Rosina von Embs (von Ems / von Hohenems) arrived at Thalbach in 1609 and was give holy orders a year later. As the honorific “von” shows, she comes from the Vorarlberg elite, and the chronicle names her parents as Count Johann Christoff von Hohenems and Christina Gutzkopfflerin von Guellenbach.
Her parents are presumably lesser-known relatives of more politically significant individuals known to us in history. While my answers to her lineage are only provisional – I haven’t (yet) found direct documentation – the timeline and circumstances provide the following "best guess" assessment of her background.
ROSINA’S FATHER, “GRAF” JOHANN CHRISTOFF VON HOHENEMS:
On her dad’s side, the “Graf” (“Count”) label and assignment to Hohenems suggests a relationship to Markus Sittikus von Hohenems (1538–1595, Bishop of Constance who later served at the Curia in Rome), and his brother Jakob Hannibal von Hohenems (1530-1587) who served general with the troops. In 1613 -- four years after Rosina’s entry to Thalbach – Jakob Hannibal’s oldest son Kaspar was to acquire the County of Vaduz and Lordship of Schellenberg from the Counts of Sulz, while his younger son, another “Markus Sittikus” became Archbishop of Salzburg. This was a family in ascendancy, as well as one firmly in a Catholic orbit (Niederstatter vol. 2, p. 48; Neumaier 2021, pp. 57-58).
And so it proves. Count Hans Christoph, as it happens, comes from the second branch of the Hohenems family, the children of Marquard V (d. 1533) and Veronika von Neideck. These include
Mark Sittich II, Vogt of Bludenz (d. 1565) m1. Eva von Dankertschwell, m2. Eva von Thun.
“From one of these marriages came Hans Christoph von Hohenems (d. 1603) who was married to Maria von Paumgarten zu Hohenschangau (d. 1633)” (Neumaier 2021, p. 58).
Sister Amalia von Hohenems m2. Hans Christoph von Ega (after death of m1. Sixt von Scheinen zu Gammerschang) (Neumaier 2021, p. 57)
progeny: Wolf Heinrich von Ega
Since Hans is the nickname for Johannes, the Hans Christoph (in yellow) is almost certainly the same as Johannes Christoph von Hohenems, Rosina’s father, and his death in 1603 aligns with what we know of Rosina’s financial timeline. If I am right, then Rosina’s dad is Hans Christoph (shown in yellow); her grandmother is Eva von Thun (shown in green); and her great grandsire is Marquard V of Hohenems. Quite a lineage!
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| von Hohenems (aka "von Ems"), a partial family tree |
If things were easy, we wouldn’t recognize them, of course. Hans Christoph’s legacy is complicated, and here Helmut Neumaier’s research (2021) becomes invaluable; much of my discussion here follows his lead.
Count Hans Christoph names his powerful Hohenems cousin Kaspar in his will, but actually bequeaths the majority of his estate to his nephew Wolf Heinrich von Ega (Neumaier p. 59). This, politically, would not stick; the pressures to maintain Hohenems familial control over various properties and income-streams and the lesser political prowess of the lesser branch of the family meant that Wolf Heinrich was quick to pivot to a more politically feasible solution. Wolf Heinrich cashes out much of his claim jointly with Kaspar, and in part to resolve the many family debts, and with the remainder sets various income streams in place.
One of these income streams was negotiated in the 2 December 1603 meeting between Wolf Heinrich von Ega, Count Kaspar von Hoheneg, and the 2 imperial counselors, Johann Ludwig von Ulm and Johann Werner von Raitenau:
In fulfillment of Frau von Thun's will, Ega will insure and transfer to Rosina Embserin and Amalia Loring 3,000 florins belonging to the Bludenz estate, but in such a way that if Rosinle [“little Rosina”] dies first, the money will revert to him. (Neumaier 2021, p. 60)
In other words, as Neumaier explains, among these funds that Wolf Heinrich cedes to Count Kaspar is a deed of title from the Bludenz domain which amounted to 6,000 florins. These funds actually stemmed from Frau Eva von Thun’s will. As confirmed in a Kaspar’s legal summary of January 1, 1604, these funds were directed half to Cyprian von Thun (Hans Christoph von Hohenems’ uncle), and a quarter each to Rosina von Ems – our monastic sister – and to Amalia Loring. If I am right about Rosina’s place in the family tree, Eva was her grandmother, and is settling her legacy on her through her son, and with the assistance of Wolf Heinrich.
There was a further chapter in this unfolding drama: the division of funds was contested. The family of Hans Christoph’s chamberlain, Rudolf Embser, claimed nine years of back-salary to support him and his many children. Likewise, an unsuccessful petition came from Hans Christoph’s tutor, Johann Rem, for thirty years (!) of back salary, but in that instance the income of a mill had been in the tutor’s hands as imperial agents were well aware, and therefore no payout was made to the over-greedy former tutor. Still, it’s clear that Hans Christoph would not be characterized as the most financially well-grounded, and it seems that Rosina was lucky to get her (presumed) grandmother’s inheritance at all.
ROSINA’S MOTHER, CHRISTINA GUTZKOPFFLERIN VON GUELLENBACH
Why do we remain uncertain about Rosina’s father and her place in the family tree? That’s because Hans Christoph von Hohenems is certainly known to have married – but to Maria von Paumgarten zu Hohenschangau, who outlived him by thirty years. And that is definitively NOT the identity of Rosina’s mother, who’s known to us both through monastic chronicle and convent document as Christina Gutzkopfflerin von Guellenbach (or Quellenbach, depending on source chosen).
However, I posit that Christina was, in fact, likely to have been Hans Christoph’s wife – a first wife, I would guess, making Maria von Paumgarten his second wife. It would be unsurprising if Christina were to have died early; most of the family actually seem to have had at least two marriages, and death in childbirth was all to common at the time.
Moreover, given an overlap of surnames and timeframes, I also posit that Rosina’s mom Christina might well have been a sister of the Lieutenant Colonel Hans Geizkopfler von Gailbach who served and fell at the Ottoman siege of Raab, Hungary (Brafman, pp. 47-48). (If his is the preferred spelling, as I assume, then her mother is actually Christina Geizkopfler von Gailbach.)
Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate more details of Rosina’s immediate ancestors or document her own birth, though other volumes of family history (not yet consulted) may have more details.
WHY DO WE CARE?
The question of Rosina’s parentage is interesting as a curiosity in its own right. It tells us something important about Thalbach’s reputation as a monastery that Vorarlberg nobility saw it as a home for their daughters. The deep counter-reformation Catholicism which saw the primary branch of the Counts of Hohenems into positions of churchly authority may well have trickled over into the devotions of a daughter of the secondary branch of the house. That is, her call to the monastic life may have been shaped by family dynamics and faith practices.
Also notable, however, is the impact of this noble affiliation on the circumstances of Rosina’s own entry into the convent. As we circle in towards identifying Rosina’s origins, we note three things from her convent membership file (VLA Klosterarchiv Box 16, file 225 03, Rosina Emberin):
First, this is a thick folder. She has inventories and Quittungen and documents and even an inventory of the cost for copying all these various documents. She is well attested, in other words. She comes with money, and with money’s many complications.
Second, unlike other sisters at the time, she’s not just represented by immediate family, but there are other individuals involved in her convent provisioning. And, happily for our story here, one of those individuals involved in her case is… Wolff Hainrich von Ega.
Third, while all these documents circle around Rosina, we have remarkably little information about her actual service at the convent. She doesn’t seem to have emerged as a convent leader, nor do we have a testament to any sort of outstanding characteristics within the community. We don’t learn about her singing, for instance; we don’t know about her busy hands with garden work; we simply see her as one of the convent sisters, listed out by age in various inventories of convent membership at the time.
In other words, Rosina doesn’t seem to be important so much for what she did as for who she was.
WHAT DID THE CONVENT SISTERS THINK ABOUT THEIR WEALTHY COMPANION?
Rosina’s entry to Thalbach is notable to our chroniclist for the luxuries that she brings with her. She brought an ornate and embroidered red cloak decorated with golden bows and cibori. It is unclear from the context whether this was literally a richly-made liturgical vestment – a cope – or whether it was used as a votive offering to adorn a statue in the monastery, perhaps even that of the well-known Schutz-Madonna. Either way, the symbolism of gifting a cloak is one of protection, suggesting on ongoing relationship of family and convent.
This ongoing pledge of commitment with cloak as symbol was reinforced by the gift of wine that came with Rosina’s entry: for “No wine was given to the convent beforehand,” says the chroniclist. Moreover, it was an important enough gift to the sisters that they continued to gossip about it a century later. The chroniclist makes the point that she heard about the wine “from our old sister.” It was evidently that proverbial “gift that keeps on giving,” in a pleasant and rewarding way!
And yet, other than these markers of her origins, Rosina has remarkably little impact on the convent's story. We can deduce a life of devoted prayer, but we have very little knowledge of her convent life from the surviving record.
A memorable bit of handwork and a recurring gift of wine; Rosina is honored in the convent memory primarily for her status at entry and the benefits it provided her fellow sisters. Perhaps her status and the honor it brought to Thalbach also explain her position in the necrology, for the other thing we know about Rosina is that she is one of the first five sisters named in the Thalbach obit as recorded in Father Franz Ransperg’s Anthropologium of 1660.
In sum, Rosina von Ems stands out to us less for the deeds she performed within the convent than for the legacy she carried with her into it. Her entry into Thalbach brought material wealth, a noble lineage and reputation, and symbolic gifts that resonated well beyond her lifetime – echoes of which shaped the memory of her among the sisters, and secured her a lasting place in the convent’s record. Her story reminds us that monastic life was not isolated from social hierarchy, but rather deeply entwined with the currents of family, faith, and fortune.
WORKS CITED
Bregenz, Vorarlberger Landesarchiv, Kloster Thalbach Hs 9, Chronik des Klosters 1336-1629.
Bregenz, Vorarlberger Landesarchiv, Klosterarchiv Box 16, file 225.03, Convent membership files: Rosina Emberin.
Brafman, David. “The Hapsburgs’ Man in Istanbul: The (not-so-secret) life and times of Johann Joachim Prack von Asch, 16th-century imperial spy.” Getty Magazine (Spring 2021): 46-48 https://www.getty.edu/about/whatwedo/getty_magazine/gettymag_spring2021.pdf
Neumaier, Helmut. “Reichsritter Wolf Heinrich von Ega zu Ober- und Unterschüpf: Ungelöste Fragen zwischen Vorarlberg und Schüpfergrund.” Württembergisch Franken 100: (Oct 2021): 45-72. DOI: 10.53458/wfr.v100i.817. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356744018
Niederstätter, Alois. Vorarlberg 1523 bis 1861: Auf dem Weg zum Land. Geschichte Vorarlbergs Bd 2. Innsbruck: Universitätsverlag Wagner, 2015.
Ransperg, Franz. Anthropologium seu specificatio numerica.[...] omnium Personarum, quae Parochiae Brigantinae sunt incorporatae, 1660 (Vorarlberger Landesarchiv Pharrarchiv Bregenz Handschrift 34, p. 177, item 04).
