Bihtebuoch. A treatise on confession in vernacular of the 14th century edited and commented for the first time

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Haubrichs
• Subject Area: German Medieval Studies (Medieval German Literature)
• Term: from 2011 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 200218341

Main task of the project was, first of all, the edition of the first systematic treatise in German on confession - the Bihtebuoch, now to be dated sometimes earlier, about 1300, after the two already known manuscripts and the codex found again in Paris. This edition is almost complete and is subdivided in two functionally different parts:1) A reading edition with critical apparatus and translation in Modern German for the use of the neighbouring disciplines (History, Theology, other Philologies), following the Freising manuscript - the only 'complete' one - as "Leithandschrift" (principal textual witness)2) A synoptically arranged dipomatic edeition of all three manuscripts for the purpose of allowing further linguistic research on the tradition of the text. This is necessary, since the copies are closely related, but belong to different regional und chronological traditions of writing.The Bihtebuoch has, by the groundwork done during the run-time of the project so far, the edition just presented and the commentary to the text elaborated for the first time by this edition, proved to be the oldest systematic treatise on confession in Germany. It was elaborated by its unknown author on the basis of the most renowned Latin authorities on the subject in his time, carefully and originally excerpted. The continuation of the project applied for shall thoroughly and exemplarily examine, on the one hand, the Latin tradition of the genre, on the other hand, the older, the about contemporary and the younger literature on confession in the vernacular to write a first genetic history of the treatises on confession in medeival Germany. In proceeding that way, the project shall contribute to the valorisation of this field of primal importance for the evolution of European concepts of conscience and traditions of penance and disciplinary actions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants