Philosopher and canonist, born at Bozen, 26 July, 1735, died there, 11 January, 1813. He studied at Innsbruck and Munich, entered the Jesuit Order on 9 October, 1753, was ordained priest on 1 June, 1765, then taught philosophy at Munich, Dillingen, and Innsbruck. Shortly after the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, Prince-bishop Clemens Wenceslaus engaged him as professor of canon law at Augsburg. He held this position for thirty years (1777-1807), with the exception of four months, during which he was theologian at the papal nunciature at Ratisbon, and sixteen months, which upon invitation of Pius VII he spent in Rome as papal councillor in German affairs (1805-6). In 1807 he returned to Bozen, devoting the rest of his life to literary labours. As a canonist he defended the papal rights again the Febronian tendencies in Germany, and as a philosopher he endeavoured to replace the Scholastic method by the empiricism of Newton. His chief canonical works are: "Institutionum juris naturalis et ecclesiastici publici libri V" (Augsburg, 1784; Ghent, 1823; Rome, 1832); "De usu publici commentarioulus" (Augsburg, 1784; Ghent, 1823); "Historische Bemerkungen uber das sogenannte Resultat des Emser Congressus" (Frankfort and Leipzig, 1787); "Institutiones juris ecclesiastici, maxime privati, ordine Decretalium" (5 vols., Augsburg, 1792-3; 3 vols., Rome, 1832). His chief philosophical works are: "Lex gravitatis universalis ac mutuae cum theoria de sectione coni" (Munich, 1769); "Interpretatio naturae, seu philosophia Newtoniana methodo exposita" (3 vols., Augsburg, 1773); "Disquisitiones philosophiae Kantianae" (2 vols., Augsburg, 1799).

SOMMERVOGEL, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, VIII (Brussels, 1898), 1415-8; WÜRZBACH, Biogr. Lex., LIX (Vienna, 1890), 114-5; HURTER, Nomenclator, V, I (Innsbruck, 1911), 771-5.

MICHAEL OTT