The beginnings before the beginnings. Cross-cultural traces of vernacular writing in the Early Middle Ages [in German]

This lecture examines the earliest traces of the German language on parchment. The traces of this tradition lead to a scholarly, multilingual milieu that spread across the continent in the context of missionary work. The presentation thus reveals a network of people, objects, and institutions that can be traced and understood more effectively—independent of national-philological categorizations—than has been the case to date. As such, the lecture serves as a plea for “cross-cultural philology,” aimed at describing a writing practice that transcended individual languages in a Europe prior to its fragmentation into nations.