Precursors of scientific Slavonic studies: M. W. Schimek

During the archive research for the international research project on the Viennese share in the process of the Czech National Revival, several important manuscripts were rediscovered. A-part from hitherto unpublished manuscripts by the first institutional teacher of Czech in Vienna Johann Wenzel Pohl (1720-1790), that are being edited by prof. Tilman Berger from Tübingen university and his team within the cope of the complementary co-operational DFG- project "Precursors of Scientific Slavonic Studies: J. W. Pohl" (BE 2241/1-1), we especially mention the rediscovered manuscripts of Pohl`s colleague Maximilan Wenzel Schimek (1748-1798), teacher of Czech in Vienna, Wiener Neustadt and elsewhere as well as an important trailblazer of the Czech National Revival in Austria. Except for further unpublished letters by Schimek, we emphasize the over 200 years missing extensive fair copy of the first volume of his compara-tive grammar of Slavonic languages in Latin (ca. 120 pp.) and its detailed plan of the second volume Slawische Sprachgeschichte ... (36 pp.). Both manuscripts were created in the early eighties of the 18th century, that is forty years befo-re the publication of the Institutiones linguae Slavicae dialecti veteris (1822) by Josef Dobrovsk and at least ten years before the publication of the Bibliotheca Slavica (1795) by Vclav Fortunt Durych. The rediscovery of Schimek`s manuscripts will bring about an important boost to the reflection of the roots and the origin of methodically and scientifically pursued Slavonic philology. For the first time, we are able to obtain a clear idea about the state of knowledge concerning the Slavonic languages at the end of the 18th century. We can at the same time clearly show the differences to Dobrovsk and his new scientific approach in his Institutiones as well as hint at the organically grown developmental stages, that made this new quality of Dobrovsk`s approach possible. Šimek`s role in this context was one of an eclectic. His main achievement was the condensation of the then current understanding of the Slavonic languages as presented in the standard books of his time that he amply quotes. In the face of the discovery of this new material, the proposed project will comprise: the critical edition of the manuscript of Schimek`s comparative Latin phonology of all Slavonic languages and the compilation of all sources used the critical edition of the rediscovered manuscript of Schimek`s history of Slavonic languages the critical edition of all the relevant, but hitherto unpublished correspondence by Šimek, e. g. with the Görlitz-based lawyer, linguist and sorabicist Karl Gottlob Anton and others the scientific evaluation of the material to be edited: a) the analysis of the texts found against the background of the European scientific discourse at that time b) the comparison of Schimek`s grammar and plan with similar projects and books (esp. by Schlözer, Durych, Anton and Dobrovsk) the complete and revised description of the life and work of M. W. Schimek

During the archive research for the international research project on the Viennese share in the process of the Czech National Revival, several important manuscripts were rediscovered. Apart from hitherto unpublished manuscripts by the first institutional teacher of Czech in Vienna Johann Wenzel Pohl (1720-1790), that are being edited by prof. Tilman Berger from Tübingen university and his team within the cope of the complementary co-operational DFG- project "Precursors of Scientific Slavonic Studies: J. W. Pohl" (BE 2241/1-1), we especially mention the rediscovered manuscripts of Pohl`s colleague Maximilan Wenzel Schimek (1748-1798), teacher of Czech in Vienna, Wiener Neustadt and elsewhere as well as an important trailblazer of the Czech National Revival in Austria. Except for further unpublished letters by Schimek, we emphasize the over 200 years missing extensive fair copy of the first volume of his comparative grammar of Slavonic languages in Latin (ca. 120 pp.) and its detailed plan of the second volume Slawische Sprachgeschichte ... (36 pp.). Both manuscripts were created in the early eighties of the 18th century, that is forty years before the publication of the Institutiones linguae Slavicae dialecti veteris (1822) by Josef Dobrovsk and at least ten years before the publication of the Bibliotheca Slavica (1795) by Vclav Fortunt Durych. The rediscovery of Schimek`s manuscripts will bring about an important boost to the reflection of the roots and the origin of methodically and scientifically pursued Slavonic philology. For the first time, we are able to obtain a clear idea about the state of knowledge concerning the Slavonic languages at the end of the 18th century. We can at the same time clearly show the differences to Dobrovsk and his new scientific approach in his Institutiones ... as well as hint at the organically grown developmental stages, that made this new quality of Dobrovsk`s approach possible. Šimek`s role in this context was one of an eclectic. His main achievement was the condensation of the then current understanding of the Slavonic languages as presented in the standard books of his time that he amply quotes. In the face of the discovery of this new material, the proposed project will comprise: the critical edition of the manuscript of Schimek`s comparative Latin phonology of all Slavonic languages and the compilation of all sources used the critical edition of the rediscovered manuscript of Schimek`s history of Slavonic languages the critical edition of all the relevant, but hitherto unpublished correspondence by Šimek, e. g. with the Görlitz-based lawyer, linguist and sorabicist Karl Gottlob Anton and others the scientific evaluation of the material to be edited: a) the analysis of the texts found against the background of the European scientific discourse at that time b) the comparison of Schimek`s grammar and plan with similar projects and books (esp. by Schlözer, Durych, Anton and Dobrovsk) the complete and revised description of the life and work of M. W. Schimek