Current projects

A study on philology, history and culture based on a digital edition of the treatises

• Funded by: EU Horizon Europe ERC STARTING-GRANT grant agreement No 101039572
• Duration: 01.09.2022 - 30.08.2027
• Project partners: Department of Medieval Studies; Austrian Academy of Sciences
• Project contact: PI Michaela Wiesinger (michaela.wiesinger(at)oeaw.ac.at)
  • Project responsibility Graz: Georg Vogeler (georg.vogeler(at)uni-graz.at) 
• Planned publication: 2026

How did the practice of arithmetic develop and spread during the transition from medieval to modern times? The ERC-Project ARITHMETIC (PI Michaela Wiesinger, ÖAW) ARITHMETIC examines handwritten German arithmetic treatises from their first appearance around 1400 until the time when printed arithmetic books became readily available in the early 16th century. Numerous tracts will be transcribed, digitally processed, and analyzed from historical, literary, and linguistic perspectives. This research aims to develop a new understanding of how arithmetical knowledge and practices of arithmetic changed in late medieval Europe and how an abstract and scientific language emerged in the German vernacular.

• Funded by: EU Horizon Europe ERC CONSOLIDATOR-GRANT grant agreement No 101123203
• Duration: 01.06.2024 - 31.05.2029
• PI/Project contact: Bernhard Bauer (bernhard.bauer(at)uni-graz.at)
• Planned publication: 2027

Glosses are fingerprints of the society in which texts were composed, copied, and read. Most importantly, they play a much more significant role than previous research has acknowledged and offer insights about the multilingual and multi-ethnic environment of medieval manuscript and text production the principal texts cannot: they are first-hand testimonies of the close linguistic and cultural connections between Insular Celtic (Old Breton, Old Irish, Old Welsh) and Latin speakers. GLOSSIT researches these contacts combining methods of comparative philology and historical linguistics, digital humanities (handwritten text recognition, network analysis, natural language processing), (cultural) history, and biological computation (applying DNA-sequence alignment methods to glosses).

Project manager: Georg Vogeler

In the web portal "Monasterium.net", you can find stories about fugitive robber barons, heroic deeds, aiding and abetting flight or religious division of families with a keyword search or a few mouse clicks. However, the portal with its more than 600,000 medieval and early modern documents is also a testimony to the uniformity and diversity of legal culture in Europe. In order to properly classify these stories, you need to know what people in the past wanted to record in documents, how they did it and what they used them for.

Diplomatics" is the academic discipline dedicated to these questions - and it has been around for over 350 years. However, the established methods are not sufficient to deal with the large number of documents that have been created in Europe since the 13th century. The "From Digital to Distant Diplomatics" project will therefore bring diplomatics into the digital present. It aims to enable anyone interested in medieval and early modern documents to make use of the latest developments in data science and artificial intelligence when dealing with these documents.

The computers need lots of examples to "learn" - and they need people to interpret the suggestions they make. That's why an environment is needed in which humans and machines work together: People contribute their creativity and the ability to "understand" other people, as well as to draw meaningful insights from their experience with objects, to tell something about the past. The machine can quickly process large amounts of data and both apply rules and learn new rules. The DiDip project will develop such a "virtual research environment".

The project will test the usefulness of the research environment by investigating European trends and regional differences in the design and use of 14th and 15th century charters. What influence did pan-European political institutions such as the Roman Church have on regional documentary practice? How did local and regional notarization practices react to the spread of Roman law among the legal thinkers of Europe? How do the two widespread authentication practices, by seal and by notarial signature, relate to each other? The project team will answer these questions by using computer vision and machine language processing to identify trends, breaks, standardizations and diversifications. The observations made on the digital representations of the documents will be related to major European events such as the Western Schism (1378-1417) or the Great Plague (1348/49) and the ensuing economic crisis.

The project is funded by the ERC with an Advanced Grant (duration 2022-2026).

• Funded by: FWF (International, Joint Projects)
• Duration: 01.03.2020 - 29.02.2024
• Project contact: Georg Vogeler, Niklas Tscherne, Johannes Laroche

BeCore is a comparative study of the textual and graphic signs of authority and authentication in medieval documents. It builds on the resources of Monasterium, a portal for the publication and edition of more than 600,000 documents from all over Europe, of which about 270,000 are linked to images of the original documents. The project will integrate new corpora into Monasterium and implement tools for semi-automatic indexing and searching in images of handwritten texts as well as graphic and ornamental signs. They are based on the results of previous projects that are currently in the final phase (projects ORIFLAMMS, ANR-12-CORP-0010 and HIMANIS, European project Heritage plus, FWF-Illuminated documents). This will make it possible to examine the signs of rule and authority along several lines of research: the signs themselves, the dissemination of models and the relationships between graphic and textual signs.

• Funded by: FWF (I 6133) (Internationales, Joint Projects)
• Duration: 01.01.2023-31.12.2025
• PI and project contact: Roman Bleier

The interdisciplinary and international research project, a collaboration between the University of Tübingen, University of Wuppertal, University of Graz, University College London, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, brings together the fields of art history, Latin philology, medieval history, edition studies and digital humanities. The aims are (1) a comprehensive overview of the tradition of Peter of Poitiers' Compendium historiae in genealogia christi, (2) an analysis of the graphic metastructure as well as the texts, diagrams and images embedded in it (and the recording of variants), (3) a digital critical scholarly edition (based on selected witnesses), and (4) an exploration of relevant contexts. With the development of the digital edition, new methodological ground is being broken in terms of the adequate representation of diagrammatic works through a formalised and navigable knowledge graph that represents the variants of the work as individual forms of realisation and transmission through innovative visualisation technologies. The project will make accessible one of the most visually innovative and influential works of the Middle Ages and shed new light on the history of the visualisation of knowledge. It will also provide a model with which works of complex graphic structure can be edited and made accessible in the future.

• Funded by: FWF/DFG Weave
• Duration: 2024-2027
• Project contact: Martina Scholger, Elisabeth Steiner

The EMHo project focuses on digitising and analysing a 17th-century Chinese-Spanish dictionary, "Bocabulario de lengua sangleya por las letraz de el A.B.C." Authored by an anonymous Spanish missionary, this manuscript offers insight into the Southern Min language, also known as Hokkien, as utilised by Chinese immigrants in early Manila.

We aim to make this historical document openly accessible as a digital edition. This includes digital facsimiles, a diplomatic as well as critical transcription, and an English translation, augmented with linguistic annotations including tone, and Chinese characters. These enrichments aim to make the work beneficial for a wider linguistic audience.

The endeavour entails examining the manuscript through three lenses: language history, missionary linguistics, and historical sociolinguistics. We seek to understand the status of Early Manila Hokkien, the linguistic methods of the missionaries, and the socio-historical context of early Chinese migration and Spanish colonialism in Manila.

Utilising the Text Encoding Initiative standard, the project emphasises careful transcription and annotation, particularly of linguistic and tonal features. The approach combines transcription and editing with historical sociolinguistic methods and comparison with contemporary sources.

Through this endeavour, we aim to contribute to the digital documentation and open-access publication of non-European language resources and offer new insights into Chinese-Spanish lexicography and the history of the Chinese language, with a particular focus on marginalised groups.

• In cooperation with the University of Klagenfurt and the Musil Institute for Literary Research

• Funded by: FWF

• Duration: Oct. 2022- April 2024

• Contact: Elisabeth Raunig and Helmut Klug (Uni bib)

The project develops a digital genetic edition of Werner Kofler's prose "Am Schreibtisch" and explores the auditory and aural components of the writing process.

• In cooperation with: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Danube University Krems, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian National Library, Paris Lodron University Salzburg, University of Graz (project coordination), University of Innsbruck, University of Vienna, Vienna University of Technology
• Funding: BMBWF "(Digital) Research Infrastructure"
• Duration: 2023-2026
• Project contact: Philipp Hofeneder, Georg Vogeler

DHInfra.at is building an infrastructure for digitally supported research in the Austrian humanities. It fills the gap between standard offerings in cultural heritage institutions (digitization), in research data management (curated and integrated repositories vs. institutional repositories), in software solutions (subject-specific open source products), and HPC offerings for the natural, technical and life sciences in the processing of large amounts of data with machine learning. Equipment for digitization (scanning robots, multispectral cameras) and storage (Ceph) for repositories for data from the cultural heritage institutions as well as GPU clusters for research with and productive use of machine learning methods are procured and implemented. Open source software is adapted and further developed to meet the specific needs of the community. The existing CLARIAH-AT consortium facilitates governance and long-term maintenance of the infrastructure.

Digital transformation of the Austrian humanities

• In cooperation with: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Danube University Krems, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian National Library, Paris Lodron University Salzburg, University of Graz (project coordination), University of Innsbruck, University of Vienna, Vienna University of Technology
• Duration: 2020-2024
• Project contact: Philipp Hofeneder, Georg Vogeler
• Funding: BMBWF "Digital and social transformation in higher education"

The aim of this project is to establish and prepare the methods and approaches developed in the Digital Humanities in such a way that they can be transferred to everyday use in humanities research and early career education. To this end, jointly developed solutions are being created in three major subject areas: Integration of the digital infrastructure, preparation and low-threshold access to digital methods and tools, and the teaching of digital skills in science and teaching. The consortium carrying out the project is made up of members from all renowned Austrian DH locations.

PROJECT

The imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire is one of the most important symbols of European history. Today it belongs to the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) in Vienna. As part of the CROWN project initiated by the KHM, a comprehensive analysis of the imperial crown is being carried out. The cooperation partner is the Center for Information Modelling at the University of Graz.

The aim of the analysis of the Imperial Crown is to determine the conservation status of the object and to advance the discussion about the context in which the object was created. To this end, all components of the crown (plates, frontal cross, brackets, gemstones, decorative elements, etc.) are analyzed from a scientific, conservation and (art) historical perspective.

EXAMPLE

A "high setting for pearl with pins" is a component on a plate of the Imperial Crown. This is a 30 x 30 x 20 mm gold setting. Five points on this setting are each examined using three analysis methods: 3D microscopy, X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) and multispectral imaging (MSI).

Each analysis includes a description of the measurement process, tabular measurement data and results in the form of diagrams, as well as a (con)textual interpretation of the measurement by the specialist scientists.

WORKFLOW

The description, analysis results and links between the individual components of the Imperial Crown and secondary sources are research data. These are recorded in The Museum System (TMS). The following steps are necessary to FAIRify this collection data as a Linked Open Data resource:

• Requirements analysis and modeling using existing models (CIDOC-CRM, CRMsci, BFO, Linked Art).
• Normalization via controlled vocabularies (Getty, GND etc.) and public knowledge graphs (DBpedia, Wikidata)
• Transformation & mapping of the CSV export from TMS with Python (RDFlib)
• Semantic enrichment through reconciliation and automated keywording of free text fields.
• Publication & long-term archiving via the Humanities Asset Management System (GAMS) with requirement-specific front end.

BEST PRACTICES

All collection areas of the KHM enter their data in TMS. In addition to the "classic" data fields for object description, specific research questions are also pursued. In the case of the Imperial Crown, for example, these are the analysis methods and their interpretation. Mapping to linked open data vocabularies alone is not sufficient to meet the requirements.

Accordingly, it is necessary to develop a best-practice workflow that makes it possible to convert more complex issues from a TMS system into reusable research data. The development of these best practices will be funded by CLARIAH-AT in 2023.

Project contact: Christopher Pollin, christopher.pollin(at)uni-graz.at

• In cooperation with the Department of Antiquity
• Funded by: BMBWF, Sparkling Science 2.0
• Duration: 2022-2025
• Project contact: Christian Steiner, christian.steiner(at)uni-graz.at

SISTE VIATOR - This can often be read on gravestones. But what does the inscription mean? Why is it in Latin? What period is it from? Who commissioned it and why? Who was supposed to read it?

Latin inscriptions, which can be found in large numbers from antiquity to the present day, usually raise many questions for those looking at them today. The language, script and abbreviations are puzzling and we lack the historical context. Nevertheless, we often stop to read what is written there. And whoever had SISTE VIATOR carved on a gravestone wanted exactly that: "Stand still, wanderer" commands the inscription. We are therefore asked to stop, take our time and enter into a conversation with the inscription.

The [LIDAL] project starts here and pursues three goals: (1) Whoever finds a Latin inscription is invited to report it to us (Citizen Science). We collect them in a database according to previously defined criteria. (2) The focus is on pupils from Austria and Germany working with us to prepare a representative selection of these inscriptions for school lessons (text, translation, details, questions/answers, etc.) and publish them on a web portal. Pupils should have a say in what is explained. The material is presented in such a way that 'inscription tours' - real and virtual - can be created, through which information can be obtained and skills deepened as you 'pass by'. This can be a tour of medieval inscriptions in Graz, but tours to consolidate grammar knowledge, learn vocabulary or gain new insights into world or local history are also conceivable - all individually on site or virtually 'walkable'. As an innovative tool for digital learning, the web portal can be used across subjects (Latin, history, religion, etc.) and, above all, for personal learning outside the classroom. The students will also have the opportunity to present and discuss their results at an international student congress. Finally (3), scientific studies, e.g. on the use of inscriptions in the classroom, on interdisciplinary and cross-border learning or on digitalization, will provide new insights. There are also plans to create a version of LIDAL with the support of the students that runs on cell phones and can also be used for tourism.

• In cooperation with the Department of Antiquity
• Funded by: FWF
• Duration: 2021-2024
• Project contact: Elisabeth Steiner, elisabeth.steiner@uni-graz.at

As a continuation of the FWF project "Die keltischen Götternamen in den Inschriften der römischen Provinz Germania Inferior. A case study on religion in the context of cultural contact and cultural transfer" (P 29274-G25), a geographical area with a similar population structure is now being investigated in the military area on the left bank of the Rhine in the Roman province of Germania Superior. In this way, a review, deepening and expansion of the previous results can be tackled.

The project work will be divided into two parts. The first part consists of the compilation and new edition of all relevant inscriptions, which will be made freely available on the www. The second part will be presented in printed form. On the one hand, it will present a detailed overall presentation of each individual Celtic-language deity name in the study area. On the other hand, an analysis section will evaluate the entirety of these Celtic deity names, dealing in particular with socio-cultural and mental-historical aspects of religion in cultural contact zones.

• In cooperation with the ÖAW
• Funded by: FWF
• Duration: 2022-2025
• Project contact: Georg Vogeler, Selina Galka

The memoirs of Countess Schwerin, written around 1724, are a unique source on the cultural and gender history of two of the most important European courts, namely the imperial court in Vienna and the Prussian royal court in Berlin. They have survived in two non-identical copies, one of which is in Aix-en-Provence and the other in Vienna. Geographically, the life story told in the text extends from the Dutch lands to Poland, Warmia and Silesia, but focuses on the courts of Berlin and Vienna. The text is remarkably dense and multi-layered and provides rare insights into female court networks and lifeworlds. The aim of the project is to create a digital edition that combines the unique source with epistemologically motivated research. The user interface will make it possible to compare different text variants with the facsimiles. The texts will be processed using modern digital technologies and enriched with standard data; in addition, the extensive scholarly commentary will be organized as a flexible database. The visualization of the social networks extracted from the texts is central to the project. The digital indexing of the texts also makes it possible to apply a wide range of computer-aided text analysis methods, such as topic modeling.

• In cooperation with the Department of German Studies
• Duration: 2012 -
• Project contact: Gunter Vasold

The project 'Variant Grammar of Standard German', funded by the FWF under project number I 716-G18, is dedicated to the grammatical, areally determined variation of German. While vocabulary phenomena have been relatively well studied (classic examples such as Semmel vs. Brötchen), the areas of morphology and morphosyntax (e.g.: bei jmdm. beantragen vs. jmdm. beantragen) or syntax (e.g.: Gut, gibt es Bauern. vs. Gut, dass es Bauern gibt.) have received little attention to date. The project thus provides the first corpus-based documentation of grammatical differences in a handbook that will be designed for both lay and academic purposes. The Department of Digital Humanities supports the research process by providing a virtual research environment that facilitates the structured collection, documentation and interpretation of research data.

• In cooperation with the Department of Slavic Studies
• Duration: 2008 -
• Project contact: Gerlinde Schneider

Based on the IMS Corpus Workbench of the Department of Natural Language Processing at the University of Stuttgart, this FWF project created a structure for the construction of multimodal parallel language corpora for the Department of Slavic Studies. In the planning, conception and implementation of the workflow for the construction of the language corpus, special consideration had to be given to the requirement for the mass standardization of documents laid down in the project application, as well as to aspects of an AMS (=Asset Management System) controlled administration of the corpus texts.

• In cooperation with the Department of Philosophy of Law and the Medical University of Graz
• Duration: 2009 -
• Project contact: Walter Scholger

In the project contexts of the Department, one is repeatedly confronted with legal questions, especially with regard to the handling of copyright in digital sources. In cooperation with Elisabeth Staudegger from the Department of Philosophy of Law, Sociology of Law and Legal Informatics and Reinhard Staber from the Medical University of Graz, the efforts are now culminating in the preparation of a ministerial draft by the Forum Neue Medien in der Lehre Austria to amend the relevant legal situation in Austria.

The Writing Platform sees itself as an interdisciplinary space for a theoretical, methodological, practical and conceptual exchange on writing research involving researchers from the digital humanities, literary and cultural studies, art studies, writing and subject didactics and sociology. The platform acts as an interdisciplinary interface between the Center for Cultural Studies, the Center for Information Modelling (ZIM), the Center for Didactics (fdz), the Research Unit for General and Comparative Literature (AVL) and the Writing Center of the University of Graz. The aim is to bring together different questions, methodological models and concepts of writing research and to question and further develop their possibilities for the respective subject area in a multi-perspective exchange. To this end, the platform regularly organizes internal and public events on central questions of writing.

The platform is coordinated by the Center for Cultural Studies.