Catalogue of illuminated manuscripts of French origin in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich. Part 1: Manuscripts from the 10th up to the mid-14th century

• Applicant: Dr. Klaus Ceynowa, since 10/2016
• Subject Area: Art History ; Medieval History
• Term: from 2013 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 244846106

Illuminated manuscripts constitute an essential corpus for the history of art in the Middle Ages, as they have survived in much greater numbers than other two-dimensional works of art such as frescoes or paintings. In addition, they are also highly relevant sources for other disciplines of mediaeval studies, ranging from history and theology over Latin and vernacular philology to the history of medicine and law, as they not only transmit textual and visual information, but also enable researchers to gain insights into interests of recipients, levels of decoration and text-image-relations. For systematic access to this material, detailed descriptions of illuminated manuscripts with regard to their art-historical evaluation based on stylistic features and history of origin as well as their content and iconographic meaning are required. The project undertakes to create a reliable and coherent informational basis for further research in this area for specialized art historians and general mediaevalists alike. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich holds not only substantial numbers of Latin and ver-nacular manuscripts decorated in the German-speaking areas and Italy, but also - in comparison with other German institutions - an outstanding collection of mediaeval manuscripts from France. Due to the mobility of mediaeval artists and manuscripts, neighbouring areas like modern-day Belgium, Spain and Britain are included in the corpus, which as a result comprises about 425 manuscripts, of which about 250 date from the 10th to the mid-14th century and about 175 from the mid-14th century to the early 16th century. In continuation of an enterprise completed in 2013 which produced descriptions of all mediaeval manuscripts illuminated in Italy, the current project aims at cataloguing the c. 250 manuscripts dating from the 10th to the mid-14th century in a first phase of five years. The descriptions will follow the DFG's cataloguing rules and will be published both in a printed catalogue as well as an online repository under open access.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Ehemalige Antragstellerin: Professorin Dr. Bettina Wagner, until 10/2016