A new edition of the German writings of Heinrich Seuse

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jens-Dieter Haustein
• Subject Area: German Medieval Studies (Medieval German Literature) ; Protestant Theology ; Roman Catholic Theology ; Medieval History
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 439565999

Heinrich Seuse (ca 1295/96-1366) is, besides Meister Eckhart and Johannes Tauler, the most important German mystic of the later Middle Ages. His writings had a reception far beyond the German linguistic region, and he is widely kown until today.Already in the 14th century, Seuse’s German writings have been collected in the so-called ‚Exemplar‘ which in the scholarly literature is recognized as an ‚authoritative edition‘, and as the starting point for the transmission of the author’s writings. The basis for the scientific research on Seuse is until now the edition by Karl Bihlmeyer from 1907: this edition is concerned with a reconstruction of the ‚Exemplar‘, that Seuse himself has putatively authorized, as well as with Seuse’s letters and sermons, that are not part of the ‚Exemplar‘.The transmission of Seuse’s German writings, though, demonstrates that of each of these writings different textual versions or redactions have survived. These different textual strains are important not only for the reception history of Seuse’s writings, and as a witness to the great popularity they must have had; moreover they show that the importance of the ‚Exemplar‘ for the transmission of Seuse’s writings has to be discussed anew: on the one hand, with 15 testimonies the ‚Exemplar‘ forms only a minor part of the overall transmission (far more than 600 manuscripts), and on the other hand, not even within the ‚Exemplar‘ are Seuse’s writings transmitted in a unified form, but in diverse versions.The aim of the project is a new edition of the German writings of Heinrich Seuse, independently from the context of the ‚Exemplar‘, and herewith to make available to the scientific comunity a new textual basis for these writings that takes into consideration the different forms of redaction and reception they underwent. The edition will be published in two ways: there will be an edition as printed book, and this edition will be a new, scientifically valid reference for future reasearch; and there will be a digital edition which further offers information on the textual history and codicological matters in an interactive way.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants