SFB 933:  Material Text Cultures. Materiality and Presence of Writing in Non-Typographic Societies

• Subject Area: Humanities
• Term: from 2011 to 2023
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 178035969

The Collaborative Research Centre 933 (CRC) in Heidelberg studies texts which are written on things; such as texts on columns, portals, tombstones, clay tablets, pottery sherds, amulets, bamboo splices, and manuscripts on papyrus, parchment, or paper etc. It focusses on the material aspects of these things and their presence, i. e. on the (topological) situation, in which they developed their specific effect. Starting from the material and presence qualities – so the premise of research – the practices these things were involved in can be reconstructed. The CRC concentrates mostly on periods and cultures in which writing was not reproduced by industrial means and thus was not widely accessible (“non-typographic societies”). In this respect, it corroborates the historically-rooted awareness of the extent to which writing, the writing substrate, and behaviours that are connected to them form a tight and mutually dependent relationship that can still be seen today (e. g., in letters, books, tombstones, graffiti, screens, tablets).

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• International Connection: Switzerland

Completed projects

• A01 - Lettered and Inscribed. Inscriptions in Urban Space in the Greco-Roman Period and Middle Ages (Project Heads Dickmann, Jens-Arne ;  Jaspert, Nikolas ;  Meier, Ludwig ;  Sitz, Anna ;  Trampedach, Kai ;  Westphalen, Stephan ;  Witschel, Christian )
• A02 - Antique Letters as a Means of Communication (Project Head Ast, Rodney )
• A03 - Materiality and Presence of Magical Signs between Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Project Heads Jördens, Andrea ;  Meier, Thomas ;  Quack, Joachim Friedrich )
• A04 - The Transfer of Knowledge from Antiquity to Medieval Times. Conditions and Impact of Manuscript Production at the Monastery of Lorsch (Project Head Weinfurter, Stefan )
• A05 - Script and Characters on and in Medieval Artwork (Project Heads Frese, Tobias ;  Untermann, Matthias )
• A06 - The Paper Revolution in Late Medieval Europe. Comparative Investigations into Changing Technologies and Culture in the "Social Space" (Project Head Schneidmüller, Bernd )
• A08 - Relic Labels. Materiality and Presence in a Neglected Type of Early and High Medieval Writing Practice (Project Head Licht, Tino )
• A09 - Writing on Ostraca in the Inner and Outer Mediterranean (Project Head Lougovaya-Ast, Julia )
• A10 - Text and Image in Greek Sculpture: A Case-Study on Athens and Olympia From Archaic to Imperial Age (Project Head Dietrich, Nikolaus )
• A11 - Graffiti on Roman gold coins: spectrum of meaning and communication strategies (Project Head Börner, Susanne )
• A12 - The Artist’s Presence. Medieval Artefacts with Artists’ Signatures (Project Head Müller, Rebecca )
• B01 - The Materialisation of Intellectual Order. Means of Depicting Learned Knowledge on Clay Tablets (Project Head Maul, Stefan M. )
• B02 - Wall, Recitation Roll and Tomb. Alternating Materialisations of Religious Texts in Ancient Egypt (Project Head Quack, Joachim Friedrich )
• B03 - Administrative Text Practice in Mycenaean Greece. Material and Medial Aspects of Writing in Early Greece (Project Head Panagiotopoulos, Diamantis )
• B04 - The Masora Text of the Hebrew Bible in its Various Material Forms in Western Europe (Project Head Liss, Hanna )
• B06 - Material Presence of Writing and the Practice of Iconographic Reception in Medieval Didactic Poetry. Text-Image Edition with Commentary of Der Welsche Gast by Thomasin von Zerklaere (Project Heads Schmidt, Peter ;  Schneider, Christian )
• B07 - Aspects of Mediality and Materiality of Illuminated Horizontal Calligraphy Scrolls in Medieval Japan (Project Head Trede, Melanie )
• B09 - The Writing Materials Wood, Bamboo, Silk and Paper in Ancient China (Project Head Giele, Enno )
• B10 - Scrolls for the King. The Format of Scrolls in Royal Administration and Historiography in the Late Middle Ages in Western Europe (Project Head Peltzer, Jörg )
• B11 - Material Formations of Music Theory Concepts: Praxeology of Disciplinary Writing Towards the End of the Middle Ages (Project Head Groote, Inga Mai )
• B12 - Forms of Presence and Tradition of Sumerian Royal Hymns (Project Head Lämmerhirt, Kai )
• B13 - The Order of Knowledge and Biographical Writing. Calculated Handwriting in Printed Books of the Early Modern Period (16th and 17th Century) (Project Head Brockstieger, Sylvia )
• B14 - Interactive Materialities: Interdependences between Written/Painted and Printed Artefacts in 17th Century Japan (Project Head Trede, Melanie )
• B15 - Visual Means of Structure for Egyptian Texts on Papyrus (Project Head Kühne, Carin )
• C01 - Materiality and Presence of Writing in the Discourse of Power in Ancient Mesopotamia between 2500 and 1800 B.C. (Project Heads Hilgert, Markus ;  Miglus, Peter A. )
• C02 - Tales of the Scriptural as the Basis of a "Textual Anthropology" of the Old Testament (Project Heads Gertz, Jan Christian ;  Schücking-Jungblut, Friederike )
• C03 - Forms of Time. Forms of Space. Strategies for Tackling the Materiality and Presence of Writing in Augustan Literature (Project Head Schwindt, Jürgen Paul )
• C04 - The Buddhist Canon in Stone. Materialisation and Presentification of Holy Scriptures in the Wolkenheim Monastery (616-1180 A.C.) (Project Head Ledderose, Lothar )
• C05 - Inscribed. Reflexions of Material Text Cultures in the Literature of the 12th and 17th Century (Project Head Lieb, Ludger )
• C06 - Profession and Training in Islamic Chancery Practice (adab al-katib) or: Administration as the Crowning Discipline (Project Head Enderwitz, Susanne )
• C07 - Sacred and Holy Scripture. On the Materiality and Function of Competing Systems of Writing in the Formation of the Religious Sphere in Bali (Project Head Hornbacher, Annette )
• C08 - Inscriptions within ancient Greek Historiography and the Imperial Novel (Project Head Grethlein, Jonas )
• C09 - Inscription of the Body: Text and Body in pre-modern Iberian literature (Project Head Folger, Robert )
• C10 - Letters as Material Communication in the Literature of the 12th to 17th Century (Project Head Tschachtli, Sarina )
• E03 - Material Text Cultures. Materiality and Presence of Writing in Non-typographic Societies (Project Heads Gertz, Jan Christian ;  Schücking-Jungblut, Friederike )
• INF - Service Project on Information Management and Information Infrastructure (Project Heads Effinger, Maria ;  Heuveline, Vincent ;  Witschel, Christian )
• MGK - Integrated Research Training Group (Project Head Prohl, Inken )
• Z - Central Duties and Responsibilities of the Collaborative Research Centre (Project Head Lieb, Ludger )
• Ö - Public Relations Project: "Script-Bearing Artefacts in New Media" (Project Head Elias, Friederike )

• Applicant Institution: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
• Participating University: Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg
• Spokespersons: Professor Dr. Markus Hilgert, until 10/2013; Professor Dr. Ludger Lieb