Inscriptions from the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period

The goal of this inter-academic project—in which, in addition to the Heidelberg research center, research centers in Bonn, Göttingen, Greifswald, Halle, Leipzig, Jena, Mainz, Munich, and Vienna are also participating—is to compile as complete a collection as possible and to produce an annotated edition of all Latin and German-language inscriptions from the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period up to the year 1650. As of now, the collection covers Germany and Austria as well as South Tyrol. The results of the collection are published in the DI volumes. A volume contains either the inscriptions of one or more city or county districts (in Austria: political districts) or the inscriptions of individual cities. For cities with a particularly large collection of inscriptions, individual groups are published separately. Both inscriptions that are still extant and those preserved only in copies are included.

The Heidelberg Research Center

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The Heidelberg Research Center has been in existence since 1935. However, continuous research work only became possible in 1963 with the appointment of a full-time staff member. Initially, the research center was responsible for cataloging inscriptions in Baden, the Rhine Palatinate, the Saarland, southern Hesse, Nassau, and the Prussian Rhine Province, and at times also in Alsace and Lorraine. Following a redistribution of the areas of responsibility among the participating academies in 1971, Heidelberg is now responsible for the inscriptions of the state of Baden-Württemberg. Currently, the editorial work is carried out by three research staff members, in addition to a position dedicated to the professional production of photographs and image processing.
 

Subject of the thesis

The term "inscriptions" encompasses all written sources that were not produced using the conventional methods of writing schools and chancelleries—that is, those not written on paper or parchment. Printed materials are also not considered inscriptions. To put it positively: Inscriptions are affixed to stone, metal, wood, glass, enamel, wall plaster, textiles, or animal products and produced using a wide variety of techniques: carved, engraved, painted, cast, etched, punched, embossed, molded in stucco, embroidered, woven, incised, cut out, or executed as mosaics. The texts of the inscriptions often possess great historical significance, as they were frequently intended for public spaces and designed to have a lasting impact there. As unique pieces, they are generally firmly tied to the location for which they were created.

Inscriptions on tombstones ensure that the deceased are remembered and remind the living of their own mortality; architectural inscriptions on public and private buildings name the patrons and the year of construction; dedicatory inscriptions on church furnishings commemorate generous benefactors; explanatory or admonitory captions complement pictorial representations in murals, stained-glass windows, and panel paintings; Inscriptions on legal documents secure legal claims by being affixed in a publicly accessible location; stonemasons, woodcarvers, goldsmiths, painters, and foundry workers sign their works with master’s marks; prayers and invocations are “immortalized” through their inscription—for example, on a chalice.
 

Working Methods

The practical work is based on a card index organized by district for the entire state of Baden-Württemberg. This index includes all inscriptions that can be identified through an analysis of local, regional, and art-historical literature—both those that have survived in their original form and those that have since been lost. This provides an initial overview of the number and locations of the inscriptions, which is essential for the fieldwork. All collected metadata is also managed and linked together via photo, object, and location databases designed specifically for this purpose.

All localities within a district are visited and systematically searched for inscriptions. The surveys focus on the historic town centers, with particular attention to churches and cemeteries. Museum collections are examined, and church bells and liturgical objects are checked for any inscriptions. New discoveries can occasionally expand a district’s collection of inscriptions by up to a third compared to the initial inventory. The staff record all inscriptions found in data sheets, document them in detail, and photograph the objects bearing the inscriptions.

In addition to cataloging extant inscriptions, another important task is identifying copies of lost inscriptions in public and private archives and libraries. Where early systematic handwritten catalogs of inscriptions exist, copies can account for more than half of the total inventory of inscriptions in a given area of study.
 

German Inscriptions Online

The“German Inscriptions Online”(DIO) project is run as an inter-academic initiative. Technical implementation is handled by a dedicated unit at the Digital Academy in Mainz. The long-term goal is to digitize and make available online all volumes of the DI Inscriptions series.

The Heidelberg Research Center has been participating in the DIO project since 2012. To date, eleven volumes of the Heidelberg series have been made available online through this portal. The online version allows for the publication of significantly more photographs of inscriptions than in the printed volumes.

The first seven volumes of the Heidelberg Series, which were produced according to modified editorial guidelines and are therefore not suitable for publication within the DIO framework, have been made available online as PDF files through the Heidelberg University Library’s Digitization Center. 
 

Work completed to date

At the time the overall project was launched, there was no large-scale, comprehensive, systematic collection of medieval and early modern inscriptions—compiled in accordance with scholarly editorial guidelines—either in Germany or abroad. What had been published in the way of inscriptions had often appeared in widely scattered, hard-to-access regional and local historical writings and rarely met scholarly standards. Furthermore, medieval and early modern epigraphy as a scholarly discipline—one concerned with the recording, editing, and analysis of post-antique inscriptions—had yet to be developed and established. In this context, the Heidelberg research center—initially funded by the DFG and the Baden Ministry of Culture—was assigned the additional task of introducing new staff members from the other academies to the practical work of epigraphy. The guidelines were to be modified and refined over the course of the project in light of the experience gained.

The title “Die Deutschen Inschriften” (DI) was agreed upon for the volumes of inscriptions to be published. They are published in separate series by the participating academies. Since 1990, regular meetings have been held among staff members from all epigraphic centers to ensure a high degree of consistency in editing and publication guidelines. The jointly compiled “Terminology for the Description of Inscriptions” (1999) deserves special mention as an important resource that extends beyond the scope of epigraphic research. International epigraphy conferences are also organized every two to three years.

The volumes of inscriptions compiled so far by the Heidelberg Research Center cover, outside Baden-Württemberg, the cities of Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate) and Fritzlar (Hesse) and the former district of Miltenberg (Bavaria), as well as, within the state, the districts of Böblingen, Calw, Enzkreis, Freudenstadt, Göppingen, Hohenlohekreis, Karlsruhe, Ludwigsburg, Main-Tauber-Kreis, Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis, Rastatt, Rems-Murr-Kreis, Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, and Schwäbisch Hall, as well as the city districts of Baden-Baden, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, and Pforzheim. In 2016, the editorial work in the administrative district of Karlsruhe was completed. For the Stuttgart administrative district, more than half of the inscription material has been edited. By the end of the project term (set in 2014) in 2030, the collections of the Esslingen and Heilbronn districts as well as the city district of Heilbronn are to be processed.

By 2030, the remaining DI volumes of the Heidelberg series that are not yet available online are also scheduled to be gradually made available online as part of DIO (see above). A photographic inventory of the inscriptions throughout the state, originally conducted since 1989 as preparatory work for future DI volumes, was completed in 2018, meaning that even for the southern half of the state—which is no longer slated for an edition—the photographic material is now largely complete.

(As of November 2024)