aloys Schmid: Against today's innovators in the political and religious system, 1786)
  • Travels of a philosopher or remarks on the customs of Africa, Asia and America (translated from French after Poivre)
  • Strange writings in memory of the philosophical century (1785) ( digitized version )
  • La princesse de Babylon (1785, translation of Voltaire's tale)
  • Description of the Ottoman Empire (1785, author Mouradgea d'Ohsson , translated from English)
  • Travel through Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark. Accompanied by historical news and political remarks (1785–1792, author W. Coxe, translated from English by Johann Pezzl, 3 volumes)
  • Sketch of Vienna (1786–90, 6 booklets) ( digitized version )
  • Shadow and Light, epilogue to the Viennese Masons' writings (1786)
  • Riesbeck's Biographical Monument (1786)
  • Familiar letters about Catholics and Protestants (1787), digitized version (PDF)
  • Abdul Erzerum's New Persian Letters (1787)
  • Sinzerus, the reformer (1787, anonymous, possibly Johann Pezzl)
  • Monument to M. Stoll (1788)
  • Characteristics of Joseph II (1790)
  • Austrian biographies (1790–92, 4 volumes)
  • Loudon ’s life story (1791)
  • Biographies of Prince Raimund Montekukuli, Prince Wenzel Lichtenstein, Councilor Ignatz von Born including a portrait (1792)
  • History of Pope Pius the Sixth, blessed memory (1800)
  • Ulrich von Unkenbach and his hobby horses (1800–1802, 2 volumes)
  • New sketch of Vienna (1805)
  • Description of Vienna (1806)
  • The surroundings of Vienna (1807)
  • Gabriel or the stepmother nature (1810, novel)
  • Description et plan de la ville de Vienne (1812)
  • Les environs de Vienne (1812)
  • Description of the capital and residence city of Vienna (1816)
  • Vienna and its surroundings and its peculiarities (1821)
  • Chronicle of Vienna (1824; posthumously edited by Franz Tschischka )

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The legend erroneously reads "Joseph Pezzl".
personal data
SURNAME Pezzl, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Writer and librarian
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1756
PLACE OF BIRTH Mallersdorf
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1823
Place of death Vienna