DENK, JOSEF. - Philologist and collator of the Vetus Latina, b. in Munich on 9 Aug. 1849, d. there on 22 Jan. 1927. He was a pious priest and a zealous parish pastor.
Under the influence of Eduard von Wölfflin he collaborated on the Thesaurus linguae latinae and on the Archiv für lateinische Lexikographie. His greatest merit is having conceived the Sabatier redivivus, that is, a complete updated collection of all citations of the Latin biblical text that have come down to us from the codices and from Christian literature up to 800 A.D., imitating the masterpiece of the Benedictine P. Sabatier.
To this end he gathered, with admirable diligence, about a million citations, arranging them in an immense double card index: according to the order of the Sacred Books and according to the ecclesiastical writers (for St. Augustine alone, for example, there are about 50,000 citations). The First World War halted the planned edition, awaited and necessary: « Ein neuer Sabatier ist für die Wissenschaft so notwendig wie das tägliche Brot » (Der Neue Sabatier, p. 18). In 1921-24 D. stayed at the Benedictine archabbey of Beuron, to which after his death passed the precious collection, to be completed and perfected before publication; and now the first fascicle has appeared: Vetus Latina, Die Reste der altlateinischen Bibel: I. B. Fischer, Verzeichnis der Sigel der Handschriften und Kirchenschriftsteller, Beuron-Freiburg 1949.
Among D.'s writings are to be mentioned: Der Neue Sabatier und sein wissenschaftliches Programm (Leipzig 1914); Dom Petrus Sabatier, sein Italia-Sammelwerk und dessen Neubearbeitung (ibid. 1914); Die altlateinische Bibel in ihrem Gesamtbestand vom 1.-9. Jahrhundert (ibid. 1914, an essay, with Ruth and Judith, by subscription). From 1908 onward he wrote about the « Italia » and the « Neue Sabatier » in various periodicals (Biblische Zeitschrift, Theologie und Glaube, Theologische Revue, Zeitschrift für neutest. Wissenschaft, Zeitschrift für kath. Theologie).
Bibliography
Adalberto Metzinger