The Correspondence Between Josef Fesi and Augustin Theiner as a Source for the Biography of Jernej Kopitar

Abstract

In the Vatican's Secret Archives, where part I of the literary bequest of the church historian Augustin Theiner (1804-74) is kept, I found some letters written to him by the Austrian theologian Josef Fesl (1788-1864).2 Both scholars had close connections with Jernej Kopitar. Theiner, a Silesian, attended the University of Halle after completing his studies in his hometown of Breslau. In 1833 he moved to Rome, where he stayed until his death. There he was ordained and entered the Roman Oratory near the Chiesa Nuova, where he was appointed to positions of a high order such as Prefect of the Vatican's Secret Archives. 3 Kopitar and Theiner met while they were both passing through Vienna in 1832. Theiner kept in contact with Kopitar until his death, although the sagacious and meticulous Kopitar did not always maintain the esteeem of the less subtle and less scrupulous Silesian. Kopitar was Theiner's guest at the Roman Oratory during his two visits to Rome in 1837 and in 1842-43. In fact it was Theiner who showed him around Rome and introduced him to the city's most prominent people. It was also through Theiner that Kopitar received the Pope's permission to remove the Codex Assemanianus, and other very old Slavic codices, from the Vatican Library and study them in his room at the Oratory, despite strict regulations forbidding this. Theiner was immensely attracted to Kopitar's powerful personality and the influence of the Slovene scholar is evident in his writings.· Fesl, on the other hand, was among Kopitar's closest friends in Vienna. Fesl was a Bohemian German, and had been a pupil of Bernard Bolzano. Like Kopitar, he had ties of friendship to Josef DobrovskY. While professor at the Leitmeritz Seminary, he was accused of spreading heretical ideas among the seminarians; he was arrested and pensioned off. In 1820, as punishment, he was confined to the Servite Convent in Vienna, where he was kept under police surveillance. In 1825 he was sent to Graz and placed under the surveillance of the local bishop. In 1832 he was amnestied by the emperor and allowed to return to Vienna, where he spent the rest of his life. Here, except for celebrating mass, he was barred from all priestly offices. Upon Dobrovskfs suggestion, Kopitar came into contact with Fesl in 1822, and kept close contact with him until his death.5 Fesl and Theiner began writing to each other after Kopitar's death. In this way they both spontaneously desired to fill the gap left by their departed friend; it may therefore be expected that a great deal of their writing is devoted to Kopitar. Their correspondence was brief, lasting less than two years from January 1845. Extracts from Theiner's letters to Fesl were already published. by Jagie'. 6 Fes!' s letters to Theiner. however, were only discovered recently, and are here published for the first time. In Theiner' s legacy there are four letters from Fesl, dated 13 Jan. 1845, 28 Mar. 1846, 18 Dec. 1846 and 29 Aug. 1846; the last-named contains no information about Kopitar and is therefore not published here. Fesl's letters contain information about Kopitar which is greatly relevant both to his scientific activities and to his private life. They must therefore be considered an important source for Kopitar's biography. Inter alia, they provide new insights into his visit to Rome in 1842-43; in fact, it is through these letters that we learn that this visit was kept a secret, and that not even Kopitar's closest friends knew of the work he was doing at the Vatican.