Chrysostomus Hanthaler (b. Ried,

Upper Austria Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, an ...

, 14 February 1690; d. in the Cistercian monastery of Lilienfeld in

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...

, 2 September 1754) was a Cistercian historian and

numismatist A numismatist is a specialist in numismatics ("of coins"; from Late Latin ''numismatis'', genitive of ''numisma''). Numismatists include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholars who use coins and other currency in object-based research. Altho ...

. Having finished his theological studies in Salzburg, he made his

profession A profession is a field of work that has been successfully ''professionalized''. It can be defined as a disciplined group of individuals, '' professionals'', who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are accepted by ...

in 1716 and subsequently devoted himself to historical research. He was part of the renewal in monastic scholarship initiated by the French Maurists. Closer to home, it was

Bernard Pez Bernhard Pez (22 February 1683, at Ybbs near Melk – 27 March 1735, at Melk, Lower Austria) was an Austrian Benedictine historian and librarian. Life He studied at Vienna and Krems an der Donau, Krems, and in 1699 entered Melk Abbey. Having s ...

Melk Melk (; older spelling: ) is a city of Austria, in the federal state of Lower Austria, next to the Wachau valley along the Danube. Melk has a population of 5,257 (as of 2012). It is best known as the site of a massive baroque Benedictine monastery ...

and

Gottfried Bessel Johann Franz Bessel (in religion Gottfried) (b. 5 September 1672, at Buchen, in the Grand Duchy of Baden; d. at Göttweig, 22 January 1749) was a German Benedictine abbot and historian. Life He made his course in the humanities at Aschaffenburg ...

in Göttweig who inspired Hanthaler. The archives and rich library in Lilienfeld offered a useful field for his activity. On becoming librarian, he made it his first task to compile a reliable catalogue and then collected all documents bearing on the history of Lilienfeld and of Austria. Copies and impressions of memorial tablets, seals, and coins were reproduced until his transcripts and compilations filled twenty-two

folio The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...

volumes. From this matter he composed the ''Fasti Campililienses'' in two large volumes (Linz, 1747–1754): this monumental work was a history of Lilienfeld from the thirteenth century to the end of the Middle Ages, a history of the Babenberg dynasty, and also of the Steyer region. His death delayed the completion of his great compilation project. On the suppression of the monastery in 1789, the manuscript was brought to the Imperial Library at Vienna, but the copper plates and prints were sold. Subsequently both came into the hands of Abbot

Ladislaus Pyrker Johann Ladislaus Pyrker (von Oberwart) ''(von Felsö-Eör)'' ( hu, felsőőri Pyrker János László; 2 November 1772 in Nagyláng, Soponya, near Székesfehérvár, Hungary – 2 December 1847 at Vienna) was a Hungarian Cistercian abbot, archbi ...

, who published the last two volumes under the title of ''Fastorum Campiliensium Chrysostomi Hanthaler continuatio seu Recensus genealogico-diplomaticus archivi Campiliensis'' (Vienna, 1819–20), together with two appendices containing descriptions of the tombstones and extracts from the

necrology An obituary (obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Acc ...

of the monastery. Hanthaler left behind numerous other writings including a three-volume work published in

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital ...

in 1744, ''Grata pro gratiis memoria eorum, quorum pietate Vallis de campo liliorum et surrexit et crevit'', also a memorandum book, a contribution to Austrian history. His knowledge of

numismatics Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also includ ...

was displayed in an introductory manual for amateur collectors, entitled ''Exercitationes faciles de numis veterum'' (Nuremberg and Vienna, 1753). He also endeavoured to palm off in his "Fasti" four chronicles of the Babenbergs as ancient sources, but he himself had written them! These are the ''Ortilonis de Lilienfeld Liber de exordio Campililii'', ''Notulae anecdotae e chronica stirpis Babenbergicae, quam Aloldus de Peklarn capellanus conscripsit, excerptae''; ''Chronicon Ricardi canonici Newnburgensis'' and ''Chronicon Fridrici bellicosi'' of the Dominican Pernold.

References

;Attribution * cites sources: **''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'', X, 547 **Zeisserg (1879). ''Das Totenbuch des Cisterzienserstiftes Lilienfeld,'' Vienna. ** Wattenbach (1894), ''Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen'', II (1894), 496. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanthaler, Crysostomus 1690 births 1754 deaths Austrian Cistercians 18th-century Austrian historians