Phillip Landgrebe (M.A.)

Research Assistant, Section: Medieval History (DFG-Project: Burchard's Descriptio Terrae Sanctae)

Landgrebe, Phillip
Telephone
+49 561 804-3121
Email
Location
Untere Königsstr. 86 (Durchgang zur Mosenthalstr)
34125 Kassel
Room
Untere Königsstraße 86, Raum 2030
  • 2014-2017: bachelor’s degree in history with minor in sociology at the University of Kassel
  • 2016-2017: tutor in the Department of Sociological Theory, University of Kassel
  • 2016-2020: student assistant and tutor in the Department of Medieval History, University of Kassel
  • 2017: internship at the Deutsches Historisches Institut Rom
  • 2017-2020: master’s degree in ‘Geschichte und Öffentlichkeit’ (Public History) at the University of Kassel
  • 2018-2019: semester abroad at the Università degli Studi di Firenze
  • 2020-2024: research associate in the Department of Medieval History, University of Kassel
  • since April 2023: research associate in the DFG-Project  "Burchard’s Descriptio Terrae Sanctae. Edition and Historical Reception", University of Kassel

Telephone consultation by individual arrangement via email.

Practices of reception. Burchard of Monte Sion's Descriptio terre sancte in the 14th to 15th centuries

The doctoral project examines the manuscript tradition of the Descriptio terre sancte by Burchard of Monte Sion. With over 100 manuscripts still extant today, mostly from the 14th and 15th centuries, the Descriptio is one of the most frequently received accounts of the Holy Land in the late Middle Ages. At the same time, the work is a milestone in the development of medieval travelogues, as Burchard not only incorporated the holy sites into his narration of the Other, but also compared his diverse textual sources with observations on site. According to recent research, the Descriptio, which is traditionally divided into a long and a short version, can also be subdivided into different families within these versions, which were also repeatedly mixed during the transmission process.       
The focus of the study is on individual copies of the tradition as evidence of their production and editing contexts. Between 1300 and 1500, the Descriptio did not undergo a transformation, but rather a variety of processes of change that adapted the content, layout and material of the text carriers as well as their usability to the needs of new recipients. Burchard's work thus bears witness to how various scribes and users made the popular text their own and constantly transformed it on both small and large scales. The doctoral project explores how the work was used, what the intentions were and why it underwent such enormous changes.