Magnoald Ziegelbauer

Historian, born at Ellwangen, Swabia, 1689; died at Olmütz, 14 January, 1750. He took vows at the Abbey of Zwiefalten 21 November, 1707, was ordained priest, 21 March, 1713, and became professor of theology at his monastery. Soon, however, some of the illiterate monks of Zwiefalten manifested their aversion to the learned and studious Ziegelbauer, who obtained his abbot's permission to reside at another monastery of his order. At first he went to Reichenau, where he taught theology. About 1730 the prior of this imperial monastery sent him to the court of Vienna on business pertaining to the monastery, after the successful accomplishment of which he taught moral theology at Göttweig from 1732-33, then returned to Vienna to devote himself to literary labours. In 1734 he became tutor of the young Barons von Latermann. From 1747 he resided at Olmütz as secretary of the learned club "Societas incognitorum". His chief literary production is "Historia rei literariae ordinis S. Benedicti", which was published posthumously by his friend and collaborator Oliverius Legipontius (4 vols., Augsburg, 1754) and still remains the standard literary history of the Benedictine Order. His other 19 printed works (see list in Lindner, loc. cit. below) include "Mancipatus illibatae virginis deciparae" (Constance, 1726); "Lebengeschichte des ertz-martyrers Stephani" (Vienna, 1736; "Epitome historica regii, liberii et exempti in regno Bohemiae antiquissimi monasterii Brevnoviensis" (Cologne, 1740); and other historical and theological treatises of minor importance. Among his unprinted works are "Olomucium sacrum", an ecclesiastical history of Moravia and its bishops, and "Bibliotheca Bohemica", a collection of writers on Bohemia.