The research project “Die frühbuddhistischen Handschriften aus Gandhāra: religiöse Literatur an der Schnittstelle von Indien, Zentralasien und China” was established in 2012. On the basis of philological and historical methods, it provides new insight into the early history of Buddhism on its way to becoming a world religion. The project studies manuscripts found in the 1990s in northern Pakistan…
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…
At the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz and in cooperation with the Technical University of Darmstadt, a digital dictionary of surnames is being developed. For the first time, this dictionary records all currently existing family names Germany (also foreign names) lexicographically, maps them and etymologizes them with the help of maps.
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…
Robert and Clara Schumann: The great pair of musicians of German romanticism has left a lasting impression on the cultural history of the 19th century. The contacts to almost all the important musicians of the time, but also to poets and painters, to publishers, to friends, and family members are reflected in an extensive correspondence, about which Robert Schumann kept meticulous books. As a…
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 “DGS-Korpus” aimis at the systematic registration and documentation of the German sign language in its lively diversity and the creation of an electronic dictionary based on the corpus data. The dictionary will be an important reference book for everyone who will use the German sign language as a tool for communication and additionally for DGS-learners and linguists. Exceeding the…
The aim of the long-term project is the systematic reconstruction and editing of Early Medieval certificates and letters (Formulae) as well as research into formulaic writing in Western Europe before the 11th century. It is rooted at the interface of history, Latin philology and legal history and examines sources which are of great importance for the study of Early Medieval society. The Formulae…
The project “Galen als Vollender, Interpret und Vermittler der antiken Medizin” edits, translates, and comments on medical texts by Galen, which - from today’s perspective - are in the field of tension between the natural sciences and the humanities.
Galen von Pergamon, who worked in Rome in the 2nd century CE as medical advisor to Emperor Marcus Aurelius, became with his extensive oeuvre the…
The project’s aim is to present Gluck’s complete works in a critical historical edition for science and musical practice. These include the notated music with its text-critical annotation and extensive information about the work history and the contemporary reception; likewise facsimiles of the textbooks are printed in the respective volume. Gluck’s oeuvre, rarely maintained in the autograph,…
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,…
Written sources are – like art and buildings – integral parts of the cultural heritage, whose preservation, indexing and provision are central social duties. The knowledge of the past is principally based on texts, that more or less accidentally escaped destruction. These records preserve the knowledge, the faith, the tales, the visions and dreams of the people. They give testimony of past…
Hans Kelsen (1881-1973), a scientist of Jewish origin born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and driven out of Germany by the Nazis in 1933, who found his new home in exile in the USA, is still one of the most debated legal theorists on a global scale more than 40 years after his death. He is one of the very few jurists who have gained worldwide recognition outside their German-speaking circle 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 “Kritische Ausgabe der Werke von Richard Strauss”, financed by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, has been conducted since 2011 under the direction of Prof. Dr. Hartmut Schick at the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich. Cooperation partners are the Richard Strauss Institute and the Richard Strauss Archive in Garmisch-Partenkirchen as well as the LMU’s Humanities IT…
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) is said to be the last polymath. This is reflected by his diverse and mostly unpublished work. Until today, there is no complete edition which forced researchers to rely on deficient partial editions from the 19th century. The project aims at a complete edition of G. W. Leibniz’ writings and of his letters. The handwritten literary remains are to a large…
Printed eulogies or funeral sermons dating back to the two centuries between 1550 and 1750, gained huge significance regarding the exploration of Early Modern history next to its initial form as funeral sermons of the Protestant upper- and middleclass. The eulogies contain more or less extensive biographies and therefore constitute one of the most meaningful types of historical sources…
The “Mittelhochdeutsche Wörterbuch (MWB)” was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 1994 until 1999. In 2000 the project was taken over by the Academies of Mainz and Göttingen. The research is carried out in three office sites: in Göttingen (since 1994), Trier (since 1994), and Mainz (since 2011). The project's aim is to cover Middle High German vocabulary from the period of 1050 to…
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.…