Cataloguing of the occidental medieval manuscripts of the Göttingen State and University Library

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Peter Burschel; Dr. Christian Fieseler, since 1/2024
• Subject Area: German Medieval Studies (Medieval German Literature) ; Medieval History
• Term: since 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 318343169

.Göttingen State and University Library possesses 426 occidental medieval manuscripts which cover a wide range of subjects. After the library was founded in 1734 as a collection for scholarly research, almost all of the medieval manuscripts were gradually acquired at auction sales to complement the universal library’s holdings of printed books. In the 18th century they were shelved together with modern manuscripts according to a broad subject classification. Thus, they document the reception of medieval knowledge by scholars at the time of Enlightenment.So far the medieval manuscripts acquired until the year 1894 have only been catalogued insufficiently. Since they touch many fields of knowledge, however, they are relevant for nearly all disciplines with research interests pertaining to medieval times. The six-years-project’s aim is to catalogue all 231 medieval Latin manuscripts in the classes Historia, Historia literarum, Historia naturalis, Juridica, Philolologia, Philosophia and Theologia and the 74 medieval vernacular manuscripts in all subject classes. The cataloguing is based on the DFG-standards for manuscript cataloguing and the work will be shared by two cataloguers. Insufficiently indexed written sources and their material evidence will be catalogued to meet to present research requirements.In the first triannual project phase (until 31.08.2019), 46 vernacular medieval manuscripts were described according to the "Richtlinien Handschriftenkatalogisierung" of the DFG by an employee of the SUB Göttingen and 29 Latin manuscripts by an employee of the HAB Wolfenbüttel and The descriptions were made available in the manuscript database of the HAB (www.hab.de) and in Manuscripta Mediaevalia (http://www.manuscripta-mediaevalia.de/). The deviation from the original schedule and the number of published manuscript descriptions can be explained by the fact that both project members applied for a cost-neutral extension during the first project phase which was approved of by the DFG. As a result, the first project phase was extended by 3 months for the employee in Göttingen (until 15.04.2020) and by 13 months for the employee in Wolfenbüttel (until 31.01.2021).In the current first project phase, a conservational treatment of the entire collection of manuscripts to be described (152 manuscripts) was carried out. In addition to this, a graduate assistant of the SUB Göttingen and an employee of the HAB Wolfenbüttel recorded and described the binding stamps (EBDB; Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz) and the watermarks of the manuscripts for the entire first project phase (WZIS; Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg).

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Christian Heitzmann
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Wolfram Horstmann, until 12/2023