Pre-Erasmian Conversation Books. Three Critical Editions of 15th Century Latin Conversation Books.

• Applicant: Dr. Oliver Humberg
• Subject Area: German Medieval Studies (Medieval German Literature) ; Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 554409680

Latin conversation books serve the needs of medieval pupils and students who were forced to use the Latin language also beyond school or university. However, the young were not instructed how to deal with their everyday life in Latin. Conversation books could help them "to approach colloquial Latin in a humorous and sometimes even comical way beyond fear and pain." (Thomas Haye) Geared towards everyday life these texts provide numerous insights into 15th century cultural history, especially into teaching practice and students' rituals that are otherwise rarely conveyed to our times. Altogether they are of high value as source for the history of mentalities as for children and childhood studies, and hardly explored yet. These conversation books are matter of philological concern in a twofold way: As such they represent the very text books whereof the first generation of German humanists and neo-Latinists had acquired their own Latin skills. Making them accessible requires a challenging variety of methodological approaches adapted to the state of transmission and research given in each part of the project. Three sub-projects focus on: a) the oldest identified conversation book, written about 1408 in Upper Silesia, yet virtually unknown, b) the only conversation book the whole of which contains numerous notes and glosses from the very author's class, and c) that conversation book not only with the broadest reception and several local adaptations at its time, but that was also in modern times treated and commented upon independently in German, French, and British formation history. All sub-projects will prepare critical editions based on the stemmatology of direct witnesses, including a reconstruction of secondary text development and local adaptations. In sub-project b) also the interlinear and some 800 marginal glosses (mostly quoting authorities on Latin style) will be cleared and identified. Moreover, a typographical solution will be developed that is able to display multilayered glosses. Sub-project c) aims to offer an improved text in comparison to former editions. Those German, French, and English commentaries, once independently compiled and made up unaware of the original localization will be critically sorted and merged for the first time. Finally, the incunabula analyzed in this project will deliver criteria for making up stemmatologies of early prints. All these three sub-projects contribute to basic research in history and philology. In retrospect the methodology applied in those disciplines so far may be reevaluated from a new perspective based on a deeper understanding.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants