Lecture Series

The disciplines involved in the study of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period developed an interest in the application of Digital Humanities (DH) methods at an early stage. They have contributed significantly to the formation of DH as a scientific discipline and can now build on a broad DH expertise and large and complex data treasures.

In recent years, many new questions and working methods for sources and objects from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period have been added to this field – it’s time to present some of them in a lecture series: Students will learn how DH methods are applied and what possibilities they offer from a disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective. They will also be shown how DH approaches are used to analyse different types of sources (images, literary and historical text sources, objects, historical maps, archaeological survey data, music, etc.).

The spectrum ranges from the use of artificial intelligence, natural language processing, distant viewing, DNA sequencing and network analysis to digital editing and annotation. Working with digital 3D models and GIS-based analyses as well as approaches from game studies and citizen sciences will also be a focus.

The lecture will take place every Monday from 5.15 pm to 6.45 pm from 2^nd October 2023 in the Georg Eisler lecture theatre (E.003 U1.003) at UNIPARK (Erzabt-Klotz-Straße 1, 5020 Salzburg). The lectures will also be recorded and will be available on UniTV after editing.

You can also follow the lecture online via Microsoft Teams.

Here you will find a list of the lectures as well as all access links – each lecture has the same link! The recordings of the lectures already presented can be accessed on UniTV-The Salzburg University Television.

02.10. Introduction: Dazzling Data – Digital Humanities in Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Isabella Nicka (IMAREAL/IZMF, University of Salzburg), Katharina Zeppezauer-Wachauer (MHDBDB, University of Salzburg), Peter Färberböck (IMAREAL/IZMF, University of Salzburg)

09.10. Seven Things of Mary. Object Detection and art-historical Realienkunde
Peter Bell (Institute of Art History, University of Marburg)

16.10. Open Research Strategies. (Humanities) Research for and with the Public
Marlene Ernst (Salzburg City Archive)

23.10. Interoperability of Text and Image in the Digital Edition of the Wenceslas Bible
Linda Beutel-Thurow (Department of German Studies, University of Salzburg), Julia Hintersteiner (Department of German Studies, University of Salzburg)

30.10. HTR, TEI, DNA & NLP: Early Medieval Manuscripts, their Paratext and the Digital Humanities
Bernhard Bauer (Centre for Information Modelling, Graz)

06.11. Digital Transformation of Early Modern Memento Mori Literature: Challenges and Potentials
Claudia Resch (Austrian Academy of Sciences, ACDH-CH, Vienna)

13.11. Making Castles digitally accessible – Hohensalzburg digital and Inventaria Projects
Ingrid Matschinegg (IMAREAL/IZMF, University of Salzburg), Stefan Zedlacher (IMAREAL/IZMF, University of Salzburg), Walter Brandstätter (Department of History, University of Salzburg), Elisabeth Gruber-Tokić (Institute of Linguistics, University of Innsbruck), Elisabeth Tangerner (Department of History, University of Salzburg)

20.11. Transcription Database for the Codex Manesse (Great Heidelberg Song Manuscript, cpg 848)
Anna Kathrin Bleuler (Chair of German Language and Literature of the Middle Ages, University of Augsburg)

27.11. Distant Viewing. Analysing Representations of Material in medieval Painting with Digital Humanities and Computer Vision Methods
Isabella Nicka (IMAREAL/IZMF, University of Salzburg), Miriam Landkammer (IMAREAL/IZMF, University of Salzburg), Andreas Uhl (Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Interfaces, University of Salzburg), Michael Linortner (Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Interfaces, University of Salzburg)

04.12. Integrated GIS-based Analysis of Medieval and Early Modern Landscapes using Archaeological Prospection Data and Digitised Historical Maps
Roland Filzwieser (Vienna Institute for Archaeological Science, University of Vienna)

11.12. DH Application Examples from Medieval Musicology
Robert Klugseder (Austrian Academy of Sciences, ACDH-CH, Department of Musicology, Vienna)

08.01. Our Horses Gallop Digitally: DH in the Interdisciplinary Project on Knowledge Transfer in Medieval Equine Medicine “Meeting in the Body of the Horse”
Jasmine Dum-Tragut (Centre for Research on the Christian East, University of Salzburg), Marat Yavrumyan (Centre for Research on the Christian East, University of Salzburg)

15.01. Early Musical Prints and Borrowed Melodies
Andrea Lindmayr-Brandl (Department of Musicology, Salzburg), Carlo Bosi (Department of Musicology, Salzburg)

22.01. Telespiele, Mobile Games and Open World – Game Studies in the Digital Humanities
Aurelia Brandenburg (Confoederatio Ludens, Bern University of the Arts), Peter Färberböck (IMAREAL/IZMF, University of Salzburg)

29.01. Middle High German Term Database Reloaded
Katharina Zeppezauer-Wachauer (MHDBDB, University of Salzburg), Alan van Beek (MHDBDB, University of Salzburg)

Concept and Organisation: Isabella Nicka | Katharina Zeppezauer-Wachauer | Peter Färberböck

You can download the lecture programme including a short description as PDF here.

REALonline Nr. 000734 Hl. Augustinus, Altar mit Abt Benedikt Eck von Mondsee als Stifter Meister des Mondseer Altars, Ende 15. Jh. Galerie Belvedere Foto: P. Böttcher/IMAREAL

From an interdisciplinary perspective, the series of lectures gives a historical overview to the thematic complexes of university and anniversary. Not only the University of Salzburg and its historical development will be taken into account, but also the wide range of aspects that are connected with the inception, the self-image and the external perception of universities in medieval and modern Europe to this day. These include, for example, their position in the context of medieval and early modern educational policy, the changing forms of organizing lessons and teaching canon as well as questions of representation and staging or the relationship between university and politics and its effects on the perception of educational institutions. Particular attention should be paid to the material dimensions of education, knowledge and knowledge transfer. The main goal of this course is to understand the university as a social as well as a real building in all its differentiated facets. The anniversary also offers the opportunity to discuss the topic of “anniversary celebrations”. This takes the content-related focus of the IZMF with regard to the interdisciplinary research of historical cultures into account.

The lecture will take place every Monday from 5:15 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. from Oct. 03, 2022 in HS Agnes Muthspiel (E.002 U1.002).
The lecture will also be available online.

To join online, please click the respective link:

03.10. Introduction: University in context: 400 years PLUS and the knowledge cultures of the Middle Ages and the early modern period Michael Brauer (FB Geschichte), Elisabeth Gruber (IZMF/IMAREAL)

10.10. History of the PLUS and the archive as a place of remembrance Christoph Brandhuber (PLUS, Universitätsarchiv)

17.10. Between tradition and innovation: The university as an institution from the perspective of medieval subjects Christina Antenhofer (FB Geschichte)

24.10. From goose quill to black art: manuscripts and incunabula from the library of the Salzburg archbishops Beatrix Koll (Universitätsbibliothek)

07.11. Prestige buildings and permanent temporary arrangements: On the materiality of university teaching and living spaces Thomas Kühtreiber (IZMF/IMAREAL)

14.11. Innovation sluices: Universities in pre-modern societies Frank Rexroth (Universität Göttingen)

21.11. Notes on University History Maria Dorninger (FB Germanistik)

28.11. Between polemics and politics – how the University of Vienna dealt with Judaism in the Middle Ages Eveline Brugger (INJÖST, St. Pölten)

05.12. Education and mobility in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period Ingrid Matschinegg (IZMF/IMAREAL)

12.12. University amd region Martin Knoll (FB Geschichte)

19.12. Video presentation: 400 years PLUS: Students tell the history of their university Ewald Hiebl, Karl Rothauer (FB Geschichte)

09. 01. 400 years of university history from the perspective of economic and social history Reinhold Reith (Salzburg)

16.01. Academic honors and discredits between affirmation and historical-political controversies Alexander Pinwinkler (Universität Wien)

23.01. Creation of meaning through rituals. On the boom in academic celebrations Brigitta Schmidt-Lauber (Universität Wien)

Concept and organization: Michael Brauer | Elisabeth Gruber

The lecture program will soon be found here.

The 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death was on September 14, 2021. He is one of the most outstanding authors of world literature and the fascination of his work is unbroken. In this respect, Dante is highly contemporary. The lecture series, however, does not attempt to capture him and his work in their timeless significance, but rather wants to study the historical Dante of the time around 1300, the threshold author between the high and late Middle Ages and on the eve of the Renaissance.

The focus, of course, will be on Dante’s poetic and philosophical, Italian and Latin works. Following our interdisciplinary approach, the manifold interrelations with theology, philosophy and poetry of the Latin and vernacular Middle Ages will be dealt with next to those with antiquity, the massive interferences with visual arts and music, and, last but not least, defining the profiles of political developments of those Middle Ages that Dante shaped in his work and that shaped him and them.

The lecture will take place every Monday from 5:15 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. from Oct. 04, 2021 in HS 1 (Thomas Bernhard).
The lecture will also be available online. You may also rewatch certain episodes via UniTV.

To join online, please click the respective link:
04.10. „Sulle spalle di Gerione“ – Präsentation des Buches von Peter Kuon zur Commedia-Rezeption im 20. Jahrhundert PW: i38O6xzhkPVl-g
11.10. Einführung PW: OiHbzjsZSGPe2g
18.10. C. Antenhofer: Dante historisch kontextualisieren PW: zFlJfH5bh-HACw
08.11. G. Kreuz: Dante in der Tradition antiker Literatur(geschichte) PW: ENGEfG8_FZX5bw
15.11. M. Heinz: Dante und die Sprache PW: CHHM5lX0lP3g-Q
22.11. P. Kuon: Der Körper der Seelen in der Göttlichen Komödie PW: OGtgNeJFyZeSkA
29.11. C. Bosi: Dante und die Madrigalisten PW: TdjlVDAfq6YHTw
06.12. K. Smolak: Latein als Spätfolge von Babylon (zu De Vulgari Eloquentia 1) PW: t8gRjcpkF6382Q
13.12. B. Huss: Cato und Statius in Dantes Purgatorio PW: d9VtHnVwVbLzew
20.12. A. Eitel: Die bukolische Antwort Dantes an Giovanni del Virgilio PW: HLX30YIEP3xC5A
10.01. H. Schlie: Dante und Dürer PW: LtjEZXxoDYFB7w
17.01. F. Wille: Illuminierte Commedia-Manuskripte des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts PW: TqcMBs1ZErGVjg
24.01. Resümee  PW: r0mclauuDqnCWQ

Concept and organization: Manfred Kern and Linda Beutel

The lecture program can be found here.

The lecture series of the IZMF entitled Object Links – Things in Relationship is a central topic that the team of the Institute for Realestate studies of the Middle Ages and early modern times has dealt with in recent years: it is about the research of diverse connections between objects as well as between objects and people. How do things contribute to history? What are their meanings in a cultural and intellectual-historical horizon that goes beyond their context of use?

The questions within a history of things cannot be reduced to what they looked like, manufactured, spread, used, and charged with meaning. Rather, it asks how they are connected to each other and to people. Because people gain information about the material world and move within it by recognizing references and forming references. And also the theoretical concepts of things, their concepts, their connections and (symbolic) meanings can only be related to the practices associated with them. Thus, in order to be able to answer questions about the relationship between people and material culture, things must become observable as objects in the constellations, configurations and scenarios in which they are in some way significant or acting components.

The lecture series is offered as an analogue lecture format until further notice, the maximum room occupancy of the lecture hall is 40 people. Access is made according to the order in which the students arrive. Once the maximum occupancy number has been reached, access is no longer possible. The lecture can be followed online via Webex (sound and PowerPoint presentation). The access data is provided on Blackboard.

If access to the university’s premises is restricted again due to Covid measures, there will be a switch to digital teaching only.

The lecture will take place on Mondays from 17.15 to 18.45 (from 05.10.2019).

The lecture series was converted to the online format. Registered students can access the Blackboard. Access for external listeners can be requested by email from linda.beutel@sbg.ac.at

Concept and organisation: Elisabeth Gruber and Gabriele Schichta, IMAREAL

The lecture programme can be found here.