Extension of the reference text of "The Twenty-Four Elders" of Otto von Passau on the basis of the manuscript Karlsruhe, Landesbibliothek, Cod. St. Georgen 64 to a hybrid edition with research on sources and vocabulary.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jens-Dieter Haustein
• Subject Area: German Medieval Studies (Medieval German Literature) ; Religious Studies and Jewish Studies
• Term: from 2013 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 235063976

The current project is focused on the popular treatise ‘The Twenty-Four Elders or the Golden Throne of the Loving Soul’ written by the Basel Franciscan Otto von Passau at the end of the 14th century. The aim of the project is to develop a hybrid edition based on the already existing reference text of the ‘Twenty-Four Elders’ which was the result of the previous project. This edition includes all those ele-ments which were not included in the first project (introduction, apparatus of the sources, glossary, index of names, index of biblical references, manuscript descrip-tions), and makes Otto’s treatise available as a printed edition (within the series ‘German Texts of the Middle Ages’) as well as a digital edition. The proposed follow-up project will intensify and extend the research on Otto’s sources to reconstruct his library and his working methods as precisely as possible. In this way it will situate Otto in his specific literary and social contexts and enable researchers to take a close look at his writing desk. The detailed presentation of the interlinking between the sources is intended as a basis for further research on late-medieval compilations in the vernacular. The plan of the follow-up project was stimulated by Stephen Mossman’s seminal article ‘Otto von Passau and the Literary History of Basel in the Later Fourteenth Century’.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Martin Schubert; Dr. Elke Zinsmeister