Karl Egger (clergyman, 1914)

Karl Egger CRSA (Italian Carlo Egger , Latin Carolus Egger ; born February 10, 1914 in Silz , Tyrol ; † September 1, 2003 in Paring , Bavaria ) was a South Tyrolean religious priest , abbot primate of the Augustinian Canons , Latinist and neo-Latin . For many years he held a leading position in the Vatican for the Roman Curia . He gained notoriety in particular as a lexicographer who trained Latin , the official language of the Holy See , for the translation of contemporary texts through his work . In addition to his Latinist publications, he also published articles on the history of the order.

biography

Egger grew up in Sterzing and attended the Vinzentinum in Brixen from 1924 to 1931 . At the age of twelve he sent a self-written Latin poem to Pope Pius XI. , for which he received a thank you letter from the Vatican. While visiting his sister, who was in Naples at the time, he met a priest of the Lateran canons who made a deep impression on him during a trip to Capri . In 1933, at the age of nineteen, he joined the Canons' convent of Lateran in Gubbio . He took his first vows in 1934 and was ordained a priest in 1937. He finished his studies with degrees in theology at the Angelicum and in classical philology at the Sapienza in Rome . In 1942, Egger was made master professor of his order at San Pietro in Vincoli . He also worked as a private tutor for the Pacelli family, where he was the nephew of Pope Pius XII. taught. During the Second World War he received from Pius XII because of his language skills, which enabled direct communication with the German occupation forces. the order to look after the refugees in the city of Rome.

In 1949 Egger was appointed to the Officium Latinum of the Papal State Secretariat , which he headed as Capo Ufficio after the death of Antonio Bacci . For more than forty years and under five different popes, he was involved in the translation into Latin and editing of all the documents in the Roman Curia . From this work, a Latin personal name lexicon, a place name lexicon and the Lexicon recentis Latinitatis were created in order to be able to transfer contemporary texts appropriately. In the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, he worked from 1966 in the Consilium ad exsequendam Constitutionem de Sacra Liturgia to work out the liturgical reform . In 1976 Egger became the first president of Pope Paul VI. Founded Latinitas Foundation , which he chaired until 1997. He published numerous Latinist articles in the Latinitas magazine published by the Foundation . He was also a lecturer at the Pontificium Institutum Altioris Latinitatis and at the Pontificia Universitas Lateranensis . From 1979 until his death he was a co-opted individual member of the commission of the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae . Egger's importance was expressed by John Paul II in 1993 with the following words: Il latino della Chiesa riposa nelle sue mani (" Church Latin rests in his hands").

Egger was also engaged in various ways as an Augustinian canon . In 1947 he founded the journal Ordo Canonicus, the scientific organ of his religious order, on the history of which he wrote several articles. In 1958 he was ordained titular abbot of Santa Maria della Pace . Egger was instrumental in founding the 1959 by Johannes XXIII. involved in the constituted Confederation of Augustinian Canons, of which he was Abbot Primate from 1986 to 1992 . In 1961, on his initiative, the Windesheim Congregation of the Lateran Canons was revived, which in 1963 set up its first monastery in Tor Lupara near Rome. In 1974 the Canons of Windesheim also repopulated Paring Monastery near Regensburg , which Egger was particularly fond of. He died there in 2003, 70 years after entering religious life.

Publications (selection)

In his publications, Egger's first name appears either in the German, Italian or Latin form, as Karl , Carlo or Carolus . Likewise, the first name alternates when Egger is mentioned in secondary literature. The spelling Carl also appears occasionally in library catalogs .

Lexicons

• Lexicon nominum virorum et mulierum . Studies, Rome 1957, 2nd edition 1963.
• Lexicon nominum locorum (= Opus fundatum Latinitas, 1). Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican 1977.
  • Supplementary volume: Lexicon nominum locorum. Supplementum referens nomina Latina-Vulgaria (= Opus fundatum Latinitas, 3). Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican 1985, ISBN 88-209-1459-X .
• Lexicon recentis Latinitatis . Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican, Volume 1 (A-L), 1992, ISBN 88-209-1731-9 ; Volume 2 (M-Z), 1997, ISBN 88-209-2239-8 ; one-volume edition 2003, ISBN 88-209-7454-1 .  
  • German edition: New Latin Lexicon - Lexicon recentis latinitatis. Translated from Italian and edited by Carmen Grau, Alexandra Panella, Stefan Feihl and Heinrich Offen. Edition Lempertz, Bonn 1998, ISBN 978-3-933070-01-2 . New edition as: PONS dictionary of the new Latin. German Latin. Klett, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 978-3-12-517522-8 .

Others

• Tirolensia Latina . Tyrolia, Innsbruck 1960.
• Roma aeterna: Praecipua urbis monumenta latine scientibus explanata . Pisani, Naples 2000, ISBN 88-87122-01-6 (travel guide).
• Scripta Latina: percorsi letterari, storici, filologici . Edited by Federico Micciarelli. Viella, Rome 2018, ISBN 978-88-6728-966-0 (collection of articles).

literature

• Dario Di Maso, Edmondo Caruana: L'abate Carlo Egger, latinista di cinque Pontefici . In: L'Osservatore Romano , September 3, 2005, p. 5.

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Egger in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
• richardwolf.de: Karl Egger (biobibliographical note with photograph)
• richardwolf.de: Karl Egger (other site with photography)
• Egger, Karl .  Publications in the bibliographic database of the Regesta Imperii .
• Egger, Carlo .  Publications in the bibliographic database of the Regesta Imperii .