The project "History as a visual concept: Peter of Poitiers' Compendium historiae" was generously funded
by the DFG (504265959) and FWF (I 6133, Grant-DOI:10.55776/I6133) under the Weave European funding scheme. The project is running from 2023 to 2026 and during
this time researchers at the University of Tübingen, University of Wuppertal, University of Graz, Ca' Foscari University of Venice,
and University of London are creating the first (digital) edition of Peter of Poitiers' Compendium historiae.
The international and interdisciplinary project team brings together researchers from the fields of art history,
mediaeval history, Latin philology, text editing, and digital humanities.
Among other technologies the project team will make use of the standard of the Text Encoding
Initiative (TEI/XML), the International Image Interoperability Framework
(IIIF) and Semantic Web technologies.
The aims of the project are
- a comprehensive overview of the tradition of the Compendium historiae,
- an analysis of the graphic metastructure as well as the texts, diagrams and images embedded in it (recording variants),
- a critical scholarly edition,
- an investigation of socio-cultural context.
The project will result in
- a codicological database,
- a navigable visualisation of the graphic metastructure,
- a critical edition of the text,
- publications and lectures regarding individual case studies of manuscript witnesses, socio-cultural context, and other aspects of the tradition.
Digital and freely accessible, our digital edition will break new methodological ground with graphic and textual elements displayed in a navigable graph. In making accessible one of the most visually innovative and influential works of the Middle Ages, our project will shed new light on the history of the visualisation of knowledge.
Read more about the
Kunsthistorisches Institut, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen und School of Advanced Study, University of London
- Prof. Dr. Andrea Worm (DFG PI)
- Dr. Laura Cleaver (School of Advanced Study, University of London, Mercator Fellow)
- Dr. Eleanor Goerss (postdoc researcher)
- Maria Streicher (praedoc researcher, 2/2023-9/2023, 10/2024-)
- Katharina Bauer (praedoc researcher, 9/2023-)
- Melina Behnke (student assistant, 2/2023-10/2023)
- Annabelle Berghof (student assistant, 1/2024-8/2024)
- Jonathan Gorenflo (student assistant, 6/2023-9/2023)
Fakultät für Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften, Bergische Universität Wuppertal
- Prof. Dr. Patrick Sahle (DFG PI)
- Dr. Elisa Cugliana (postdoc researcher, 2/2023-10/2023)
- Andreas Mertgens (praedoc researcher, 1/2024-)
- Lennart Rouxel (student assistant, 2/2023-)
- Lukas Schievelbusch (student assistant, 1/2024-)
- Johannes Ioannu (research intern, 2/2024-7/2024)
Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia
- Prof. Dr. Franz Fischer (Mercator Fellow)
- Dr. Agnese Macchiarelli (postdoc researcher, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Fakultät für Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften – Geschichte / Ca‘ Foscari University of Venice, Department of Humanities – Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities)
- Dr. Daniele Fusi (research software developer, 6/2023-12/2024)
- Dr. Chiara Cauzzi (visiting scholar, 11/2024-2/2025)
- Beatrice Tomada (research intern, 11/2023-10/2024)
- Matteo Cigardi (research intern, 12/2024-)
Department of Digital Humanities, University of Graz
- Dr. Roman Bleier (FWF PI)
- Sina Krottmaier (praedoc researcher, 4/2023-12/2025)
- Jakob Sonnberger (technician, 9/2023-)
- Chiara Citro (student assistant, 10/2025-)
- Teresa Potenza (05/06 2023, Erasmus+ Internship)
- Michele Potenza (05/06/07 2024, Erasmus+ Internship)
tres gradus fidelium in ecclesia fuerunt. The Seven-branched Candelabrum as an Allegory of the Spiritual Modes of Life in Peter of Poitiers' Compendium historiae." In The Menorah and the Seven-branched Candelabrum. Jewish and Christian Manifestations in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods, eds. A. Worm, M. Streicher. Berlin, 169–213.
Iste Lamech primus introducens bigamiam… Names and sources." 20. Symposium des Mediävistenverbands e. V., Salzburg, 24.2.2025.
Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi." Diagrams in Dialogue. Visual Configurations and their Contexts, Tübingen, 25.10.2024.
Compendium Historiae." International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 2.7.2024.
Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi." Digital Humanities 2023. Collaboration as Opportunity (DH2023), Graz, Austria. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.8107534; Book of Abstracts: DOI:10.5281/zenodo.7961822.
The digital scholarly edition uses a wide array of technologies and standards, most prominently the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), and the Resource Description Framework (RDF). These standards are natively used within the GAMS asset management system, which hosts the edition. Detailed documentation of the technologies used in the project is provided in the project’s GitHub Wiki.
For individual resources, a download button for the source code (TEI, RDF, etc.) is provided at the top right of the page.
We provide citation recommendations at the bottom of individual webpages. Please cite the entire edition as follows:
Peter of Poitiers' Compendium historiae: a research platform and edition, ed. by Andrea Worm, Roman Bleier, Patrick Sahle, and Franz Fischer, Graz: 2026. https://gams.uni-graz.at/chigc
If no other restrictions or licences are explicitly mentioned the licence CC-BY
applies for the source code and texts of this digital scholarly edition.
Unless otherwise specified, image rights remain with the institutions hosting and providing the manuscript images. Many images are included via IIIF,
and the rights remain with the hosting institutions.