The Bible of the Bohemian and German King Wenceslas IV/II, produced about 1390–1400, is one of the most precious manuscripts of the Austrian National Library and a cultural heritage object of the greatest importance. Part of the Ambraser Sammlung that was nominated for the National Document Register Memory of Austria within the UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme in 2018, it conserves the earliest nearly complete German version of the Hebrew Bible, translated from the Latin vulgate version. The text is combined with a systematic programme of illustrations following an elaborate theological concept. In its present form, the manuscript is in six volumes (Cod. 2759–2764) consisting of 1214 parchment folios with 654 main and numerous marginal illustrations. The text is of immense philological interest, the illustrations are of the highest artistic value. Nevertheless, no digital facsimile nor edition of the text has ever been produced, nor is there a combined digital analysis of texts and illustrations. The project will create an interdisciplinary web-based edition consisting of a complete facsimile and transcription, an edition of the main text and all paratexts, a text-related analysis of the illustrations and a synopsis of the Latin version. It will include an editorial commentary, a translation concordance and an iconographic database. The project combines methods of philology, art history and computer science.
Please click here for more information: The Wenceslas – Digital edition and analysis
Contact: Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Manfred Kern | Peter Hinkelmanns, MA | Mag. Dr. Katharina Zeppezauer-Wachauer | Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Andreas Uhl