Schrank update

 

“Franz von Paula Schrank was a polymath in the true sense of the word.” (Edmund Launert)¹

   We first met Schrank back in February during our discussion of parasites and swellable microneedle adhesives. I promised to come back to Schrank, and I think about him often enough that I did not forget. Instead of going to the Stanford library, I submitted an interlibrary loan request for Annette Zimmerman’s biography on Schrank (Franz von Paula Schrank (1747-1835): Naturforscher zwischen Aufklärung und romantic) and got it over a month ago. 

 

Title page and table of contents of Zimmerman's biography on Schrank

And there it is, sitting on my kitchen table, filled with rich information on Schrank that I cannot read because I don’t speak German. It calls out to me on a daily basis (in English), taunting me to read it and learn about Schrank. I will have to return it soon, unread. (I am open to ideas for efficient translation to English if you have them.) Several of his publications have also been scanned by the Biodiversity Heritage Library and are available to read. But not only are these also in German, the intricate script makes it difficult to decipher the letters.

   I did track down a review of Zimmerman’s biography, written in English by Edmund Launert, by means of a second Interlibrary Loan (thank you UCSD library).¹ It is not a substitute by any means, but in combination with what is available from the Catholic Encyclopedia², it gives us a little information to fly with. Schrank was by all means a polymath, someone who is skilled and experienced in a variety of different subjects (not just math – the Greek translation of polymath is “having learned much”, derived from the Greek work ‘manthánein’). Schrank is on the list of Roman Catholic cleric-scientists and fulfilled the duties of priest, and professor of botany and zoology. While this may sound unusual to us given current perspectives of an oft-assumed divide between science and religion, this was very common historically, especially in 1774 when Schrank was ordained as a priest. Other notables on the list you may be familiar with are Nicolas Copernicus (mathematics and astronomy - a few hundred years before Schrank) and Gregor Mendel (genetics – a hundred years after Schrank). At age 15, Schrank became a Jesuit, a Catholic religious order well known for many things (good and bad) including its contributions to science. He was born into a well-respected family in Munich, Germany and started his studies at the Jesuit College of Passau when he was 9. 

   His interest in the natural world was inspired by Father Sluha (Szluha is the native spelling) when Schrank was a budding Jesuit student at Oedenburg collegium in Hungary. Father Sluha had been a Jesuit missionary in Brazil until he was put in a Portuguese jail when the Jesuits were expunged from Brazil in 1759.² There is very little known about Sluha, and another source (McKinley³) (who, unlike me, could read German) reported that Zimmerman was not able to find much out about Sluha when she was working on her biography of Schrank. Presumably, the idea is that as a missionary in Amazonian Brazil (1753-1760) Sluha acquired or refined his skills as a naturalist (probably focusing on botany), and opened the door of natural history to the young Schrank. Just to be clear, I am speculating on this, but the idea is not that far-fetched.

   Schrank was a Jesuit teacher until 1773 when the Jesuit religious order was repressed and abolished by Pope Clement XIV, the year before Schrank was ordained and received his doctorate in Theology. He started his academic career as a professor of mathematics and physics in 1776 at Amberg, and was a professor of botany, agriculture, mining, forestry, and zoology at the University of Ingolstadt starting in 1784 (with a subsequent move to Landshut). Schrank published his first scientific study (of over 40) during this time (Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte - Contributions to Natural History - in 1776). While many of Schrank’s publications were focused on natural history (botanical, zoological, and entomological), he also published papers in the fields of physics, chemistry, agriculture, travel, geology, mineralogy, theology, and poetry. Are you kidding me? And, all of this is inaccessible to me because it is written in German. An unfortunate outcome of growing up monolingual.

   In 1809, Schrank was appointed to be the first Director of the München Botanical Garden. His influence there was described by Stafleu & Cowan⁴ as follows: “The present state of the garden bears out Schrank’s early and wise judgment” (p. 325). In the same text, he was attributed with the quote: “Man würde weniger deräsonniren, wenn mann über nichts räsonnirete, was man nicht versteht.” When I type this into Google translate I get “One would less deräsonniren when man räsonnirete about anything you do not understand”, which is not super helpful. So I asked a German colleague of mine for help and he responded: “Hehe, ‘deräsonieren’ appears to be a word creation by the author. It means: the opposite of ‘reasoning’, maybe unreasoning, or reasoning in an unreasonable way.” I love this, he made up a word for something I can barely wrap my head around. But, essentially, he seems to be saying: One would have fewer mental issues if one did not speculate on things one does not know about. Seems like a good idea. My German colleague referred me to a similar quote from a German comedian, Dieter Nuhr: "Wenn man keine Ahnung hat, einfach mal die Fresse halten". Consider to shut up if you don’t know what’s going on. I don't think there is a moral here but thought it was interesting.......

München Botanical Garden (Image credit: Diego Delso)

¹E.E. Launert (1983) Natruforscher zwischen Aufklarun und romantic. Archives of Natural History 11: 362-363.

³ J. Stein (1912) Franz Paula von Schrank. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Appleton Company. Retrieved April 7, 2016 from New Advent:

² D. McKinley (1992) Adrien Lebreton, S.J. (1662-1736): A search for the identity of a neglected botanist in early Martinique. Huntia 8: 155-162.

⁴ F.A. Stafleu & Cowan, R.S. (1985) Taxonomic literature, a selective guide to botanical publications and collections, with dates, commentaries and types. 2ed. Vol. 5 (Sal-Ste) p. 323-325.