Johann Friedrich Schannat
Schannat’s family tree – Prague, Narodní Archiv, Box APA IC 5579/4518
Schannat was born and educated in Luxembourg before studying law in Leuven. By the age of 22 he had become a lawyer at the Great Council of Mechelen, but he soon decided to follow a different interest: history. In 1707 he published his first historiographical treatise, the Histoire du Comte de Mansfeld. After a stay in Liège during which he met one of his most important benefactors, Baron Guillaume de Crassier (1662–1751), he went to Paris in 1714 and was exposed to Maurist historiography in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. He exchanged much correspondence with Edmond Martène (1654–1739), one of those continuing Jean Mabillon’s (1632–1707) work in the publication of the order’s annals and one of the most renowned critical historians of his age. In 1717 Schannat’s path led him to the German lands, where he eventually arrived in Vienna – a period in his life we know precious little about. In 1720, Schannat reappears at Melk Abbey, a stay which would be highly influential for his further career, not least because of his acquaintance with Bernhard Pez (1683–1735), another long-time correspondent, mentor and close friend. It was Pez who laid the foundation for Schannat’s appointment to the post of historiographer of Fulda in 1722, where he worked on a history of the abbey-principality until 1729. Schannat spent the following years in Worms writing a history of that bishopric. In 1734 the archbishop of Prague, Johann Moritz Gustav von Manderscheid-Blankenheim (1676–1763), employed Schannat to write a historico-geographical description of his native region, the Eifel. The Eiflia illustrata was eventually published posthumously in the 19th century by Georg Bärsch, who completed the manuscript and translated it into German. Schannat had many other publication plans, amongst them a collection of Council minutes and his Histoire abrégée de la maison Palatine. After spending two years in Rome conducting research in the Vatican archives, he died unexpectedly in Heidelberg in 1739.
Throughout his professional career, Schannat worked as a freelance scholar, offering his services to various mostly ecclesiastical princes. He was highly dependent on their benevolence and in constant search of new opportunities and new patrons. His maintaining of contacts with other European scholars was hence a necessity – an activity that is evidenced by the ca. 500 preserved letters that can be found in archives troughout Europe.