Geographi Latini Online. A digital open access corpus edition of the Roman geographical writers with translation, critical apparatus, commentary and animated maps.

• Applicants: Privatdozentin Dr. Silke Diederich; Professor Dr. Michael Rathmann
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology ; Ancient History
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 529280914

A textual corpus of Latin Roman geographical writings and fragments from the beginnings to Isidore of Seville is a desideratum of research. The present project aims to make available those geographical texts with critical apparatus, commentaries, translations, introductions and continuously updated bibliographies combined with an innovative cartographic presentation. This Open Access tool will provide a scientifically sound research basis, which will benefit not only Classical Studies and its neighboring disciplines, but also all the interdisciplinary and transcultural comparative research done in cultural, literary and media studies - any field, which, in the wake of the Topological Turn, takes an interest in historical concept of space, including cartography, toponomastics, cultural anthropology and migration studies. In order to create a reliable basis for this work and to provide impulses for new approaches, this project combines traditional philology with a completely new digital media format, developed by the Cologne Center for e-Humantities (CCeH), which offers innovative methods of presentation and visualization. This media concept, which has only now become possible thanks to recent developments by the CCeH, equips the ancient texts with animated maps of individual regions and the entire oikoumene. Access to a synoptic presentation of texts, maps and comments, as well as cross-links to the online commentary on the Tabula Peutingeriana, enables an easy understanding of the complex spatial images of Roman authors and their readers within their traditions and their processes of change. Further features include full-text searchability of texts and maps for toponyms, in all their different spellings. The option to combine various search parameters (e.g., space, place, time, type of text, purpose, addressees) with AND/OR operators makes it possible to locate the geographical items in their textual contexts and to compare textual sources and map illustrations with one another. Thus, for example, it becomes easy to understand how a geographem (e.g., the location of Thule) changes through various epochs, literary genres, etc.: the texts illuminate each other and the linked comments lead to further source texts. A single piece of information thus becomes a relational "cosmos". As a synthesis, the first monograph on the history of Roman geography, including a first glossary of Latin geographical terms, is to be created. The aim of this project is to develop a new approach for the understanding of the geographical world-view of the Roman elites, who conquered a world empire and imprinted their political, administrative, logistic, religious and cultural order on this vast area.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants