On the Founding and History of the City of Bozen

Appendix.

History.

The Founding of the City of Bozen.

The noblest purpose of all sciences unquestionably belongs to history, insofar as it is not misused, for history shows us in a faithful picture the extent to which human understanding has become enlightened, the statesman's concepts corrected, and the citizen's mind awakened to dedicate their strength to all that is useful, beautiful, and sublime. For this reason, in my view, it is entirely counterproductive to labor primarily with etymological subtleties—as so many writers, especially chroniclers, have repeatedly done in their folios of town chronicles—merely to assign an incredible antiquity to their subject and to push back the founding of their cities into the obscure depths of primeval times. But it is not this, not an improbable antiquity, nor an origin from dark antiquity, but rather a people's internal civil conditions, religious institutions, civic customs, and artistic and scientific development that should primarily appeal to the mind of anyone intending to write the history of a town.

The same holds true for the city of Bozen, especially with regard to its antiquity. Bozen is very old, that is certain; but it is equally certain that an exaggerated antiquity has been and continues to be attributed to this city.

An anonymous writer states in his description of the Princely County of Tyrol (I, 63): "The city of Botzen is an ancient Roman dwelling-place, as is evident from Aventinus and Funckius along with several others, to such an extent that the length of time will not permit knowing its first author; yet Mathaeus Burglechnerus proves from the said Funckius and other writings that in the time of King Ariovistus, 68 years before the building of the city of Rome and 3148 years after the creation of the world, Bozanum or Bolzanum already stood." Franz Nigrin also states in his description ………………

To be continued**

… accessible directly in the digital Teßmann archive (6 issues in total).