Two new LMU projects in Academies Program at BAdW

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Arabic translations of the Hebrew Bible as witnesses to religious diversity

Led by Professor Ronny Vollandt from the Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, the Biblia Arabica project is the first comprehensive study of Arabic translations of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament – a central testimony to the shared cultural heritage of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities in the Near East.

These translations document centuries of religious and linguistic interconnection, but are now in danger of being forgotten. Using state-of-the-art methods of digital humanities, the team will identify and describe around 8,200 manuscripts and make them digitally available. They will also investigate historical contexts, translators, and usage traditions. The aim is to preserve this unique heritage, and make it visible and accessible worldwide – as a historical reflection of pluralistic culture and a contribution to interreligious dialogue.

Professor Nathan Gibson from Goethe University Frankfurt is a research associate in Biblia Arabica. The project is funded by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BAdW) and the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz.

Digitizing Rudolf Carnap – intellectual pioneer of modern philosophy

Led by Professor Hannes Leitgeb and Professor Stephan Hartmann from LMU and Dr. Eckhardt Arnold from BAdW, the Digital Rudolf Carnap project is making the complete works of a pioneer of modern philosophy digitally available.

In the project, the complete works of Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970) will be made available in an edited digital format for the first time. Carnap was a key figure in the Vienna Circle and a pioneer of analytic philosophy. He shaped 20th-century thinking with his “scientific humanism.” The project is collecting and digitizing his writings, diaries, and around 10,000 letters to create a critical edition of the complete works and an intellectual biography. In addition to the facsimile and annotated edition, the project team is creating an open-access platform which renders the German philosopher’s logical derivations accessible as digital mathematical objects. This will open up Carnap’s work to fresh investigations into the foundations of rational, science-based philosophy.