The Narrative Dissemination of Religious Knowledge: Publication and Commentary of Spiritual Lyrical and Prose Texts from the 13th to the 16th century

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Klaus Ridder; Professor Dr. Hans-Joachim Ziegeler
• Subject Area: German Medieval Studies (Medieval German Literature)
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 399073786

A significant number of previously neglected and in some cases unknown short narrative texts, both secular and religious, survive today in parchment and paper manuscripts from the 13th to the 16th centuries. Following the successful completion of an eight-year editorial project, undertaken at the Universities of Cologne and Tübingen, concerning medieval German secular tales in verse (vgl. http://www.versnovellistik.uni-koeln.de/8149.html), DFG-funding has been secured to produce an up-to-date edition of the short spiritual texts that are so often transmitted in the same collective manuscripts. This second project, which also has a planned duration of eight years and will be undertaken in Cologne and Tübingen, is entitled: “The Narrative Dissemination of Religious Knowledge: New edition with commentary of spiritual verse and prose texts from the 13th to the 16th century”. A total of 179 spiritual texts of different literary genres and styles will hereby be made available to specialists and non-specialists alike for the first time. Each one conveys religious knowledge narratively, and in many cases also discursively, but never unambiguously; and their repeated compilation and arrangement in manuscript collections enabled recipients throughout the Middle Ages to discuss and understand intricate problems pertaining to Christian religious belief. The publication of these texts in this major new edition will give contour to an important group of ‘popular’ literary works from Germany’s medieval and early modern past – a large body of material that has not been properly recognized or researched before. Under the conditions of pre-modern communication it was precisely this literature that helped to create a situation in which “[…] reformers were able to build on a lay community who were sufficiently prepared for fundamental disputes over religious issues and [were] capable of independent thought” (Williams-Krapp). The project will produce a print edition as well as an e-book and a digital, Open Access edition. Both the book and the online edition will contain the critical texts and an English translation. The print edition will also contain a selection of alternative versions of the texts as well as a literary-historical commentary, while the online edition will contain implemented links to the digital images of numerous manuscripts and early prints, the complete set of variants as well as multi-layered commentaries on aspects of textual criticism, circumstances of composition and origins and matters of interpretation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Sebastian Coxon