High Medieval Germany A Guide to Online
Resources
Section Editor: Rebecca L. R. Garber
Preliminary Outline for this Section:
- ORB Encyclopedia--Original Essays
- Medieval German Women Writers (1100-1450), by Rebecca L. R. Garber. Includes short biographies and textual
descriptions in English of 17 medieval German women authors, 1100-1475.
- Hildegard of Bingen. Biography in German, summarizing Adelgundis
Führkötter's work on Hildegard von Bingen. Biography concentrates on
Hildegard's textual activities.
- Hildegard von Bingen: Gender and Character. Summary in German of
Hildegard's scientific and mystical writings on the four humors and how
they affect human character as well as a summary of her theory on how the
attitudes and character of the parents affect the gender and character of
the unborn fetus.
- Primary Sources--Literature, chronicles, other texts
- Bibliographies
- Resources for Teaching
- Women Writers in Germany before 1600, ed. Dorothy Disse
-
Hrotsvit /Hrosvith /Hrotswitha /Roswitha von Gandesheim
(d. aft.973);
Biography and bibliography of the first European dramatist in the Middle Ages.
-
Hildegard of Bingen.
1098-1179;
Good information, including links to some images.
-
Elisabeth of Schoenau
(1128/9-1164/5);
Biography and bibliography.
-
Mechthild of Magdeburg
(c.1212-c.1282);
Biography and bibliography of the author of the Flowing Light of the Godhead; Das
fliessende Licht der Gottheit; beguine, and influence on Gertrud the
Great of Helfta and Mechthild von Hackeborn.
-
Gertrud von Helfta
Saint Gertrude, surnamed the
Great (c.1256-
1302);Biography and bibliography of the author of the Legatus divinae pietatis (Herald of divine love) and
Exercitia spiritualia (Spiritual exercises).
-
Margareta Ebner /Margaretha
(c.1291-1351);
author of a Life and Revelations, Offenbarungen and, with Heinrich von
Noerdlingen, part of the earliest surviving letter exchange in the
vernacular.
- Medieval German Poetry (Minnesang), by James McMahon. Includes
information about the structure of the poems, the cultural context of the
poetry, the manuscript sources, and the following texts:
- Science and the Scientific Culture. A research project on the theories of the 12th
and 13th Century at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt.
-
The Oekumenisches Heiligenlexikon is an ecumenical site containing several searchable lexica of Catholic, Protestant,
Orthodox Saints. The language of the lexicon is German.
- The basics of the site: FAQ, a Who's who, and a series of
introductory articles on saints, their history, saints' days, and also a page of other literature and links on saints.
- Encyclopedic articles on a variety of topics about saints.
- Search for biographies of saints by first name. The list is under
construction, but is already quite large.
- Search for saints by calendar date. The saints are
cross-referenced with the biography section, and appear grouped as Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox.
- Search each of the twenty centuries of the Common Era by
date-of-death. Organized chronologically, saints are again cross-referenced with the biography section.
- Search for saints by country of origin. The organization is alphabetical
by city. This is not purely medieval, including Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
- Search for patron saints of specific professions, groups,
illnesses, places, and hindrances. It also contains a list of patrons of "Sachen" which is a miscellany of times, places, items,
animals, etc. All saints are cross-referenced.
- Search for saints by alphabetised attributes frequently
found in images. This is admittedly incomplete, and occassionally overexplicit (for example, "Baer" is distinguished from
"Baerin" from "mit Baeren").
- Brief histories of 27 monastic orders, as well as names of famous
members of the specific orders, many of whom are cross-referenced to the biographical pages.
- Works of art
- Maps
- Links to museums and libraries
- Web-Accessible Catalogues from university, state and city
libraries in Germany. There are two caveats: the OPAC catalogues at
these sites are almost all incomplete, that is, they only contain works
acquired since the 1950's (best case) and 1980's (worst case). Also, the
contents of their rare book rooms are only rarely online.
- Other Website of Interest
-
The Codex Manesse
"Die Manessische Liederhandschrift" contains the largest
collection of "Minnelyrik" from twelfth-century Germany. Written in the
fourteenth century, each poet's lyriks are preceded by a full page "author
portrait." These images are bundled in order in groups of ten, and can
also be searched by author name, or by keyword. nb: the keyword search is
limited to articles of clothing, German language only, at present.
- Monasteries in Bavaria. A database searchable by town
(alphabetical), or by name of the order in German or Latin. It then
generates nicely readable tables which include name of the
founder/foundress, Order, male or female inhabitants, location, and a short
history, among other info.
- Cistercian monastery at Zinna. It includes a
timetable, history, and images of the major buildings and the newly
restored medieval frescoes (which are quite nice). In its history of
expansion, decline, reform, renewal, and secularization Zinna demonstrates
a typical pattern followed at many medieval monastic foundings.
- Search Engines for German Sources
-
The Virtual Prussian Book of Documents
(address the file /pub/suchmaschine.html)
- The complete texts of the reviews of the
Hansische Geschichtsblätter for 1996, 1998,
1999 and parts of 2001. This is an important journal, covering the economic and
political history of the entire North Sea and Baltic area (from Russia to Portugal) from
the 10th through the 19th century
(address the file /hu/suchmaschine.html)
- Centers for medieval studies
- Professional organizations
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