Course Topic

Monasteries and chapterhouses, convents, and communities have always been a place of conservation and transmission of Buchkultur, not only of theological or spiritual texts, but also for legal, historical, philosophical and scientific content. Especially during the late Middle Ages and the early modern period monks and nuns became agents in a process of reformation and renovation by composing and using their own libraries. Using and reading manuscripts and letters, sermons and orations, they built up a networking community, that connected people beyond the walls of the ‘clausura’ of a cloister. These days manuscript research and close reading can reconstruct and make visible this communities as Überlieferungs- und Ideengemeinschaft.

Starting from this evidence, the seminar, conceived in a multidisciplinary perspective, takes into consideration late mediaeval manuscripts of various subjects and of conventual provenance: Benediktinerabtei St. Blasius Northeim, Augustiner-Chorherrenstift Georgenberg Goslar, Augustiner-Chorfrauenstift St. Petrus und Paulus Heiningen, Augustiner-Chorfrauen St. Trinitatis Dorstadt, Benediktinerkloster Clus. The manuscripts from the monasteries mentioned are all in Wolfenbüttel so that the work will be done on the original manuscripts themselves

The course will be organised over two weeks, from July 28 to August 8 2025 (arrival: Sunday, July 27; departure: Saturday, August 9). The sessions take place from Monday to Friday, 9 am – 1 pm. They will comprise an introduction to the main issues, presentations of crucial texts, and discussions.

Course sessions and teaching team

In particular the project aims at reconstructing 1) the self-fashioning of the community in a networking structure, 2) the communication in the context of spiritual culture, 3) the differentiation of female and male culture (gender question), and 4) the using of vernacular traditions as a tool of transmission of knowledge and as marker of social identity.

Topics to be covered comprise paleography, codicology, source analysis, intellectual history, social history, philosophy, theology, history of science, legal history.

  • Prof. Dr. Marc-Aeilko Aris (LMU München)
  • Prof. Dr. Alessandra Beccarisi (Università di Foggia)
  • Prof. Dr. Maximilian Benz (Universität Bielefeld),
  • Dr. Monica Brinzei (Directrice de recherche (DR1 IRHT-CNRS),
  • Dr. Caecilia Désirée Hein (Library of Reformation Studies, Wittenberg),
  • Prof. Dr. Alessandro Palazzo (Università di Trento)
  • Ass.-Prof. Dr. Katja Weidner, M.A. (Universität Wien)

 

Image Description: Signatur: Cod. Guelf. 1297 Helmst., 217r (Jacob’s Ladder)