"Weltwissen" Project

The project "Weltwissen" is a cooperative initiative between the University of Göttingen and the Göttingen State University Library (SUB) . Funded by the Volkswagen Foundation as part of the "Small Subjects Communicate World Knowledge" program, the project aims to preserve and modernize the rare academic discipline of auxiliary historical sciences, specifically focusing on palaeography .

Leads: Prof. Dr. Winfried Rudolf, Prof. Dr. Martin Langner
Team: Dr. Anna Dorofeeva, Alexander Zawacki

The project aims to revive and consolidate teaching and research in auxiliary historical sciences, with a focus on Western Latin palaeography.

Studying and understanding the origins of script and its various developments over the centuries is fundamental to every kind of linguistic, literary, historical and media studies. In the digital age, the profound shift from the material handwritten and print medium to the digital hypertext jeopardizes the future of individual handwriting, its manifold technologies and its role for the understanding of the human past. Understanding the ways in which handwriting was encoded, in all its global manifestations, is an important precondition for accessing the "Weltwissen" (human knowledge) of past centuries, and its inscribed archives.

The project seeks to combine traditional palaeographic methods with modern digital technologies, including digital recovery and automated recognition of handwritten texts. The initiative has established a Lectureship in Digital Palaeography and a position for an Imaging Specialist at the University of Göttingen Institute for Digital Humanities , in collaboration with the SUB. These positions are supported by the provision of mobile imaging technology, a new curriculum, and liaison with expert scholars and institutions worldwide, as well as international workshops and summer schools .

The project integrates these new teaching and research methods into the existing curriculum of the Institute for Digital Humanities, enhancing students' skills in manuscript reading, archival studies, and digital text analysis.

This new focus area in Göttingen will also have a significant impact on the public sector. The SUB provides our students with the best expertise and a great space to stage their own exhibitions on manuscripts, which we will complement by developing digital apps. The Forum Wissen, our new university museum, provides an even more accessible place for such endeavours. Other initiatives are also being planned or undertaken.