Descriptive cataloguing of the medieval Manuscripts of the Helmstedt Collection of the Herzog August Bibliothek (Vol. IV)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Peter Burschel
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies ; Medieval History
• Term: since 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 397210409

The aim of the project is to provide a modern catalogue of all the medieval manuscripts of the Helmstedt Collection which will gradually replace the old and insufficient catalogue by Otto von Heinemann (1884–1888). Following the previous segments of the cataloguing project (since 2001) a further 90 medieval manuscripts of the Helmstedt Collection (including the shelfmarks Cod. Guelf. 616 to 1014 Helmst.) are to be described. As in the previous project segments, the descriptive cataloguing follows the standards set by the German Research Foundation (DFG) including full and detailed descriptions of the important codicological matters (binding, clasps, fittings, waste papers, text block, layout, illumination), of the palaeography and of the origin and provenance of the codex. The most important part of the manuscript description is the complete registration of the texts contained in the codex and their identification by listing of incipits and explicits, of prints and critical editions, bibliographical repertories and secondary sources (the online-descriptions with links to internet ressources when available). The printed catalogue will be completed with a preface, a bibliography and the usual indexes of names, places and subject matters, quoted manuscripts, initia, versus etc. The cataloguing is done in the XML markup language, format TEI-P5. The XML-encoding of the manuscript descriptions provided by the author will be the basis for the printed catalogue and the online publications of all descriptions in the local manuscript database of the HAB and in the central database "Manuscripta Mediaevalia".

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)