Re-Cataloguing of the formerly Donaueschingen manuscripts in the BLB Karlsruhe
Final Report Abstract
From 2015 to 2023, the theological manuscripts in prose (i. e. the B-segment) formerly belonging to the manuscript collection of the princely house of Fürstenberg in Donaueschingen were scholarly cataloged in a cooperative project of Leipzig University Library (UBL) and Baden State Library (BLB). The project includes 72 primarily German-language manuscripts, with a majority on prayer and devotional books. Before the project, the manuscripts were described only by a catalog from 1865 and a short inventory list. As the theological material had been less visible to scholarship, from the beginning of the project there was the hope that a treasure trove of largely still unknown medieval sources for South-West Germany and for late medieval piety practice in women’s convents was waiting to be found here. The scholarly in-depth cataloguing according to the DFG-guidelines for manuscript cataloguing now enables a completely new approach to the material demonstrating the importance of the B-segment: For all manuscripts, not only were the contents precisely determined – often for the first time – but also the object-like materiality of the manuscripts was precisely worked out, thus elucidating the context of origin and the history of ownership. In the course of the work, a number of new text witnesses of theological prose of the late Middle Ages could be identified, especially in the case of small religious texts. Mostly, these were rarely transmitted texts. Among the mostly new findings on the history of manuscript origins that the project has yielded, Cod. Don. B V 13 stands out: The volume could be identified as the oldest complete paper manuscript in the German language. Based on the watermarks, the manuscript was dated around 1335–1340 and could be placed in temporal and local proximity to the author of the text it contains. As hoped before the project began, it was possible to prove that many of the manuscripts originated in a women's convent. In this context, the extensive paleographic material provided another perspective on the scribal characteristics of codices produced in women's convents, which is important for future attribution issues. All manuscript descriptions were made available online during the project via the central reference systems Manuscripta Mediaevalia and the Manuscript Portal. The recorded watermarks are published via the Wasserzeichen-Informationssystem. The BLB has digitized the project manuscripts with its own funds and made them available via its Digital Collections as well as the HSP and Biblissima. Descriptions and digital copies are available in standardized formats (TEI, IIIF) and can be reused freely and interoperably. After completion of the subsequent cataloging of the Donaueschingen C–G segment, a manuscript catalog will be published that combines the descriptions of the entire collection. The preliminary work on the catalog, introduction, and registry done in B-Project will provide the basis for this.
Publications
-
Zeugnisse spätmittelalterlicher Frömmigkeit in Leipzig. Projekt zur ‚Neukatalogisierung der ehemals Donaueschinger Handschriften der Badischen Landesbibliothek Karlsruhe (BLB)‘ geht in die nächste Phase, Blog der UB Leipzig vom 8. Februar 2018
Katrin Sturm
-
Alte Handschrift – Frühes Papier. Eine der ältesten deutschsprachigen Papierhandschriften im Bestand der ehemaligen Donaueschinger Handschriften der Badischen Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe entdeckt, Blog der UB Leipzig vom 13. Mai 2019
Katrin Sturm
-
Württembergisches in Donaueschinger Handschriften?. Württemberg als Kulturlandschaft, 487-522.
Sturm, Katrin
