"Künstlike Werltspröke" and "Schönes Rimbökelin" – Analysis and digital edition of middle low german sayings of the 16th century (renewal propose)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Franz-Josef Holznagel
• Subject Area: German Medieval Studies (Medieval German Literature)
• Term: from 2015 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 287283426

The printer Johann Balhorn the Elder produced two Low-German collections of couplet verses: The "Werltspröke" (WS), that circulated in at least six editions until 1601 and the "Rimbökelin" (RB) that was published about 1548. These collections contain mostly the same texts but differ in size; together they present 856 Middle Low German couplet verses of generally two or four lines that are taken from printed (and sometimes also hand-written) sources and that are occasionally combined with Latin paratexts. Sometimes there are larger groups of texts with up to 29 couplet verses (= 58 lines). The collections mainly extract their texts from two printed works: "Reynke vosz de olde" (VD 16 R 990, printed in 1539 by Ludwig Dietz in Rostock) and "Dat nye schip van Narragonien" (VD 16 B 7077, printed in 1519 also by Ludwig Dietz). The greater part of the texts is anonymous in both collections; only a small group of about 20 texts are identified as having authoritative status since they contain references to biblical characters, ancient philosophers or Church Fathers. The WS and the RB are without doubt the most extensive and most influential collections of couplet verses for Northern Germany in the Late Middle Ages and in early modern times. As this type of verse compilation can be identified as an expression of collective empirical knowledge and orientation (Eikelmann 2009, S. 10*) and at the same time as a verbalisation of beliefs, values and standards (Hristova-Gotthardt 2010, S. 24), the collections do not only constitute a central part of Middle Low German language and literature but also function as didactic thesauri that allow insight into the cultural practice of expressing, transmitting and modifying normative concepts. They are to be compared with the well-known Upper German collections of Johannes Agricola and Sebastian Franck. The main objective of the project is to enable improved access to this important corpus, and thereby to facilitate the thorough research that has not been possible so far. The project plans to develop a digital edition on the basis of TEI-XML; the research data will be presented in two ways: A website that contains high-resolution digital images of this tradition, a commented edition of the WS and the RB, a detailed analysis of the tradition (with a description of the prints, the corpus and the texts) and information about the historical impact, the texts could achieve and a printed edition with a commentary, translations and selected images.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants