bavarikon4UJesuit Dramas from the Sphere of Dillingen University
With the official handover by Prince Bishop Cardinal Otto Truchseß von Waldburg (1514–1573, bishop 1543–1573) Dillingen University (and the secondary school) passed over to the Jesuits in the summer of 1564. Already a year later, in Dillingen the performance of a carnival play (of unknown title) may be ascertained. Up to the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773, around 450 plays were performed in Dillingen. In most cases, only the printed "Periochen" (a kind of programme, often in German or bilingual) provide some brief information about content and unfolding of the plot as well as about roles and cast. In the Studienbibliothek (Research Library), several collected volumes with around 500 "Periochen" about performances in Dillingen and in other places are preserved. A dissemination via the exchange of written works with other Jesuit colleges may be assumed.
While the texts of the dramas performed have rarely been preserved in Dillingen, as was also case in other places of such performances, important texts of dramas arrived from other on almost unknown routes in the collections of the Dillingen Jesuit Library and from there into today's Studienbibliothek.
The three "great" Dillingen Jesuit dramas of the early seventeenth century are preserved in the inventory of the Studienbibliothek in the form of manuscripts. They exist thanks to important ecclesiastical festivities.
The "Comoedia de Sancto Udalrico Episcopo Augustano" (Commedy of Saint Ulrich Bishop of Augsburg) by an anonymous author (XV 222, fols. 3r–70r as well as XV 245, fols. 190r–251r) describes the life of the Augsburg Bishop and diocesan Saint Ulrich. Its performance took place on 3 October 1611 for the festivities for the laying of the foundation stone of the Dillingen Studienkirche (University Church).
From 1614 to 1618, Georg Stengel (1585–1651) taught philosophy in Dillingen. His "Otho redivivus" (Revived Otto, XV 236a, fols. 1r–66v as well as XV 237, fols. 317r–360v) was performed on 22 October 1614 in Dillingen and reminds of the foundation and first flowering of Dillingen University. The occasion for the performance was the transport of the mortal remains of the founder of Dillingen University, Cardinal Otto Truchseß von Waldburg, from Rome to Dillingen.
A high point of Dillingen Jesuit theatre was provided by the drama, equally written by Georg Stengel, "Triumphus Beatae Mariae Virginis" (The Triumph of the Blessed Virgin Mary, XV 237b) performed on three days between 11 to 13 June 1617 for the inauguration of the Dillingen Studienkirche.
For the theatrical work of Jakob Gretser (1562–1625) two Dillingen manuscripts (XV 223 and XV 227) are of elementary importance. They form the first and last of originally five collected volumes arranged by Gretser himself (dramas, poems, speeches) and transmit 11 dramas in Gretser's autograph writing.
The collected volumes XV 221 and XV 245 include among other works pieces by Jakob Pontanus (1542–1626), Matthäus Rader (1561–1634) and Jakob Gretser. Of particular importance are "Ambrosia" and "Abraham und Isaak" (XV 221) by the English martyr and saint Edmund Campion S.J. (1540–1581).
>> This collection is part of the holdings of the Studienbibliothek Dillingen (Dillingen Research Library).