DENK, JOSEF. – Philologist and collator of the Vetus Latina, born in Munich on 9 August 1849, died there on 22 January 1927. He was a pious priest and zealous parish priest.
Under the influence of Edoardo von Wälfflin, he collaborated on the Thesaurus linguae latinae and the Archiv für lateinische Lexikographie. His greatest merit was having conceived the Sabatier redivivus, that is, a complete, updated collection of all citations of the Latin biblical text transmitted by manuscripts and Christian literature down to A.D. 800, in imitation of the Benedictine P. Sabatier’s masterpiece.
For this purpose he gathered, with admirable diligence, approximately one 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 approximately 50,000 citations). The First World War halted the projected edition, which was 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 the precious collection passed after his death, 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 Sight der Handschriften und Kirchenschriftsteller, Beuron–Freiburg 1949.
Among D.’s writings, the following should 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, essay, with Ruth and Gluda, for 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).