The scholarship was granted to Theresa Sanzenbacher M.A. for her project „Die sächsische Annalistik des Hochmittelalters. Interdependenzen – editorische Desiderata – Quellenwert“ (High-medieval Saxon annalistic writing. Interdependencies – Editorial desiderata – Historical value). Here her short project outline:
Medieval historiography is recognised as an important historical source not only on account of the information that it independently reports, but also because its largely compilatory composition contains invaluable testimony to otherwise no longer transmitted texts. In this regard, high-medieval Saxon annals have a longstanding reputation as a particularly worthwhile but methodically demanding field of study. Previous research has already identified many variously intense interdependencies between annalistic works originating within this geographically and temporally well-defined context and has used them to reconstruct and edit lost texts such as the Paderborn Annals and the Annales Ilsineburgenses from their respective sources and derivatives. In particular, in his research on the Imperial chronicle of Annalista Saxo, the now no longer extant Chronica Saxonum, and the historiographical writing connected with Henry the Lion, Klaus Naß has importantly contributed to a better comprehension of the textual dependencies and historical value of such no longer independently transmitted works.
Despite this fund of knowledge, there has hitherto been no comprehensive analysis of the independently and indirectly transmitted works of high-medieval Saxon historiography. The research project aims to achieve this with a focus on the annalistic writings. On the basis of a full and thorough study of the primary and secondary transmission, it will be possible to systematically clarify the interdependencies between the texts and identify remaining editorial desiderata. This will additionally provide important insights into the respective historical value of the individual annals. Since high-medieval Saxon annalistic writings repeatedly drew on the chronicle of Frutolf of Michelsberg and their turn were used by Dietrich Engelhus († 1434) for his “Weltchronik”, the project is contiguous with other current edition projects in the MGH programme.