A Hybrid Edition of Martin Opitz's German Works

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Peter Burschel; Professor Dr. Jörg Robert
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 389732179

Martin Opitz is a central figure in the late European Renaissance. His Buch von der Deutschen Poeterey (1624) was highly estimated by his contemporaries as a founding manifesto of German literature. Despite this position the editorial situation is still insufficient. The critical edition of Opitz’s vernacular works provided by George Schulz-Behrend has remained uncompleted (after vol IV, 2). For Opitz’s works written after 1630 – e.g. Judith (1635), Antigone (1636) or the Florilegium variorum epigrammatum (1639) – there have been no reliable editions so far. Following the editions of the Latin works (Opitius latinus, Marschall / Seidel 2009–2015) and the epistolary (Conermann 2009) this project has been establishing since 2018 the first critical edition and extensive commentary of Opitz’s latest German texts. Thus the critical edition of Opitz’s works will be completed. The project is being developed in cooperation with the Hiersemann publishing house; in doing so, it will continue the present volumes of the Schulz-Behrend-edition without neglecting the most modern editorial, computer-philological and literary standards.The project is planned as a hybrid edition (i.e. in print and digital). The printed version will be accompanied by a digital component, which will be developed in cooperation with the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel (HAB). The hybrid edition is likely to become a pioneer initiative in the fields of digital humanities offering a wide range of innovative tools of presentation and visualisation of premodern textuality. The digital edition will comprise Opitz’s literary works (including the retro-digitalisation of the existing volumes) in open access and full philological reliability. Volumes I to IV, 2 are already available digitally.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants