Die Deutschen Inschriften

Die Deutschen Inschriften des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit (DI) (engl.: The German Inscriptions of Medieval and Early Modern Times) is one of the oldest modern endeavours to collect and redact medieval and early modern inscriptions in Europe. The project was instituted by the German linguist Friedrich Panzer (Heidelberg) in association with the historians Karl Brandi (Göttingen) and Hans Hirsch (Vienna) as an interacademic venture of epigraphical publication in 1934. Encompassed are inscriptions ranging from the Early Middle Ages to the year of 1650 (and later on) localized in the areas that are today known as the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Austria and South Tyrol. By now the epigraphical research centers involved have published 81 volumes. An individual volume contains usually the inscriptions of a single city or Landkreis respectively called Politischer Bezirk in Austria. The venture is supported by the German Academies of Sciences in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Göttingen, Heidelberg, Leipzig, Mainz and München as well as the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. The Reichert-Verlag is the publishing house of the scientific editions.

Deutsche Inschriften Online (DIO)

The project "Deutsche Inschriften Online" (engl.: German Inscriptions Online) was planned and implemented as an interacademic venture by the Academies of Sciences in Mainz and Göttingen. The projects ambition was to digitalize the volumes DI 66/45/56/58/61 and make them available online. The realisation is based on a database who was developed by the Inscription-offices in Greifswald and Mainz. The venture has an innovative character and is seeing itself as a broadening of the project "Inschriften Mittelrhein-Hunsrück (IMH)" (engl.: Inscriptions of the Middlerhine-Hunsrück) that was worked out in 2008 cooperating with the "Institut für Geschichtliche Landeskunde an der Universität Mainz" (engl.: Institute for Regional History located at the University of Mainz). The project digitalized the volume "Die Inschriften des Rhein-Hunsrück Kreises I (DI 60)" (engl.: The Inscriptions of the Rhine-Hunsrück District) edited by epigraphist Eberhard J. Nikitsch. In the meantime the website of the IMH-Project has merged into the DIO-Web portal. In the long run digitalization and making available online of further volumes is scheduled. Also a translation of the DIO-Website into the English language is projected.

Besides the digitalized scientific volumes DIO features an elaborated search interface, news concerning epigraphy and series of articles like "Epigraphischer Tipp" (engl.: Epigraphical Hint) and "Inschrift im Fokus" (engl.: Focused on Inscription) as well as a glossary and a list of topical weblinks. Additionally the site presents a wide array of photographies and pictures of inscriptions or things alike and by this means tries to interlink different potentials of information brokerage.

Today twelve volumes including more than 4170 items and more than 4000 illustrations and photographs can be retrieved by the user. Currently online available are the volumes DI-19 Göttingen (City), DI-28 Hameln, DI-36 Hannover, DI-42 Einbeck, DI-45 Goslar, DI-56 Braunschweig, DI-58 Hildesheim, DI-60 Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis I, DI-61 Helmstedt, DI-66 Göttingen (District), DI-46 Minden, The Inscriptions of the City of Mainz. First Part: The Inscriptions of the Cathedral and the Museum of Cathedral and Diocese ranging from 800 to 1350.

Furthermore, the team of epigraphists and digital humanists of DIO was able to launch the online edition of an corpus of inscriptions, who can be found in the “German national church” Santa Maria dell’Anima in Rome. The corpus’ spectrum ranges from medieaval times to 1559. The edition was published in collaboration with the German Historical Institute in Rome. Another interdisciplinary project implemented by several institutes and scholarly departements situated in Mainz in the vicinity of “German Inscriptions Online” is St. Stephen virtual. The project’s goal was to establish a digital walkabout through the interiour cloister of St. Stephen’s Church, Mainz. During the project’s implementation the team was able to highlight opportunities and capabilities to handle, to adapt and to interrelate epigraphical, common-historical and spatial scholarly questions and to display them further to a wide interested public.

See also

• Digital humanities

Bibliography

• Paul Sebastian Moos/Eberhard J. Nikitsch: Blick in die Historikerwerkstatt: Die Arbeitswelt des Epigraphikers. Historische Hilfswissenschaft und ihre Bedeutung für Geschichte und Wissenschaft – ein römischer Erfahrungsbericht (=A Glance into the Historian’s Workshop: The Working World of the Epigrapher. The Historical Auxiliary Sciences and Their Significance for Historical and Academic Studies – a Roman Experience Report) (URN: urn:nbn:de:0289-2012050312) In: Skriptum 2 (2012), Nr. 1. (The historians outline their work, describe the various steps editioning the epigraphical corpus of the Santa Maria dell’Anima, and locate their auxiliary science within modern historical and cultural studies. It also provides the reader with an informative overview of the working environment of an epigrapher at the German Historical Institute in Rome.) Template:De icon
• Anna Neovesky: St. Stephan virtuell – ein internetgestützter Panoramarundgang durch die Mainzer Stephanskirche – Entwicklung und Umsetzung eines Projektes im Bereich der digitalen Geisteswissenschaften. (= St. Stephen virtual – digital walkabout around the interiour cloister of St. Stephen’s Church – genesis and implementation of a Digital Humanities project) (URN: urn:nbn:de:0289-2012110220) In: Skriptum 2 (2012), Nr. 2. ( The essay describes the planning and technical realization of an interdisciplinary project of the Digital Humanities, using the example of “St. Stephan virtual”. This project was accomplished with the cooperation of the „Deutsche Inschriften“ and the Digital Academy of the ADWL Mainz, the Institute for Regional History and Culture at the University Mainz and the i3mainz – the Institute for Spatial Information and Surveying Technology at the University of Applied Sciences Mainz.) Template:De icon
• Schrade, Torsten: Epigraphik im digitalen Umfeld (=Epigraphy in the Digital Field). (URN: urn:nbn:de:0289-2011051816). In: Skriptum 1 (2011), Nr. 1. ISSN 2192-4457. (Article available under Creative Commons-Licence; the article overviews genesis and development of DIO) Template:De icon
• Torsten Schrade: Vom Inschriftenband zum Datenobjekt. Die Entwicklung des epigraphischen Fachportals „Deutsche Inschriften Online.“ (=From scholarly edition to data object. The evolution of the scholarly web portal “German Inscriptions Online”). In: Inschriften als Zeugnisse kulturellen Gedächtnisses – 40 Jahre Deutsche Inschriften in Göttingen. Beiträge zum Jubiläumskolloquium vom 22. Oktober 2010 in Göttingen, herausgegeben von Nikolaus Henkel. Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden 2012, S. 59–72.

External links

• The German Inscriptions of Medieval and Early Modern Times (DIO) - Mainpage (german)
• Epigraphical Research- and Documentation-Center Munich
• Inscription-office Bonn
• Inscription-office Greifswald
• Inscription-office Göttingen
• Inscription-office Mainz
• Inscription-office Vienna
• Excerpts from the Hessian volumes of the Cenotaph-Project
• Description of the project “German Inscriptions Online” at the departement “Digital Academy” of the ADWL Mainz