Bible glossaries as hidden cultural carriers. judeo-French cultural exchange in the High Middle Ages

Funding by and establishment at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities / Academies' Program

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Bible glossaries as hidden carriers of culture | Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities

The project focuses on Hebrew-French glossaries, which are being edited (for the most part for the first time) and historically and philologically processed and contextualized because they are exceptional witnesses to a simultaneously developing (Jewish and Christian) French (Bible) reading culture in Western Europe between the 12th and 14th centuries. The glossaries form basic texts for research into the interrelations between Jewish intellectual history and the non-Jewish environment as well as the lexical interferences between Jewish and Christian vernacular cultures. The French glosses are written in Hebrew throughout and comprise about 1/4 of the Old French vocabulary known today.

From the outset, the philological work will be integrated into a digital working environment that uses the BIMA 2.0 database, which has been in productive use in the Corpus Masoreticum project since 2018 and is continuously being further developed. BIMA 2.0 ensures the editorial indexing and long-term archiving of all Hebrew-French material and provides tools that guarantee the sustainable management, processing, presentation and visualization of the project results. A data export interface via RDF/OntoLex ensures that the interoperability of the lexicographically relevant edition data is guaranteed as 'linked open data' with the resources of DEAFél(Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français électronique), which are still available, and that DEAFél is therefore also used for further research. The field of Digital Humanities also makes an independent research contribution to the differentiation of a digital corpus linguistics of Judeo-French text cultures of the Middle Ages. The digital results will be supplemented by online and print publications that will provide new transdisciplinary academic impetus for Jewish studies, Romance studies, Jewish and Christian theology and medieval (knowledge) history as a whole.

Paris BNF hébr. 302 Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0 — Paris BNF hébr. 302 Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0

Paris BNF hébr. 302 edit Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0 — Paris BNF hébr. 302 edit Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0

Events

All Events

HfJS Heidelberg

Bible and Jewish Biblical InterpretationOn-siteEnglish

23 - 24 October 2025 17:00 - 18:00 UTC+02:00

Symposium celebrating the book launch

HfJS Heidelberg

Kabbalat ShabbatOn-siteGerman / English

24 October 2025 18:00 - 21:00 UTC+02:00

Invitation to the monthly Shabbat celebration

ZDJ

Israel and Middle Eastern StudiesOn-siteGerman

16 - 19 November 2025 13:00 - 14:00 UTC+01:00

Four-day seminar in Frankfurt (Central Council of Jews, ELES, HfJS Heidelberg, JSUD)

Past events

Acoustic measures in the Mensa

20 August 2025 Press Release

The Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies is implementing important improvements to the cafeteria area in the fall: With generous support from the Circle of Friends and overheads raised by Prof. Dr. Hanna Liss, soundproofing measures will be implemented that will significantly optimize the acoustic situation on site.

University Chancellor Caroline Kiss explains:
"We are pleased to announce that soundproofing measures will be carried out in the canteen at the end of October. These will bring the previously unfavorable acoustic conditions to an ideal range and enable the canteen to be used for meetings as well as research and teaching events without any impairment in future. This building improvement is made possible by the overheads raised by Prof. Dr. Hanna Liss and the support of the Friends of the University. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them both for their support."