The beginnings of medieval studies. On the rediscovery and edition of medieval German vernacular texts in early modern times. With a case study of Johann Schilter's Thesaurus antiquitatum Teutonicarum (Ulm 1726-28)

This paper describes the rediscovery and editing of German medieval texts in the times before German philology was established and institutionalized in the 19(th) century as a university discipline. It describes the humanist treatment of medieval vernacular texts from the 16(th) to the end of the 18(th) century as a discrete subject in the history of German philology. The new humanist 'invention' of the Middle Ages presupposed a sense of distance and discontinuity in relation to past times. Humanist scholars of the 16(th) century applied - for the first time - basic philological practices and hermeneutic concepts to medieval vernacular texts. The application of these skills contrasts with the early modern adoptions of medieval texts within the context of the continuous oral and written tradition. To show the way in which the scholarly focus on German vernacular texts quickly developed, the paper analyses as an example Johann Schilter's Thesaurus antiquitatum Teutonicarum (Ulm 1726-28).