Ferdinand Gregorovius: Poetry and Science. Collected German and Italian Letters

Prof. Dr. Martin Baumeister and Dr. Angela Steinsiek (with the participation of Theodor Costea, Mariana Ramazzotti et al.)

Ferdinand Gregorovius lived in Rome for more than 20 years. It was there that he wrote his main work, the "Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter", which in 1876 made him an honorary citizen of Rome. In addition to his historiographical and literary oeuvre he has left several thousand letters in which he, a contemporary witness, sheds light on Italian and German history of science as well as on politics and culture of the 19th century. On the basis of systematic research, the "Collected German and Italian Letters" cover one third of the correspondence, i.e. a representative selection of almost 1.100 letters by Ferdinand Gregorovius as a critical digital-born edition in their original language with comprehensive commentary. The web version (https://gregorovius-edition.dhi-roma.it/) follows a digital edition model that implements a visual, textual, and content-related approach to the (primarily) handwritten sources and makes the complete data available via a REST interface. The content of the bilingual edition is additionally accessible by regesta in German, Italian and English, which convey the implicit or explicit substance of the underlying letter. The project was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Gerda Henkel Foundation. The letters were digitally processed in cooperation with the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (BBAW).

Dr. Martin Baumeister
Director of the DHI Rome (Project Management) (2017–2024)

Dr. Angela Steinsiek
Project Researcher DFG-financed project (Project Management) (2017–2023)

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