GRIESINGER, Jakob, called Alemanno, Blessed. — Dominican conversus and artist, b. in 1407 at Ulm, d. at Bologna on 11 Oct. 1491.
Son of the merchant Teodorico of Ulm, G. received an excellent education. As a young man he trained in the mechanical arts and in glass-painting. After a pilgrimage to Rome in 1432 he never returned home, but enlisted in Naples in the army of Alfonso of Aragon, taking part in the unfortunate battles of Gaeta and Aversa, and leaving military service after four years with his integrity and valor intact. At Capua he took up for five years the post of administrator in the noble household of a doctor of law. In 1441, passing through Bologna, he entered the occupying troops under Captain Tommaso Tartaro stationed at Galliera castle, but soon became a lay brother at S. Domenico in Bologna. This convent, a great center of learning and spirituality, was for fifty years adorned by his virtues and his art. “In componendis vitreis ac eiusdem depingendis optimus artifex,” writes Fra’ Ambrogino of him. The works of art he produced for S. Domenico, S. Petronio—where the only surviving examples are in the Notaries’ chapel—and the Bentivoglio Palace are listed by Melloni, Marchese, Wilms and Fischer. Fra’ Ambrogino da Soncino (d. 1517) and Fra’ Anastasio da Como became his admirers, disciples and continuators of his art. Leo XII confirmed on 3 Aug. 1825 the cult of Bl. G. of Ulm. His feast is kept in the Dominican Order and in the dioceses of Bologna and Rottenburg.