SCHLITPACHER, Johann (Giovanni di Weilheim). – Monastic reformer and Benedictine humanist, b. in 1403 at Schongau (Swabia), d. during a plague on 24 Oct. 1482 at Melk. He was educated at Schiltbach near Weilheim (whence his other name); “magister artium” at Vienna and at Melk; prior in the monasteries of southern Germany where he worked to introduce the reforms of the Council of Basel.
Under Cardinal Legate Nicholas of Cusa, he served as visitor and preacher of the jubilee indulgence in the ecclesiastical province of Salzburg from 3 Feb. 1451 to 19 Nov. 1452. From 1457 he labored to unite the observance of Melk with those of Kastl and Bursfeld. From 1468 to 1472 he was prior in the monasteries of Austria and Bavaria; in the conferences for union (1471–72) he represented the Austrian monasteries, but his efforts were without result. He fully integrated into the Melk reform environment both the Italian monastic humanism introduced by Peter of Rosenheim and the scientific directives of Vienna. As reformer, writer, and humanist, S. stands between Peter of Rosenheim and Bernard of Waging (1400–72), who were the principal representatives of the reform movement of Melk and of south-German monastic humanism.
Numerous unpublished works by S. are preserved in the Staatsbibliothek of Munich and in the monastery of Melk: writings on reform, letters, mnemonic poems (Gemma biblica seu memoriale minus bibliae, 1447).