Ex-libris Polling Augustinerchorherrenstift 04

Franz Töpsl (18 November 1711 – 12 March 1796) was an Augustinian

Canon Regular The Canons Regular of St. Augustine are Catholic priests who live in community under a rule ( and κανών, ''kanon'', in Greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religiou ...

, provost of

Polling Abbey Polling Abbey () is a former monastery in Polling bei Weilheim, district of Weilheim-Schongau, in Upper Bavaria, Germany. According to legend, the founder was Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria in about 750, but it seems more likely that the founders w ...

, historian and librarian.

Life

Franz Joachim Joseph Martin Töpsl was born in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, Bavaria on the night of 17–18 November 1711. In 1729 he entered the Polling Abbey of Augustinian

Canons Regular The Canons Regular of St. Augustine are Catholic priests who live in community under a rule ( and κανών, ''kanon'', in Greek) and are generally organised into Religious order (Catholic), religious orders, differing from both Secular clergy, ...

near

Weilheim in Oberbayern Weilheim in Oberbayern (, ; officially Weilheim i.OB) is a town in Germany, the capital of the district Weilheim-Schongau in the south of Bavaria. Weilheim has an old city-wall, historic houses and a museum. Local history Up to the 18th cent ...

. On 16 April 1744 he was elected provost there. During an administration of almost 52 years he attempted to improve the abbey through upgrading the educational institute and systematically expanding the library. The lawyer Johann Georg von Lori founded the ''Bayerische Gelehrte Gesellschaft'' (Learned Society of Bavaria) on 12 October 1758. This led to the foundation by

Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria Maximilian III Joseph (28 March 1727 – 30 December 1777), also known by his epithet "the much beloved" was a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire and Duke of Bavaria from 1745 to 1777. He was the last of the Bavarian branch of the House o ...

of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities on 28 March 1759. Count Sigmund von Haimhausen was the first president. Franz Töpsl became a member of the academy that year. He later supplied scientific instruments to the academy. From 1773 he was a Country Deputy (''Deputirter der Landschaft''), and from 1781 in charge of state education. In his spare time he compiled ''Scriptores ordinis canonicorum regularium S. Augustini'', biographical and bibliographical works about writers belonging to his order. He also wrote a historical outline of his abbey. Franz Töpsl died suddenly on 12 March 1796 in Munich.

Portrait collection

The archive of the

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

holds a collection of about 90 portraits of Augustinian canons, acquired after the secularization of the Bavarian monasteries in 1803. They are unframed, in poor condition, and have no identification of the subjects. It turns out that they originated when Franz Töpsl asked for portraits of writers of his order from across Europe. He had the originals repainted in standard format, then placed in frames that held the name of the canon. The portraits were hung in the abbey. By comparison to his unpublished ''Encyclopedia of the writers of the order of Augustinian Canons'' it has been possible to identify almost all the subjects.

References

Citations Sources * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Topsl, Franz 1711 births 1796 deaths 18th-century German historians German male non-fiction writers