The brothers, Frederick and John of Saxony, were key figures in the early history of the Reformation. Frederick the Wise holds an established place in historiography as the founder of the University of Wittenberg and as Luther’s protector. His younger brother John the Constant is virtually unknown in comparison, although he was decisively influential in promoting the Evangelical cause at the…
The “Codex diplomaticus Saxoniae” (CDS) is the authoritative edition of the medieval documents of the margraves of Meissen, electors of Saxony and landgraves of Thuringia, the documents of the cities and religious institutions of Saxony as well as the papal documents handed down in Saxony. This wide-ranging collection of documents now comprises more than 30 volumes with a total of over 11,000…
Medieval and early modern inscriptions crafted before 1650, in Latin and German language, situated in German-speaking areas are at the heart of this project. Inscriptions are significant and unique historical sources because they are often preserved in an authentic state and in their original setting. For the premodern era, script which was affixed to stone, wood, metal, glass as well as textiles…
The research and edition project on the Fruitbearing Society (1617-1680; 890 members) is dedicated to an organisation that, as a comprehensive German Academy of the 17th century, was linked to a variety of linguistic, literary, scholarly, and (educational) political ambitions. Their work is inherent in national and European perspectives, which remained productive until the Enlightenment.
The letters of Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705), the founder of Lutheran Pietism, are not only first-rate sources for research on the beginnings of Pietism, the most important renewal movement of Protestantism since the Reformation, but also for the church and cultural history of the early modern period. Some of them are handwritten records and can be found in archives and libraries far beyond…
The aim of the project of the Saxon Academy of Sciences “Europäische Traditionen - Enzyklopädie jüdischer Kulturen” is the development and conceptual penetration of Jewish life worlds in Europe from the early modern period to the middle of the 20th century. It is based on the “Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture”. Completed in 2017, the work, which contains around 800 articles in seven…
The Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig took over the project initiated by the Saxon Commission for History in 1896 with the establishment of a office site in 1992. The "Atlas zur Geschichte und Landeskunde von Sachsen" is being produced in cooperation between the Academy, the Saxony State Surveying Office and the Dresden University of Applied Sciences (FH).
The Sachsenspiegel, written around 1225 by Eike von Repchow, is the most important and perhaps also the oldest comprehensive German legal book. This private record of the law in force at the beginning of the 13th century was widely distributed in a relatively short period of time, to which its scientific treatment in the form of explanatory notes (glosses) based on the Italian model soon…