Cataloguing and Indexing of the Literary Estate of Oluf Gerhard Tychsen (1734-1815) - Sources on Jewish History and Orientalist Scholarly Networks in the Age of Enlightenment

• Applicant: Karsten Labahn, since 9/2019
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 275976718

Oluf Gerhard Tychsen (December 14, 1734 ¿ December 30, 1815) was a native of Tønder (German Tondern) in the Danish region of Northern Slesvig and came to be one of the most important and versatile university scholars of 18th century Northern Germany. His literary estate, completely preserved in Rostock University Library, is a unique collection of source material which has significant value because of its high relevance for a broad range of subjects. Tychsens extensive academic correspondence is the most important part of the collection. Tychsen maintained a wide-ranging correspondence across Europe, connecting him with various different academic and scholarly circles. In particular, his unique collection of 17th and 18th century Yiddish and Hebrew private and rabbinical letters is of huge importance. Among his own scholarly works and manuscripts, his publications on Oriental languages and numismatics are of primary importance, although he also published numerous works on a broad range of subjects from Jewish history and ritual, the history of languages, Hebrew philology and theology. One field of particular interest are his pamphlets against the Oxford theologian Benjamin Kennicott.The aim of the project we are applying for is the cataloguing and digitisation of this highly relevant but so far only partially accessible corpus of sources, opening up Tychsen¿s literary estate of international research. The project is embedded in the well-established IT-infrastructure and digitisation workflows of Rostock University Library. The project is to be realised in a number of stages: The first stage includes detailed high-level cataloguing of all manuscript materials in Kalliope, the German national union catalogue of manuscripts and autographs according to the German cataloguing rules for manuscripts and autographs (RNA). This is necessary to provide good and detailed access to the complex and multilingual material. The second stage includes the digitisation of all manuscript materials according to DFG¿s practical guidelines on digitisation. All material digitized in the project will be made available as an open access resource permanently and free of charge in a persistent IT-infrastructure. Metadata will be contributed to national and international portals for digital materials such as Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek and Europeana. A further aim of the project is the creation of an interdisciplinary network of researchers to bring together the necessary skills and knowledge for research in order to disseminate the project results and encourage research into different aspects of Tychsen¿s work. Plans include an international workshop which is due to take place in Rostock in Autumn of 2015, bringing together researchers from different subjects and countries.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Professor Robert Zepf, until 9/2019