Text and Con-Text. Structures of the publishing history of texts of medieval philosophy and its neighboring disciplines.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Rolf Schönberger
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 422675959

Medieval philosophical texts and texts relevant for philosophy are conveyed both in manuscript form and in printing. The submitted project will cover the publishing history of medieval texts. By comprehensively reviewing this history, this project will, for the first time, provide two different findings to medieval studies: first, the inflation and deflation of the interest later readers had in certain medieval texts; secondly, the textual contexts, in which later readers placed these texts within this publishing history. Furthermore, the diachronic perspective of this project shall, in an exclusive manner, characterize the structural features of the later tradition of medieval texts. This means, it reveals both the relation between printed and unprinted texts and between authentic and pseudo-epigraphic texts. This has not been accomplished by philosophical medieval research so far. Building on serious bibliographic preliminary works, the submitted project tries to close this research desideratum by covering the publishing history of medieval texts and by reviewing the various stages of this history.The twofold relation between a text and its author and thereby to an oeuvre (con-text) is subject to heavy fluctuations. Especially for the most important authors one might say: Particularly their oeuvre which has been printed most frequently in different editions is often penetrated by non authentic texts. In the interest of historical perception, one has to envision not the historical turning point, caused by the rectification of the authorship of a certain oeuvre, but the history of its reception as a whole - including the many partial editions. For the later identification of an author does not turn the former reception history of a text into an obsolete one since former recipients read and printed this text always by crediting it with a certain importance. This credit determines the aforementioned twofold relation.The project will transfer the enormous abundance of data concerning biographies, texts, and bibliographies dealing with the publishing history of medieval texts into a substantially upgraded online database instead of a conventional reference book. This will provide medieval scholars with comprehensive research opportunities, e. g. the coverage of all relevant bibliographic attributes. Furthermore, it can easily be corrected and extended and can take into account even short texts such as letters, carmina, and sermons and also anonymous texts in a comprehensive manner.An additional monograph shall summarize the structures features of the publishing history for medieval philosophy as a whole and for exemplary authors.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants