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

Forschungskolloquium Sommersemester 2026

HfJS Heidelberg

Colorful EventOn-siteGerman / English

6 May - 17 June 2026 14:00 - 15:00 UTC+02:00

Wednesday menu: Knowledge with coffee

HfJS Heidelberg

Israel and Middle Eastern StudiesOn-siteGerman

27 May 2026 16:15 - 17:45 UTC+02:00

Book presentation by Dr. Anja Siegemund

Far Out/Menemsha Films

Jewish Movie ClubOn-siteEnglish

28 May 2026 19:00 - 21:30 UTC+02:00

The Heidelberg Jewish Film Club enriches the summer semester

Past events

Lost Books Lab launches in Baden-Württemberg

6 May 2026 News Press Release

Looted books tell of expropriation, persecution and cultural erasure. This is precisely where the new project "Lost Books Lab - Participatory educational formats on Nazi-looted property in a professional context" comes in, which was launched on May 1. The project is funded by the Baden-Württemberg Foundation as part of the "Education against Anti-Semitism" program. The aim is to develop a transferable educational format that makes anti-Semitism comprehensible using a specific historical object - the book looted under National Socialism.

The "Lost Books Lab Baden-Württemberg" is aimed at trainees and employees of companies in Baden-Württemberg and thus opens up new approaches to anti-Semitism-critical education in a professional context. In cooperation with libraries, the participants take part in three-hour workshops in which they examine historical book collections, research provenance characteristics and follow the traces of former Jewish owners. After an introduction to the history of the systematic looting of Jewish libraries and methods of provenance research, they work independently in groups with historical books, document their findings and reflect on their significance for the present. No previous knowledge is required. The offer is free of charge for participants and companies.

"Looted books show that anti-Semitism was reflected in concrete acts of exclusion, dispossession and cultural erasure. The Lost Books Lab combines historical education with active research and enables participants to make their own contribution to coming to terms with this injustice," says former ambassador Shimon Stein, Chairman of the Board of the Leo Baeck Institute's Friends and Patrons Association.

The project is being carried out by the Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies, the Friends and Sponsors of the Leo Baeck Institute and the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem. The Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies is a state-recognized university of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and has expertise in Jewish history, education critical of anti-Semitism and provenance research. The Leo Baeck Institute researches and communicates the history and culture of German-speaking Jews; its public history initiative "Library of Lost Books" has received several awards.

During the 24-month project period until April 2028, workshops in Baden-Württemberg will be developed, tested and implemented together with local partners. In addition, a digital handbook, training courses for multipliers and a modular exhibition will be created.

Further partners in Baden-Württemberg are being sought for the implementation. Libraries, companies, archives, antiquarian bookshops and regional networks that are interested in working together or would like to try out the format at their location are invited to get in touch.