VOGEL, Joseph Anton. – Historian, b. 12 March 1756 at Altkirch (Alsace, diocese of Basel), d. 26 Aug. 1817 at Loreto.
Ordained priest in 1780, he served as parish priest of the village of Obermorschweiler. After the outbreak of the French Revolution he refused to take the oath of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, for which reason he was imprisoned and then exiled. Having first taken refuge in Switzerland in 1792, two years later he moved to the Papal States and settled in Fermo. There he devoted himself to historical studies and contributed to the Antichità Picene edited by Colucci with a work entitled Memorie storiche dell’Abbadia di Farfa.
Later he was called upon to reorganize the archives of Matelica and Cingoli and had occasion to examine the papers of various libraries and archives in the region. In 1802 he was summoned to Recanati by Msgr. Felice Paoli, bishop of Recanati and Loreto, and began drafting a history of the two dioceses, which was published several decades after his death in 1859 (De Ecclesiis Recanatiensis et Laurentana earumque episcopis commentarius historicus, 2 vols., Recanati 1859). After the death of Bishop Paoli, he was also highly esteemed by his successor, Msgr. S. Bellini, who in 1860 appointed him canon of the cathedral of Recanati and in 1814 canon of that of Loreto.