The project “Corpus der Quellen zur mittelalterlichen Geschichte der Juden im Reichsgebiet” is aimed to register all relevant temporal and spatially fixed sources of the history of the Jews in the region of the Roman-German empire for the period from 1273 to 1519 chronologically and to make it available online – depending on the edition – in the form of full texts or regesta. It therefore strives to overcome a deficit that is not only limited to the pertinent specialized research but covers the general research as well. This results from the neglected linking of the history of the Jews with the general history, which can be found especially in Germany. This deficit can also be attributed to the spatially and locally limited resources of source-editions, collections of regesta and inventories for German research.
In the centre of the legacy, a large number of documents of very varied forms and contents can be found. An important admission criterion for the further types of sources in Latin, Vernacular and Hebrew edition, is the possibility of spatial and temporal allocation. Methodically, the explanations of the respective provenance and the situation of tradition are of great relevance to correct distortions and one-sidedness of perception of the Jewish history in the light of the specific conditions of passing on.
The project profits from the close cooperation with the Arye Maimon-Institut for the Jewish History (Trier) and the diverse interdisciplinary and international contacts.