Edition of the Frankish Capitularies
Links to the project
The decrees of the Frankish rulers are known as capitularies because of their subdivision into chapters (lat. capitula). They are amongst the most important sources for the history of the Frankish kingdoms. They are instructions similar to laws, ordinances or provisions, regulating political, military, ecclesiastical, social, economic and cultural matters.
Edition of the Frankish CapitulariesEdition of the Frankish Capitularies
Host Academy
North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts
Location and federal state
Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia
Type
Editions: Medieval and (Early) Modern History
Project number
II.D.40
In almost all parts of the Franconian history, the capitularies are an important basis for historical understanding. They particularly show the attempts of Charlemagne and his successors to make the Frankish kingdoms, which had grown enormously through the expansion of the 8th century, governable. The edition wants to critically edit the capitularies that have been handed down decentralised in hand-written collections and publish them in a reconstructed form with translations. Each composite manuscript is indexed as a source for the history of reception and is made digitally accessible for research. The planned edition offers reliable texts and discusses the delimitation, the dating and the historic context of the individual capitularies in a new form. Through disclosing the path from the collection to the individual text, the relationship between the edited text and the transmission is shown. The capitularies from the years 814-920 are edited in book form and are released in the “Leges-Reihe der Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MBH)”. In addition, the digital edition will also comprise capitularies from 507/511-813. The edition results from a close cooperation with the MGH and the Cologne Center for eHumanities (CCeH).
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