Aloys Hirt. Official Correspondence 1787-1837. Critical edition.

• Applicant: Dr. Uta Motschmann
• Subject Area: Art History ; Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology ; History of Science
• Term: from 2014 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 252908984

The critical edition of the official correspondence of Aloys Hirt (1759-1837) is intended as a supplement and as the second part of his personal correspondence. The corpus comprises expert opinions, short addresses (Voten) and memoranda (Promemorien) written by Hirt in his function as a member of both the Academy of Arts and Academy of Sciences in Berlin, as an artists agent of the Prussian court and as a member of the Museum Commission, as well as his official correspondence (reports and ministerial directives) with the Ministry of Intellectual, Educational and Medicinal Affairs (the Prussian Ministry of Culture). The official correspondence covers the period from 1796, when Hirt arrived in Berlin, until his death in 1837. Initially, there appeared to be approximately 40 official letters and expert opinions; these were originally planned as an appendix to the edition of collected letters (cf. the first application for the Hirt correspondence). Upon closer examination of roughly 100 files, particularly in the Prussian Privy State Archives (GStA PK) and the archives of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, it became clear that there was in fact a much larger amount of material to draw upon, around 300 documents of this type, which could not be integrated into the current edition because of their scope and the time and effort that would be involved in doing so. These documents should thus be consolidated and published separately as a second volume that is linked to the first, so that the overall context can be shown. At the same time, they should not be edited in chronological order but rather according to areas of jurisdiction or institutions (Academy of Sciences and Humanities / Academy of Arts, and the Bauakademie (Building Academy) / Museum Commission). The collection of approximately 300 items of official correspondence will be diplomatically edited with comments to ensure that the texts are clear. Persons, places, works and items will be summarised in indices. The edition will be digitised and made freely accessible online. A print edition will be published based on the digital version (approx. 600 p.).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants