Ceiling and mural paintings are constitutive elements in the design of baroque interiors. Unlike all other forms of pictorial art, these truly three-dimensional artistic media define early modern architecture literally from above, through colourful and complex iconographic programmes: in ecclesiastical as well as secular environments, in residential palaces and ceremonial halls, churches and…
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…
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…
While other European cultural nations have comprehensive etymological dictionaries, German, one of the world’s most common languages in quantitative terms, lacks a large scientific etymological dictionary. For this reason, the “German etymology of semantic fields in a European Context (DWEE)” wants to close this gap on the one hand: This applies particularly to words that have only appeared since…
Through critical editions of authoritative commentaries and sermons on Old Testament texts as well as comparative studies, the Academy's project “Die alexandrinische und antiochenische Bibelexegese in der Spätantike” opens up a central part of the literature of ancient Christianity - namely the interpretation of that part of the Christian Holy Scripture which Christianity shares with its mother…
The Coptic-Sahidic Bible is one of the most important literary witnesses of Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean. The Coptic Old Testament, which essentially dates back to the 4th century, is one of the earliest and most extensive versions of the Greek Septuagint (LXX). The translation of the Bible into Coptic was source and inspiration for the entire Coptic-Christian literature of Egypt. In…
The decrees of the Frankish rulers are known as capitularies because of their subdivision into chapters (lat. capitula). They are amongst the most important sources for the history of the Frankish kingdoms. They are instructions similar to laws, ordinances or provisions, regulating political, military, ecclesiastical, social, economic and cultural matters.
The project, which is located at the Ernst Haeckel House of the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, focuses on the edition of the entire correspondence of the evolutionary biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) and thus one of the most important correspondences of scientific culture around 1900.
The archive of the Haeckel-Haus houses almost the entire personal and scientific legacy of Haeckel…
The “Hallische Händel-Ausgabe” is a critical complete edition of Händel’s oevre based on all known sources. It is made for theoretical and practical use. The Editorial Board is put together internationally. Each volume contains an introduction that consists of the origin history, the works’ heritage, and a discussion of performance questions. In each edition of vocal works there is a German and,…
The project “Johann Friedrich Blumenbach –Online” (www.blumenbach-online.de) aims at making the rise of German science within the European context visible, and at supplying a missing part in accessible primary source material on the cultural history of the time: the publications of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. This is particularly significant with regard to an essential aspect of this period: the…
The “Neue Johannes Brahms Gesamtausgabe” brings forward Johannes Brahms’ compositional oeuvre in a historical-critical edition. Included are alternative versions, that remained unpublished by the composer, as well as adaptations by the composer of his own and external works. The goal of the edition is the reproduction of authentic texts, which are relieved from typing-, copying, and engraving…
The Leipzig edition of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s works is intended to make all accessible compositions, letters and writings as well as all other documents of his artistic work available to the public in a scientifically appropriate form. As a historical-critical edition, it aims to serve research and musical practice in equal measure. The issue is published in 13 series. Approximately 80…
The “Neue Schubert-Ausgabe” is a scholarly critical edition of all musical works of Franz Schubert (1797-1828). Its 84 volumes are classified in eight series according to groups of works and include a catalogue of works, documents concerning the biography, and catalogues of sources. Each volume lists the most important sources and interpretations, and is completed by a separate critical report.…
Orlando di Lasso (1530/1532-1594) was the most important composer of the 16th century. His oeuvre comprises more than 1300 compositions, about 480 prints from the years between 1555 and 1687 confirm his popularity and the unbroken performance tradition long after his death. He worked at the court of the Wittelsbach dukes Albrecht V. and Wilhelm V. (from 1557 as tenor and from 1563 until his death…
The name of Dionysius the Areopagite refers to the Athenian, who according to Acts 17:34 was converted by St. Paul’s speech on the Areopagus and then followed him. The name was adopted by a prolific unknown author around 500 A.D., with a vast number of writings based on the tremendous influence of his synthesizing of neo-platonic philosophy and Christian theology. The manuscript tradition is a…
“It is only on the step, in the gateway, the entrance, the vestibule, the space between the outside and the inner chamber, between the sacred and the common, that we may ordinarily tarry with our friends.”
With these words Goethe paraphrases the title of his journal “Propylaea”, which he edited from 1798 to 1800. The title is a programmatic statement: the journal is meant to be a place of…
The Egyptian-Coptic language is the human language with the longest documented lifetime, clocking at 4,500 years prior to its extinction. Its vocabulary reflects the knowledge and worldviews of one of the formative cultures of the ancient world. In order to explore the linguistic and cultural evidence of this historical episteme, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) and…
Uwe Johnson (1934-1984) is one of the most important authors of German in the era of two-state identity. His novels tell of German history in a context far beyond Germany. With his essays and articles, Johnson developed the position of a “public intellectual”. His highly literary correspondence is on an equal footing with the literary work, commenting critically on post-war history in an…