Bessel Gottfried Von
Bessel Gottfried Von [1]
abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Gottwich, in Austria, was born Sept. 5, 1672, at Buchheim, in the electorate of Mentz. In 1714 he was made abbot of Gottwich, and in the year foliowing rector of the University of Vienna. In 1718 his monastery was burned down, but the valuable library was saved by his exertions, and shortly after he began to rebuild the abbey. He died Jan. 20, 1749. Bessel wrote, the learned Preface at the head of two letters of St. Augustine, addressed to St. Optatus, of Milevi, which Bessel discovered and published: — De Poenis Parvulorunm ui sine Baptismate Decedunt (Vienna, 1733): — Chronicon Gotwicense (Tegernsee, 1732, fol.). This last work is but a preliminary of the Anuals of Gottwich; it is a sort of treatise on the diplomata and MSS. of Germany, after the manner of Mabillon's great work, De Re Diplomatica. It is said, however, that the true author was Francis Jos. de Hahn, afterwards bishop of Bamberg, of whom Bessel speaks in the Preface as his fellow-laborer. See Biog. Universelle, 4, 394.
