








1794-1861
German musicographer; born at Grobnig, in Upper Silesia. Having studied medicine he was an army surgeon during the war from 1813 to 1815. He practised medicine for a time, but, becoming a religious enthusiast, began in 1823 to study theology at Ratisbon University, and was ordained in 1826. The next year he became choral vicar in the Church of Our Lady, and in 1830 was made chapelmaster and canon. He then began collecting and copying sacred manuscripts of the composers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, first in Germany and later in Italy. His important collection, Musica Divina, contained these sacred compositions, many of them by the early church composers. This work was in four volumes, each volume containing a preface and biographical notices of the composers represented. He also published Selectus Novus Missarum, containing masses. Proske's valuable library is now in the possession of the Episcopal authorities at Ratisbon.