Project:
Nicholas of Cusa: Sermons in German Translation

Lead:
Viki Ranff

Funding:
The Satoshi Oide Foundation and the Günter Klotz and Helena Klotz-Makowiecki Foundation

The first project undertaken by the Institute – and the occasion of its founding – was the scholarly curation of Nicholas von Cusa’s Latin sermons (over 300 in all) for the Heidelberg Academy edition of his works (volumes XVI–XIX). For the past several years now, the center has been working on a four-volume edition of Nicholas’s sermons in German translation. The second and third volumes have already been published, while the fourth will go to press in 2018. The first will appear last, as many of the early sermons contained in this volume are already available to German readers in the translation by Joseph Sikora and Elisabeth Bohnenstädt from 1952.

The sermons span a period of more than thirty years, from Christmas of 1430 to June 5, 1463. Though unevenly distributed across the phases of Nicholas’s life, they nevertheless give insight into the evolution of his themes and theological thinking more broadly. The sermons range from early texts shaped by the interpretation of Church authorities to pastorally motivated, image-rich orations and, in later years, fully developed theological treatises. Nicholas himself collected many of his sermons for posterity, convinced as he was that they would contribute to the central concern of theology: understanding the mystery of Christ and its formative influence on the Christian conception of man.

One goal of the translation is to make the sermons accessible to readers with little or no knowledge of Latin. To aid general understanding – and in keeping with the Cusanian spirit – a critical apparatus points out biblical quotations and allusions, references to earlier theologians, internal references, and important secondary literature.

Project:
Digitizing the manuscripts of the Cusanus Library

Leads:
Petra Schulte, Marco Brösch, Alexandra Geissler

In cooperation with the Cusanusstift and the Trier Center for Digital Humanities, the Cusanus Institute plans to recatalog and digitalize the private library of Nicholas of Cusa and bring the questions and methods of intellectual history to bear on its holdings. The library, which is housed in the historic Cusanusstift building in Bernkastel-Kues, is one of the most important collections in the late Middle Ages, containing 316 manuscripts and over 100 incunabula from every known branch of knowledge in the medieval era. 81 manuscripts from the original collection are held by other institutions, including the British Library (London) and the Bibliothèque royale de Belgique (Brussels).

Project:
Nicholas of Cusa’s Reception of the Church Fathers

Lead:
Viki Ranff

As a follow-up to a current postdoctoral project on the topic of the likeness of God in man in the works of Pseudo-Dionysius, Johannes Scotus Eriugena, and Nicholas of Cusa, the Institute plans to undertake a broader study of Nicholas’s engagement with the Church Fathers, beginning with his wide-ranging reception of Pseudo-Dionysius. A thinker of the late fifth to early sixth century who combined elements of Neoplatonism with Christian theology, Pseudo-Dionysius was held in high esteem by later theologians thanks in part to his pseudonymous identification as Dionysius the Areopagite, a judge who had become a disciple of Paul after the Areopagus sermon. Pseudo-Dionysius had an extraordinary influence on Nicholas’s writings, and its traces can even be found in his private library, as the Institute’s study will show.