Introduction

Hartmann von Aue's Gregorius has been handed down in its entirety in 6 manuscripts, joined by 6 fragments and a probatio pennae. Only one almost complete manuscript has survived from the (early) 13th century (A), while the others all date from the 14th (mostly second half) and 15th centuries. Of the fragments, three are from the 13th century, the others from the 14th century.

The first critical edition by Karl Lachmann in 1838 was based on five manuscripts (ABCDE), all without the Prologue, and contained only 3834 verses. In the same year, the Vatican ms. A, the oldest textual witness, was also printed diplomatically. In 1856, ms. G appeared with a mutilated prologue, and in 1876, ms. J with all 170 verses of this part was discovered. Thus, Hermann Paul was able to edit the entire text for the first time in 1882 in the second edition of his Gregorius. To this day, the 4006 verses of his edition text are considered the reference for scholars.

An important parchment manuscript (B) burned together with the other holdings of the Strasbourg City Library during the bombardment of the city by German troops in August 1870. It had already been untraceable since 1819, but since no loans were registered or further traces found, it was probably merely mislaid. It is fortunately known from a copy from the late 18th century (B2), as well as from numerous small quotations in a Latin glossary edited by Johann Georg Scherz between 1781 and 1784 (B1). Surprisingly, this print source has never been fully analysed in text-critical terms.

Gregorius – digital offers for the first time the complete tradition of Hartmann's Gregorius, with transcriptions of all testimonies and editions of individual manuscripts.

Like the other digital editions of Hartmann von Aue's works, Gregorius – digital does not aim to offer a new critical edition of Gregorius. The goal is not to recover a supposed text of Hartmann von Aue; for that purpose we still have Hermann Paul's edition, revised by his successors. Nor is this a best text edition in which one good old textual witness is chosen as the text; that was already done by Karl Lachmann's edition. Gregorius – digital wants to edit and make readable the surviving witnesses of Gregorius in their actual form and in greater breadth. The aim of this project is to show the variations in the transmission of the text and to make visible how it was read and interpreted over the centuries.

Gregorius – digital is being produced in close cooperation with Grégoire – digital, the digital edition of the Old French Vie du pape saint Grégoire, which will be edited according to the same principles.