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.

Volume 17 of the “Jahrbuch der Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft” presents some 40 papers on “Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) and the court culture of his time”. Maximilian is considered the first ruler to employ ‘modern’ media – primarily printing – in developing traditional courtly art forms to serve the exercising of imperial power. This groundbreaking change in usage forms the centrepoint for new cross-media research. Interdisciplinary perspectives offer a wide-ranging survey of this first modern-style ruler’s self-presentation and provide new directions for research on Maximilian and the Early Modern period.

Die Überlieferungsgeschichte gehört zu den bedeutendsten Forschungsparadigmata, welche die Altgermanistik resp. literaturwissenschaftliche Mediävistik in den letzten fünfzig Jahren hervorgebracht hat. Die Beiträge dieses Bandes fragen nach der Aktualität des Paradigmas und nach den Möglichkeiten seiner Weiterentwicklung, nach seinem generellen theoretisch-methodischen Gewinn und seiner Anwendbarkeit in anderen geisteswissenschaftlichen Disziplinen; neben der deutschen, niederländischen, mittel- und neulateinischen Philologie sind Geschichte, Medizin-, Philosophie- und Theologiegeschichte sowie die mediävistische Musikologie beteiligt. Die überwiegende Mehrzahl der Beiträge verbindet jeweils methodische Reflexion und Fallbeispiel(e).