KEMPF, NIKOLAUS. - German Carthusian ascetical and mystical writer, also known as N. of Strasburg, born in Strasburg in 1397, died at Gaming on 20 Nov. 1497. He earned a doctorate in philosophy at Vienna and in 1440 retired to the Charterhouse of Gaming, where he served as prior (1451–58); he then governed the house of Geirach (Carniola) for 30 years.
His writings are numerous and belonged to the mystical literature favored by the so-called “Friends of God.” Bernhard Pez had collected them for publication in his Bibliotheca ascetica, but was forestalled by death. The principal works are: Tractatus tripartitus de studio theologiae moralis (in Bibliotheca ascetica of B. Pez, IV, Regensburg 1723, pp. 257–492); Tractatus de discretione (ibid., IX, pp. 318–532); In cantica canticorum expositiones mysticae (ibid., XI and XII). The rest remained unpublished; most are preserved in the National Libraries of Vienna and Strasburg and in the Library of the University of Basel.