Konrad Meier (Librarian)

Konrad Meier (born May 27, 1780 ; † January 6, 1813 ) was the Abbey Librarian in St. Gallen from 1805 to 1811 . He was the first cantonal employee in this position.

Life

Meier entered the Cistercian Order , which was based in the monastery of St. Urban , on January 1, 1798 . He studied from 1801 in Vienna , from 1804 in Landshut and from January 1805 in Munich . As early as September 1805, he took up the advertised position as supervisor of the St. Gallen Abbey Library , which at the time belonged to the Canton of St. Gallen because the monastery was closed in the same year. Weidmann calls Government Councilor Miiller-Friedberg his "active patron," who was responsible for the dissolution of the St. Gallen monastery. It is thanks to his influence that Meier received the posts of archivist , library administrator and member of the “inner committee” of the education council .

The Small Council of St. Gallen also entrusted Meier with the task of writing a draft of the penal code, which was accepted with a few amendments and made the law of the young canton. In 1811 Meier went back to St. Urban Abbey, where he fell ill a year later. He succumbed to this illness within another year, which he spent in Herdern for a cure .

Act

Konrad Meier took over the post of monastery librarian from the hands of the canton or its commissioner Franz Josef Büeler . Weidmann describes him as "a young, talented man" to bring out the tragedy that Meier did not have a free hand in his work. On December 20, 1805, he received a kind of instruction on his task, which severely restricted his administrative freedom. Nevertheless, Meier managed to get some nice editions of works by early Italian poets, as Weidmann emphasizes.

literature

• 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, pp. 196-197.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Franz Weidmann: History of the library of St. Gallen since its foundation around the year 830 up to 1841. Edited from the sources on the thousand-year jubilee . St. Gallen 1841, p. 169 (note 470) .
2. ↑ Franz Weidmann: History of the library of St. Gallen since its foundation around the year 830 up to 1841. Edited from the sources on the thousand-year jubilee . St. Gallen 1841, p. 196 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Franz Josef Büeler	Librarian from St. Gallen 1805–1811	Ildefons of Arx