History as a Visual Concept: Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae

History as a Visual Concept: Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae
Graphic and diagrammatic visualisations of information have become increasingly important in recent decades: they play a major role in how we perceive and conceptualise the world. It is rarely reflected upon, however, that the underlying models for these visualisations have a history of their own (Grafton/Rosenberg 2010). Studying this history more closely will aid our understanding of the function, presentation, and evolution of the visualisation of knowledge. This project will focus on the emergence of diagrammatic renderings of time and history in the form of linear synopses; a genre for which the term ‘historiogram’ has recently been introduced (Worm 2021). The first such linear synopsis was the Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi, conceived by Peter of Poitiers (Petrus Pictaviensis) in the late twelfth century. While the work originally provided a survey of the biblical past, it soon circulated in versions which expanded the timeline and continued it to the present age of their respective compiler. The Compendium was disseminated in hundreds of copies throughout the medieval Latin West and was thus momentous in the divulgation of visual formats – the timeline and the linear synopsis – which prevail even today. 

Despite the importance and impact of Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium, it has been neither critically edited nor studied in adequate detail. Scholars with disciplinary backgrounds in art history, Latin philology, medieval history, scholarly editing, and – as an overarching approach – the digital humanities, will jointly scrutinise this seminal work. 

The project’s main objectives are: 
    1. to provide a comprehensive survey of the Compendium historiae’s transmission; 
    2. to analyse the work’s historiogrammatic structure as well as its diagrammatic, textual, and pictorial content; 
    3. to produce a scholarly and critical edition of the Compendium in its diagrammatic structure as well as in its textual and pictorial components. The work’s complexity of content and transmission require a digital edition; 
    4. to establish a digital template for editing and analysing visually complex manuscript traditions. 

The results of our project will consist of a codicological database, a concise rendering of the diagrammatic, textual, and visual data, a critical edition of the text, and analytical findings. They will be stored and made accessible permanently within a digital portal.

Verantwortliche: Worm, Andrea, Prof. Dr. (Tübingen, Germany)
Bleier, Roman, Dr. (Graz, Austria)
Sahle, Patrick, Prof. Dr. (Wuppertal, Germany)
Mitarbeitende (Wuppertal): Dr. Agnese Macchiarelli, Andreas Mertgens, Elisa Cugliana (ehemalig)