Research - A Storehouses of Education

Classical Archaeology
Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Johannes Bergemann
Research Fellow: Kerstin Annika Rausch

Archaeology of Ancient Libraries: Religion, Representation, Storerooms of Knowledge

The sub-project investigates the archaeological and literary sources for Greco-Roman libraries by virtue of a new and comprehensive approach and interprets them with respect to both the contextualization of storerooms of knowledge within sanctuaries and imperial representation. In doing so, the question arises whether the localization, e.g., of Hellenistic libraries in sacred contexts served as prefiguration of the relationship of libraries and Christian cultic practices in Late Antiquity and medieval times. Also the integration of thermal baths as a precursor of the interconnection between bath and library in the Middle Ages will be discussed. Thereby it will be clarified whether ancient libraries – considering their functioning – should be regarded as a preliminary stage for later ensembles of storerooms of knowledge or whether they should rather be studied following a transcultural comparative approach.

Selected Publications

• Bergemann, J. (2019), Bilder, Bildung und Religion in der griechisch-römischen Antike. Eine Skizze, in: P. Gemeinhardt (ed.), Was ist Bildung in der Vormoderne?, Tübingen.
• Rausch, K. A. (2018), Die Bibliothek von Tauromenion und das Material der „Cisterna I“. Vorbericht zu den Untersuchungen des Fundkontextes der sog. Lemmata, in: O. Belvedere / J. Bergemann (eds.), Römisches Sizilien: Stadt und Land zwischen Monumentalisierung und Ökonomie, Krise und Entwicklung, Kolloquium Göttingen 25.–27.11.2017, Palermo, 299–303

Classical Philology
Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Heinz-Günther Nesselrath
Research Fellow: Dr. Balbina Bäbler

Education and Religion in Christian Libraries in Late Antiquity

The project investigates the interactions of education and religion in the case of several important early Christian libraries; continuities and discontinuities vis-à-vis their non-Christian predecessors will be documented by a comprehensive coverage of the relevant literary and archaeological evidence. Three paradigmatic cases will be studied: 1. the establishment of the school and library of Origen in Caesarea; 2. the transformation of the Bibliotheca Pacis (Rome) into the ecclesiastical building complex St. Cosmas and Damian; 3. the establishment of the (library and educational institution) Vivarium of Cassiodorus in Calabria.

Selected Publications

• Bäbler, B. (in print), From Asclepius to the ‘Saints without Silver’: The Transformation of a Sanctuary in Late Antique Athens, in: I. Tanaseanu-Döbler / L. Zitzmann (eds.), Athens in Late Antiquity, Tübingen.
• Bäbler, B. (in print), Whose “Glory of Alexandria”? Monuments, Identities and the Eye of the Beholder, in: B. Schliesser / Th. J. Kraus (eds.), Alexandria – Hub of the Hellenistic World, Tübingen.
• Bäbler, B. (2018), Für Christen und Heiden, Männer und Frauen: Origenes’ Bibliotheks- und Lehrinstitut in Caesarea, in: P. Gemeinhardt / I. Tanaseanu-Döbler (eds.), „Das Paradies ist ein Hörsaal für die Seelen“. Institutionen religiöser Bildung in historischer Perspektive, Tübingen, 129–151.
• Bäbler, B. (2018), Origenes und Eusebios’ Chronik und Kirchengeschichte, in: B. Bäbler / H.-G. Nesselrath (eds.), Origenes der Christ und Origenes der Platoniker, Tübingen, 179–199.
• Bäbler, B. / Nesselrath, H.-G. (2018, eds.), Origenes der Christ und Origenes der Platoniker, Tübingen.
• Nesselrath, H.-G. (2018), Einleitung, in: Bäbler / H.-G. Nesselrath (eds.), Origenes der Christ und Origenes der Platoniker, Tübingen, 1–11.
• Bäbler, B. / Nesselrath, H.-G. (2016), Philostrats Apollonios und seine Welt. Griechische und nicht-griechische Kunst und Religion in der "Vita Apollonii", Berlin / New York.
• Nesselrath, H.-G.(ed.) (2016), Gegen falsche Götter und falsche Bildung: Tatian, Rede an die Griechen(SAPERE XXVIII), Tübingen.

Religious Studies
Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler
Research Fellows: Jörg von Alvensleben, Andreas Streichhardt, Leonie Zitzmann, Dr. Gabriela Ryser

Pagan Religion and Philosophy in ‘Virtual Libraries‘: Late Antique Compendia and Encyclopaedic Works

The project investigates various forms of the literarisation of pagan religious traditions in selected late antique compendia and encyclopaedic works. In doing so, it takes into account the full pagan religious panorama, including philosophy. Mechanisms of selection and condensation of knowledge about religion are analysed with regard to their impact on late antique pagan religiosity and to their embeddedness in conceptions of education and culture on the one hand, and to their importance for the construction and transmission of alternative worldviews in the Middle Ages on the other hand.

Selected Publications

• Tanaseanu-Döbler, I. (2018), Religion, in: Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum 28, Lieferung 224/225, 1014–1082.
• Tanaseanu-Döbler, I. (2018), „Damit die Nachfolge Platons rein und unverfälscht bewahrt werde“. Religiöse Bildung und Institutionalität in spätantiken Philosophenschulen, in: P. Gemeinhardt / I. Tanaseanu-Döbler (eds.), „Das Paradies ist ein Hörsaal für die Seelen“. Institutionen religiöser Bildung in historischer Perspektive, Tübingen, 101–127.
• Tanaseanu-Döbler, I. (2018), Die Origeneis des Porphyrios, in: B. Bäbler / H.-G. Nesselrath (eds.), Origenes, der Christ und Origenes der Platoniker, Tübingen,129–163.
• Tanaseanu-Döbler, I. / Gemeinhardt, P. (2018), Nachwort, in: Dies. (eds.), „Das Paradies ist ein Hörsaal für die Seelen“. Institutionen religiöser Bildung in historischer Perspektive, Tübingen, 299–306.
• Tanaseanu-Döbler, I. (2017), „Ein Lob Platons selbst wie auch derjenigen, die von ihm die Philosophie empfingen“, Bemerkungen zur literarischen Inszenierung philosophischer Sukzession bei Proklos, in: M. Witte / A. Renger (eds.), Autorisierung, Legitimierung, Wissenstransfer, Berlin / Boston, 393–434.
• Tanaseanu-Döbler, I. / Lefteratou, A. / Ryser, G. / Stamatopoulos, K. (eds.) (2017), Reading the Way to the Netherworld: Education and the Representations of the Beyond in Later Antiquity (BERG 4), Göttingen.
  With contributions by Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler, Heinz-Günther Nesselrath, Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser, Dmitrij Bumazhnov and Elisabetta Abate
• Tanaseanu-Döbler, I., Art. profanus, RAC 28 (2016), 207-231.
• Zitzmann, L. (in print), Intertextuelle Götternähe. Homerische Kurzzitate im proklischen Athenehymnos, in: I. Tanaseanu-Döbler / L. Zitzmann (eds.), Athens in Late Antiquity, Tübingen.
• Zitzmann, L. (accepted), Triadische Strukturen im Homerischen Apollonhymnos, in: B. Bäbler / H.-G. Nesselrath (ed.), Delphi – Apollons Orakel in der Welt der Antike, Tübingen.

Medieval History
Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Hedwig Röckelein
Research Fellows: Silviu Ghegoiu, Karin Bohr, Carmen Cvetkovic
Religious Reception and Christian Transformation of Non-Religious Knowledge in the Carolingian Era

The project is focused on the Carolingian period and aims to reconstruct communication and transformation processes of non-religious knowledge in the fields of the Septem Artes and medicine that had been passed on in schools and by scholars since the Antiquity. In particular, the research will be focused on the re-interpretation of traditions of knowledge and education under Christian auspices on the one hand, and the use of  this knowledge for representative and pragmatic purposes by the Carolingian rulers on the other hand. The subjects in concern are both the corpus of non-religious texts communicated at schools and collected in monastic and court libraries as well as the architectural ensembles of schools and libraries which were located at the court in Aachen and in palaces and monasteries all over the Frankish realm.

Selected Publications

• Röckelein, H. (2019),Selbsterkenntnis als Weg zur Gotteserkenntnis – Gotteserkenntnis als Weg zur Selbsterkenntnis. Über Erziehungs- und Bildungsdiskurse religiöser Eliten des Hochmittelalters, in: P. Gemeinhardt (ed.), Was ist Bildung in der Vormoderne?, Tübingen.
• Röckelein, H. (2016), Heilige Texte im Mittelalter zwischen Exegese und religiöser Praxis oder: Wie lasen Frauen die Bibel?, in: Zwischen Exegese und religiöser Praxis. Heilige Texte von der Spätantike bis zum Klassischen Islam, ed. by Peter Gemeinhardt. Tübingen, 205-226.