Ambiguous Property: From Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages (A01)

• Subject Area: Principles of Law and Jurisprudence
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 424638267

The project examines the conceptualization (philosophical, theological, legal) of property as private and institutional (in contrast to divine property, which was studied in the first funding phase) that emerged during this period and the practical implementation of this new conception. It is characterized by its theoretical and practical rejection, relativisation, socialisation or shaping, which went hand in hand with ascetic movements, the expansion of short-term usufruct, and long-term, nested obligations, the development of social obligations, the shifting or opacity of property structures whereby the commodification of land and large estates went hand in hand with the initiation of (inheritance) taxes for the poor. Nonetheless, the discourse on poverty paradoxically brings about an even greater propertization of these estates.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 294: Strukturwandel des Eigentums
• Applicant Institution: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
• Project Heads: Dr. Sofia Bianchi Mancini, since 1/2025; Professor Dr. Jörg Rüpke; Professor Dr. Markus Vinzent