Duration: 2010-2024
The project ‘"Monasteries in the High Middle Ages. Laboratories of Innovation for European Designs of Life and Models of Order"’ analysed the role of medieval monasteries as pioneers of modernity. Between the 11th and 13th century, monasteries developed innovative ways of living and served as mediators between seclusion and social dynamics.
The project was supported by two collaborating research centres – one at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the other at the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig. In Heidelberg, texts from the 12th and 13th century were researched, which reorganised theological and narrative content and created visionary concepts of a ‘better’ world.
Aims:
(a) New editions of central sources of religious life in the Middle Ages (with German translations of Latin works).
(b) Analysing the content of the texts from the perspective of cultural studies and new methodological aspects.
Project managers of the Heidelberg Research Centre: Prof Dr Bernd Schneidmüller and Prof Dr Stefan Weinfurter († 2018)
Projects
Part A:
In the 12th century, Gerhoch of Reichersberg presented a vision in his work ‘On the Building of God’ (Opusculum de aedificio Dei) imagining all clerics living under one rule according to the apostolic model. He underpinned his radical demands with quotations from canonical and patristic authorities. Moreover, he drew his knowledge from the legal collections of his time. The new edition of the work offers a modern annotated edition with a German translation and a critical evaluation of the cited authorities.
Julia Becker (ed.), Gerhoch von Reichersberg, Opusculum de aedificio Dei. Die Apostel als Ideal (Edition, Übersetzung, Kommentar), KAI 8, 2020, 936 pages.
Info at: https://digi.hadw-bw.de/view/kai8
The Scutum canonicorum (‘Shield of the Canons’), written by Arno, Gerhoch's brother and dean in Reichersberg, in the middle of the 12th century, provides identity-forming guidelines for the regular canons’ way of life. This central source is now being published for the first time in a critically annotated edition with a German translation.
Julia Becker (ed.), Arno von Reichersberg, Scutum canonicorum (Edition, Übersetzung, Kommentar), KAI 11, 2022, 256 pages.
Info at: https://digi.hadw-bw.de/view/kai11
Part A.1
(Johannes Büge; until May 2023 Dr Julia Becker)
Johannes Büge M.A. worked on the edition, translation and commentary of the Anticimenon (‘Controversies’) by Anselm of Havelberg. In this work, written around 1149/50, Anselm addresses the unity of faith and encourages dialogue between the Eastern and Western churches. The aim is a modern new edition of this historical-theological work, which is embedded in the context of Anselm's entire oeuvre and the institutionalisation process of the Premonstratensian Order.
Anselm's writings also deal with the regular canons’ way of life and their social status in the 12th century, thus complementing the new editions already published in project part A.1.
Part A.2
(Jonas Narchi M.A., M.A.)
Mr Jonas Narchi M.A., M.A. has provided a critical edition, German translation and commentary of Anselm of Havelberg's Epistola apologetica (1138–1146). In this letter of defence, Anselm justifies the status of the regular canons in the face of criticism from the monks. The occasion was an incident in the diocese of Halberstadt in which Peter, provost of Hamersleben Abbey, entered the Benedictine monastery of Huysburg, which led to a dispute between canons and Benedictines. In this letter, Anselm vehemently defends the way of life of the regular canons and the specific charism of the ordo canonicus. The edition of the letter contributes to reconstructing the self-image of different religious and social ways of life in the 12th century and fits in perfectly with the work of project part A.1.
Jonas Narchi (ed.), Anselm von Havelberg, Epistola apologetica. Edition, Übersetzung, Kommentar, KAI 13, 2024, 264 pages.
Info at: www.schnell-und-steiner.de
Part B:
In his search for the ideal community, the 13th century Dominican Thomas of Cantimpré found inspiration in bees. In his ‘Bee Book’ (Bonum universale de apibus), he used bees to describe hierarchies and social dynamics, enriched with anecdotes from medieval life. His handbook supported the work of the Dominicans as preachers and teachers and was already of great interest in the Middle Ages, as the more than one hundred handwritten copies show. For the first time, the ‘Bee Book’ has been published in a critically annotated edition with a German translation and an analysis.
Julia Burkhardt, Von Bienen lernen. Das Bonum universale de apibus des Thomas von Cantimpré als Gemeinschaftsentwurf (Analyse, Edition, Übersetzung, Kommentar), KAI 7, 2020, 1,616 pages.
Info at: https://digi.hadw-bw.de/view/kai7
Part B.1
(Isabel Kimpel M.A. / Scientific supervisor: Prof Dr Julia Burkhardt)
The Cistercian Caesarius of Heisterbach (ca. 1180–1240) is best known as the author of the Dialogus miraculorum (‘Dialogue on Miracles’). Another exemplary collection, the ‘Eight Books of Miracles’ (Libri VIII miraculorum, ca. 1225/27), has received less attention. However, these Libri VIII miraculorum, which served theological edification and instruction, are a remarkable source for the political, cultural and religious history of the 13th century. The new edition of the ‘Eight Books of Miracles’ offers an annotated version of the Latin text, a German translation (for the first time) and an analysis of the work and its manuscript tradition. It will be published by Heidelberg University Publishing in 2025.
Part B.2
(Dr Volker Hartmann, completed in 2019)
At the centre of the project is the work De regimine principum by Aegidius Romanus (ca. 1243–1316). The work was written close to the condemnation of Aristotelianism at the University of Paris in 1277. Despite its addressee (Philip IV) and although it is known as a mirror of the princes, it was also received and translated outside the courts throughout Europe. With several hundred manuscripts, it is one of the most traditional writings of the late Middle Ages.
The success of the text, which lasted into the 17th century, is partly due to the fact that the author summarised ethically relevant parts of Aristotelian philosophy. These requirements were aimed at princes and their subjects. The reflections on the official competences of the king partly contradict the statements in his later writing ‘De ecclesiastica potestate’ (ca. 1302), which supports papal universal rule.
The aim is to provide a complete modern translation and a transcription of a selected manuscript.
Aegidus Romanus: Über die Fürstenherrschaft (ca. 1277-1279): Nach der Handschrift Rom, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, cod. borgh. 360 und unter Benutzung der Drucke Rom 1556 und Rom 1607 hg. von Volker Hartmann, Heidelberg: heiBOOKS, 2019, 1,313 pages, https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/heibooks/catalog/book/569
The Dresden research centre (Project leader: Prof Dr Gert Melville)
The research centre in Dresden investigates monasteries and religious orders as generators of modernity. The focus is on the vita religiosa and its contribution to European models of order by redefining the relationship between the individual and the community as well as rationality and transcendent orientation towards meaning. The literature of the 11th to 13th centuries is analysed in legal and hortative terms.
The focus is on texts in which the cultural interpretative power of the monasteries becomes programmatically tangible: exhortations, didactic treatises, monastic or religious rules and statutes as well as their commentaries, which determined the legal order of the communities. These works were intended to have an inward effect, but were also always related to the world.