Scalable Reading of 18th Century "Collected Editions". The example of Friedrich von Hagedorn.

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Philip Ajouri; Professor Dr. Gabriel Viehhauser
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 512277433

The book type of Collected or Complete Editions as a collection of the "life's work" of an author is a central medium in the literary world. It is essential for the self-image of authors and has great significance for readers, publishers, and libraries. Last but not least, editions of works have a significant impact on the process of canonization of authors and works.It is therefore surprising that this type of book has been little researched and that not much is known beyond individual examples about the history of the ordering principles of texts within editions, their paratextual features, and how texts were selected and constituted. This research desideratum is to be remedied with a view to the 18th century, in which this type of book emerged in a farreaching way.The present "Sachbeihilfe" takes Friedrich von Hagedorn (1708-1754) as an example, an author of whom numerous editions of works and reprints of these editions were published in the 18th century. In terms of qualitative literary and book history the project will examine how editions of works were compiled, arranged, and reprinted in the course of the 18th century, with which paratexts they were equipped, and how they were prepared for certain markets and audiences. In addition, the practice of Hagedorn's "Verbesserungsästhetik" (Steffen Martus) will be empirically investigated. Since the number of editions of works and thus of volumes to be studied is too large for manual processing, methods of the Digital Humanities (Document Analysis, Text Reuse, Sequence Alignment) will be employed. Methodologically, this project aims to show which tools of the Digital Humanities can be used for the comparative research of editions of works. The interplay of both sides, the quantitative and the qualitative approach, is essential for the methodological and the content-related thrust of the project. Results will be recorded in two dissertsations, in the VD18 and in a collection of the Digital Library of the SUB Göttingen. DH tools will be made available on GitHub for reuse.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Nikolaus Weichselbaumer