Third party funded individual grant
Start date : 01.06.2026
End date : 31.05.2029
The two main aims of the project conducted within the DFG’s Middle East Collaboration program are a new (printed and digital) edition and a complex material examination of the 'Cambridge Codex' T-S 10 K 22, a late medieval manuscript from the Middle East containing the oldest complete texts written in the medieval vernacular of Ashkenazi Jews. The two goals are closely intertwined and result from the assessment that none of the existing editions makes for a suitable reference edition - or a basis for one - and that the work on such an edition necessitates a new examination of the codex as a material artifact. This is primarily due to the poor condition of the codex, which has led to a large number of disputed and often demonstrably incorrect readings in the existing editions, and the availability of new, thus far not utilized technologies, such as multispectral imaging and X-ray fluorescence. These technologies, which the project can use thanks to an arranged collaboration with the Cambridge University Library, promise a much better reconstruction of the many damaged passages than has been possible to date. Their use, in turn, makes the work on the edition inevitably such a profound examination of the materiality of the manuscript that it should not serve merely as an auxiliary means for the edition itself, but rather as an opportunity to explore new approaches to the codex as a unique historical artifact from the late medieval Eastern Mediterranean. The research results will be published in several forms each with different functions and target audiences, including: