Joseph Leopold ''

Freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...

'' von Petrasch (19 October 1714 in

Slavonski Brod Slavonski Brod (), commonly shortened to simply Brod, is a city in eastern Croatia, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Being one of the principal cities in the historical regions of Slavonia and Posavina, Slavonski Brod was the 7th large ...

Slavonia Slavonia (; hr, Slavonija) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria, one of the four historical regions of Croatia. Taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with five Croatian counties: Brod-Posavina, Osijek-Baran ...

15 May 1772 in Nesovice,

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The m ...

)Petrasch Josef
/ref> was a soldier, writer and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

. In 1746 he founded the

Olomouc Olomouc (, , ; german: Olmütz; pl, Ołomuniec ; la, Olomucium or ''Iuliomontium'') is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 99,000 inhabitants, and its larger urban zone has a population of about 384,000 inhabitants (2019). Located on t ...

-based Societas incognitorum, the first Enlightenment-inspired

learned society A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and science. Membership m ...

in the Habsburg territories. As a young man he pursued a military career as adjutant to Prince Eugene of Savoy, accumulating substantial wealth. On 27 March 1750 Petrasch was able to buy the lordship of Nové Zámky Castle in today's Nesovice for 85,600

florins The Florentine florin was a gold coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains (3.499 grams, 0.113 troy ounce) of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a purcha ...

. He relocated here from Olomouc in 1758, which triggered a cultural awakening locally, Petrasch himself taking on a succession of theatrical productions. He also established a rich library which included valuable first editions and foreign publications. When he died, his wife inherited a half of a farm in the village of Dublitz, and one of his daughters inherited He left four daughters, the eldest of whom, Antonia, when she died in 1781, had become the Countess (''

Gräfin (feminine: ) is a historical title of the German nobility, usually translated as "count". Considered to be intermediate among noble ranks, the title is often treated as equivalent to the British title of "earl" (whose female version is "cou ...

'') von Pütring. Her three younger sisters, Karolina of Lipowsky, Maria Anna von Petrasch and Josepha von Hochberg sold Nové Zámky in 1789 for 100,000 florins to Johann Nepomuk Wengerský von Ungarschitz.

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