The Cataloguing of 876 Medieval and Early Modern Latin Manuscripts from Heidelberg's Bibliotheca Palatina in the Vatican Library in Rome

• Applicant: Dr. Jochen Apel, since 10/2023
• Subject Area: Principles of Law and Jurisprudence ; Roman Catholic Theology ; Medieval History
• Term: from 2014 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 251104717

The state of cataloguing for the Codices Palatini Latini from the former Bibliotheca Palatina in Heidelberg is at present still very heterogenic. The aim of the project presented here in this proposal is to close the current gaps for the collection of the Latin Palatine manuscripts. On the basis of already existing modules a deep scientific indexing of 875 medieval and early modern Latin codices from the Bibliotheca Palatina is to be undertaken and to be presented online within the context of the virtual reconstruction of the once most renowned libray in Germany. As a result for the first time manuscript descriptions based on modern and scientific standards would be available for the entire collection of Latin Palatine manuscripts. The combination of the intended deep indexing with the online provision of digital facsimiles of the manuscripts - which up until now have been difficult to access and whose online availability has been generously financed by a further source - for the first time would provide a complete and firm basis complying to academic standards for further research in the numerous disciplines of medieval studies. Furthermore, it would provide the possibility for extensive research on the history and the importance of the Bibliotheca Palatina.The manuscripts concerned are 761 codices from the shelfmark sequence Pal. lat. 1-920, which so far have only been described cursorily, in numerous cases with omissions of essential texts, in the outdated catalogue of E. Stevenson. Their content ranges from biblical scripts as well as texts by Church Fathers and liturgica to council manuscripts and historical codices. Currently manuscript descriptions for a row of historical library catalogues from the Bibliotheca Palatina written in the 16th century as well as of several manuscripts on various other topics listed at the end of the shelfmark sequence are completely missing. During the first phase of this project manuscript descriptions were produced for the first 438 codices in numerus currens order, another 438 will now follow accordingly in the second phase.Besides compiling descriptions of all manuscripts according to guidelines by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in TEI-P5 format, the description data is to be interlinked with the digital facsimiles, which are being produced within the context of Heidelbergs Palatina digitization project.The aim is to make all results researchable in the central manuscript database Manuscripta Mediaevalia as well as through library catalogue systems and databases such as the Südwestdeutschen Bibliotheksverbund (SWB), WorldCat etc, but also to integrate all description data into Heidelbergs core website for the virtual reconstruction of the former library: Bibliotheca Palatina-digital. At the end of it a printed publication of all manuscript descriptions is planned.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Dr. Veit Probst, until 9/2023