Gallia Pontificia online

Project

»Gallia Pontificia online« (GPO) is a digital edition of papal charters and regesta. It is part of the »Göttinger Papsturkundenwerk«, which was founded in 1896 by Paul Fridolin Kehr under the auspices of the Göttingen Society of Sciences. The aim of the latter is the scholarly indexing of all papal charters up to Innocenz III’s accession to papacy in 1198.

Within the project’s framework the »Gallia Pontificia« – which is concerned with the curial contacts of the French churches – has a special role, as it was delegated to the German Historical Institute Paris (GHIP) by the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen in 1981. In 1991, the GHIP concluded an agreement with the École nationale des chartes (Paris) to jointly edit the »Gallia Pontificia«. The Max Weber Foundation counts the »Gallia Pontificia« among its »lighthouse projects« (Leuchtturmprojekte), which are to be secured sustainably (MWS 2030. Die Strategie der Max Weber Stiftung, p. 5, chap. 2).

For France, the »Göttinger Papsturkundenwerk« comprises two series: the edition of the »Papsturkunden in Frankreich« (»papal charters in France«) and the collection of regesta, the »Gallia Pontificia«. To date, 16 volumes of the »Papsturkunden in Frankreich« have been published. They cover all of France except for parts of the diocese of Paris. As for the regesta four volumes on the archdiocese of Besançon and the ecclesiastical province of Vienne (with the exception of the suffragan bishopric of Geneva) have been published so far.

In order to increase the visibility of the project and to make the work results accessible faster to research, the GHIP decided to adapt the project to new standards of digital working. Publication in book-form will not be abandoned, but in the future the editions and regesta may also appear on the edition portal qed.perspectivia.net. Free and sustainable access to this important source corpus is thus guaranteed.

The establishment of a digital platform for the papal charters was first put up for discussion at the conference »L’apport des technologies numériques à la diplomatique médiévale« held at the GHIP in 2011 (Francia 40 [2013], p. 265–273). To implement the project, the GHIP established a doctoral position, initially held by Robert Friedrich (2018–2020). He was succeeded by Sebastian Gensicke in 2021. Contact persons at perspectivia.net were Michael Kaiser, Julian Schulz, Katrin Neumann and Fabian Cremer. Georg Vogeler (Graz) has been an adviser to the project since its beginnings. Kathleen Neumann, André Herzog and Sebastian Hofmann from the Verbundzentrale des GBV (VZG) were entrusted with the technical implementation.

Paris, April 2023
Rolf Große