In the week before Christmas 2018, I had the chance of consult two key manuscripts from the Medingen corpus in the Cathedral Library of Hildesheim which are going to be digitised as part of the #PolonskyGerman project. The Director of the library, PD Dr Monika Suchan, kindly allowed me to experiment with capturing the materiality of these in a series of short video clips.
The scribes are two sisters:
HI1: Prayer-book for Easter, Dombibliothek Hildesheim Ms J 29 (Winheid von Winsen)
HI2: Psalterium feriatum, Dombibliothek Hildesheim Ms J 27 (Elisabeth von Winsen)
The manuscripts came to Hildesheim when the Abbess Margaret of Stöteroggen brought them there in 1542 to escape the attempts of Duke Ernst of Brunswick-Lüneburg to introduce the Protestant Reformation to the convent. The manuscripts remained in the Catholic diocese of Hildesheim even though they changed institution a number of times; the last station before the Cathedral Library was the library of the Josephinum, a Catholic grammar school in Hildesheim, where they weMre catalogued by the librarian. This history is reflected in the J shelfmark.
The manuscripts are scheduled to be digitised as part of the #PolonskyGerman collaboration between the Bodleian Library Oxford and the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel. The video clips were recorded on 21 December 2018. Filmed by Jasmin Leckelt. Director of the Library: PD Dr. Monika Suchan. Manuscript Assistance: Philipp Heil. http://www.dombibliothek-hildesheim.de/Follow @dombib_hi