Inscriptions of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

The goal of this inter-academic project, in which—in addition to the Heidelberg Research Center—the research projects in Bonn, Göttingen, Greifswald, Halle, Leipzig, Jena, Mainz, Munich, and Vienna—is to compile the most comprehensive possible collection and 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 scope of the collection encompasses Germany, Austria, and South Tyrol. The results of the collection will be 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 project

- Brief Profile (YT) -

The Heidelberg research project has existed since 1935. However, continuous research work only became possible in 1963 with the appointment of a full-time staff member. Initially, the research project was responsible for cataloging inscriptions in Baden, the Rhineland-Palatinate, the Saarland, southern Hesse, Nassau, and the Prussian Rhine Province; at times, its jurisdiction also extended to 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 professional photography and image processing.

Scope of the Work

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

Inscriptions on funerary monuments ensure the memory of the deceased and remind the living of their own mortality; architectural inscriptions on public and private buildings name the patron and the year of construction; donation inscriptions on church furnishings commemorate generous benefactors; explanatory or admonishing 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 foundrymen sign their works with master’s marks; Prayers and invocations are “immortalized” through their inscription—for example, on a chalice.

Research Methods

The practical research is based on a card catalog organized by district for the entire state of Baden-Württemberg. This card index records all inscriptions that can be identified through an analysis of local, regional, and art-historical literature—both those preserved 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 a prerequisite for fieldwork. All collected metadata is also managed and linked through databases specifically designed for photographs, objects, and locations.

All localities within a district are visited and systematically searched for inscriptions. The survey trips focus primarily on the historic town centers, including their churches and cemeteries. Museum collections are examined, and bells and liturgical objects in the churches are inspected for any inscriptions. New discoveries can occasionally expand a district’s collection of inscriptions by up to one-third compared to the initial inventory. Staff members record all inscriptions found on data sheets, document them in detail, and photograph the objects bearing the inscriptions.

In addition to recording preserved inscriptions, another important task is identifying copies of lost inscriptions in public and private archives and libraries. Where early systematic handwritten documentation of inscriptions exists, the proportion of inscriptions preserved in copies can account for more than half of the total collection of inscriptions in a given study area.

German Inscriptions Online

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

The Heidelberg research project has been participating in the DIO project since 2012. To date, eleven volumes of the Heidelberg series have been made available online via this portal. The online version makes it possible to publish significantly more photos of inscriptions than in the printed volumes.

The seven earliest 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—organized according to scholarly editorial guidelines—either in Germany or abroad. The inscriptions that had been published were often scattered across widely dispersed, hard-to-access regional and local historical works and rarely met scholarly standards. Furthermore, medieval and early modern epigraphy—as a scholarly discipline concerned with the cataloging, editing, and analysis of post-antique inscriptions—had yet to be developed and established. In this context, the Heidelberg Research Center—which was 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.

For the volumes of inscriptions to be published, the title “Die Deutschen Inschriften” (DI) was agreed upon. They are published in separate series by the participating Academies. Since 1990, regular meetings have been held among staff members from all epigraphy centers to ensure a high degree of uniformity in the guidelines for processing and editing. The jointly compiled “Terminology for the Description of Scripts” (1999) is particularly noteworthy as an important resource that extends beyond the scope of epigraphic research. In addition, international epigraphic conferences are organized every two to three years.

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

By 2030, the remaining missing DI volumes of the Heidelberg series are also scheduled to be gradually made available online as part of DIO (see above). A photographic inventory of the inscriptions throughout the entire 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)