The Pez Brothers' Correspondence

The learned correspondence of Bernhard and Hieronymus Pez

In 1709, Bernhard Pez, a young Austrian Benedictine monk wrote his first encyclical letters to fellow monasteries in all parts of Europe. His goal was to create a universal bio-bibliographical dictionary of his order, a project that, although it could not be realized over the following decades, inspired many spin-off publications and one of the most interesting scholarly correspondences in eighteenth-century Central Europe.

In their exchange with fellow monks and scholars, Bernhard and his brother Hieronymus Pez discussed with their correspondents library and archive holdings of a medieval history oscillating between its ecclesiastical, regional and dynastic dimensions. Of particular interest are sources that are lost today or that regard medieval controversies – such as those between secular and regular clergy, or between pope and emperor – which were still being politicized in the eighteenth century.