The Stemmatology of Reading Practices: Reconstructing the Library of Sigmund Gossembrot, a Southern German Humanist of the 15th Century

Stolz, Michael (1 July 2022). The Stemmatology of Reading Practices: Reconstructing the Library of Sigmund Gossembrot, a Southern German Humanist of the 15th Century (Unpublished). In: New Insights in Stemmatology“. Studia Stemmatologica. A Series of International Workshops on Stemmatology, Ninth Workshop. Bergen (Norwegen). 30.6./1.7.2022.

Sigmund Gossembrot (1417-1493), active in the period of early German humanism, has left a remarkable collection of manuscripts (containing classical authors, medieval texts on religious and secular matters, as well as contemporaneous literature) – a corpus that so far has only partially been explored. After completing a busy career as a civil servant in Augsburg, Gossembrot moved to Strasbourg where he joined the convent of the Knights Hospitaller Zum Grünen Worth (the 'Green Isle') for studying his books in the context of local libraries. Today, the surviving volumes are spread in archives all over Europe (with a certain concentration on the Bavarian State Library in Munich). Gossembrot left numerous annotations on the pages that attest his manifold literary interests and his reading habits, embedded in the social environment of both imperial towns and beyond. The abundant glosses, including many cross-references pointing to (owned and external) manuscripts with similar topics, also allow for the reconstruction of currently lost codices and their content. This paper discusses methods of documenting and examining Gossembrot's library, including a digital database currently under construction on: www.gossembrot.unibe.ch. A special focus will lie on the question, if Gossembrot’s way of interconnecting manuscripts by cross-references can be analyzed in terms of stemmatological thinking and methods: A ‘stemmatology’ of Gossembrot’s reading practices would include the (bi)directional relationships of his manuscript referencing, and the emergence of ‘knots’ in his literary interests.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Speech)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies > Institute of Germanic Languages
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies > Institute of Germanic Languages > Old German Language and Literature

UniBE Contributor:

Stolz, Michael

Subjects:

400 Language > 430 German & related languages
800 Literature, rhetoric & criticism > 830 German & related literatures

Funders:

[4] Swiss National Science Foundation

Projects:

[1558] Lesen als soziale Negotiation. Bibliotheksbestand, Lektüre- und Vernetzungspraktiken des Frühhumanisten Sigmund Gossembrot in digitaler Rekonstruktion Official URL

Language:

English

Submitter:

Michael Rudolf Stolz

Date Deposited:

15 Sep 2022 07:19

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 16:23

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/172701

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