The series Texte und Textgeschichte [Texts and Textual History] set up by the Würzburg research group on ‘Medieval Prose’ under its leader Kurt Ruh contains editions and studies of widely disseminated high-impact late medieval German functional texts. They are prepared and presented with an emphasis on the communicative function of literature, the mutual interaction of author, writer and public. This involves taking primary account of textual mutations in the course of transmission; the methodological objective of each of the editions is to present these editorially in an optimum manner (textual transmission methodology). The studies are directed in each case at the particular circumstances of the transmission - textual geography, chronology and sociology - process the sources and trace the impact of the texts.

The series Texte und Textgeschichte [Texts and Textual History] set up by the Würzburg research group on ‘Medieval Prose’ under its leader Kurt Ruh contains editions and studies of widely disseminated high-impact late medieval German functional texts. They are prepared and presented with an emphasis on the communicative function of literature, the mutual interaction of author, writer and public. This involves taking primary account of textual mutations in the course of transmission; the methodological objective of each of the editions is to present these editorially in an optimum manner (textual transmission methodology). The studies are directed in each case at the particular circumstances of the transmission - textual geography, chronology and sociology - process the sources and trace the impact of the texts.

The series Texte und Textgeschichte [Texts and Textual History] set up by the Würzburg research group on ‘Medieval Prose’ under its leader Kurt Ruh contains editions and studies of widely disseminated high-impact late medieval German functional texts. They are prepared and presented with an emphasis on the communicative function of literature, the mutual interaction of author, writer and public. This involves taking primary account of textual mutations in the course of transmission; the methodological objective of each of the editions is to present these editorially in an optimum manner (textual transmission methodology). The studies are directed in each case at the particular circumstances of the transmission - textual geography, chronology and sociology - process the sources and trace the impact of the texts.

The series Texte und Textgeschichte [Texts and Textual History] set up by the Würzburg research group on ‘Medieval Prose’ under its leader Kurt Ruh contains editions and studies of widely disseminated high-impact late medieval German functional texts. They are prepared and presented with an emphasis on the communicative function of literature, the mutual interaction of author, writer and public. This involves taking primary account of textual mutations in the course of transmission; the methodological objective of each of the editions is to present these editorially in an optimum manner (textual transmission methodology). The studies are directed in each case at the particular circumstances of the transmission - textual geography, chronology and sociology - process the sources and trace the impact of the texts.

The series Texte und Textgeschichte [Texts and Textual History] set up by the Würzburg research group on ‘Medieval Prose’ under its leader Kurt Ruh contains editions and studies of widely disseminated high-impact late medieval German functional texts. They are prepared and presented with an emphasis on the communicative function of literature, the mutual interaction of author, writer and public. This involves taking primary account of textual mutations in the course of transmission; the methodological objective of each of the editions is to present these editorially in an optimum manner (textual transmission methodology). The studies are directed in each case at the particular circumstances of the transmission - textual geography, chronology and sociology - process the sources and trace the impact of the texts.

The series Texte und Textgeschichte [Texts and Textual History] set up by the Würzburg research group on ‘Medieval Prose’ under its leader Kurt Ruh contains editions and studies of widely disseminated high-impact late medieval German functional texts. They are prepared and presented with an emphasis on the communicative function of literature, the mutual interaction of author, writer and public. This involves taking primary account of textual mutations in the course of transmission; the methodological objective of each of the editions is to present these editorially in an optimum manner (textual transmission methodology). The studies are directed in each case at the particular circumstances of the transmission - textual geography, chronology and sociology - process the sources and trace the impact of the texts.

The Debrecen Book of Plants and Animals, a fifteenth-century manuscript in the Library of the Reformed Theological University in Debrecen (Hungary), is the only illustrated German tranlsation of the most broadly disseminated corpus of herbal medicine from the Latin Middle Ages. The facsimile (with pen-and-ink drawings of exceptional quality) has a facing-page edition and translation, and is preceded by essays on the Latin source transmission, the translation, and the medical and pharmacological implications of the illnesses and their treatment in the context of medieval medicine.

Vor der Etablierung einer überregionalen hochdeutschen Schrift- und Standardsprache seit dem 16. Jahrhundert war Textreproduktion als Abschrift oder Nachdruck in der Regel mit einer sprachlichen Anpassung verbunden, da die Vorlage einem anderen Schreibdialekt und/oder einen veralteten Sprachstand aufwies und daher nicht (mehr) problemlos verständlich war. Wie sind die mittelalterlichen Schreiber, wie die Drucker der beginnenden Frühen Neuzeit bei dieser sprachlichen Anpassung vorgegangen? Dieser Frage wird in den Beiträgen des Sonderhefts an althochdeutschen, mittelhochdeutschen und frühneuhochdeutschen Beispielen aus sehr unterschiedlichen Textsorten nachgegangen. Bei allen Unterschieden tritt dabei ein tendenziell einheitliches Verhalten der Schreiber und Drucker zu Tage: Sie waren bemüht, die Inhaltsseite des Textes möglichst unverändert zu lassen und auch die ausdrucksseitige Anpassung auf das Nötigste zu beschränken. Die Beiträge des Sonderhefts decken den Zeitraum von der althochdeutschen Zeit bis ins 17. Jahrhundert und ein breites Spektrum von Textsorten ab. Die Ergebnisse und methodischen Zugriffe sind sowohl für Sprachhistoriker als auch für Mediävisten von Interesse.