Project Description

 

The task and goal of the long-term project, which has been supervised by the Mainz Academy since 1975, is the scientific processing of the medieval stained-glass windows preserved in the old federal states within the framework of the research enterprise, which was founded in 1952 and links twelve European countries, the USA and Canada. A correspondingly structured research center in Potsdam, supervised by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, has been responsible for the new federal states since unification.

The art monuments, which are increasingly endangered by environmental damage, are documented photographically and graphically and edited according to the international guidelines of the CVMA. Beyond the material recording of the inventory preserved in situ or in museum possession, questions concerning technical prerequisites, historical contexts, stylistic developments, the fundamentals of pictorial programs, the role of the patrons and the working methods of the workshops are being clarified. Thus, the editions of the Corpus Vitrearum take on the significance of source works that provide the entire field of medieval studies with new facts and questions.

Moreover, the acute problems of preserving and safeguarding the monuments have led to a narrowing of scientific research and care for monuments wherever Corpus volumes are in progress.

Of the planned 40 partial volumes of the German CVMA, 26 have been published so far, two are about to go to press, and six more are in progress. Of these, the Freiburg office has published the following volumes since 1979: Baden/Palatinate (1979), Swabia II (1986), Regensburg, Cathedral, in two parts (1987), Lüneburg/ Heideklöster (1992), Ulm (1994), Frankfurt/Rhine-Main area (1999), Middle Franconia/Nuremberg extra muros, in two parts (2002), Marburg/North Hesse (2008), Freiburg im Breisgau, in two parts (2010), Oppenheim/Rhine and South Hesse (2011), Nuremberg: Sebalder Stadtseite (2013), Regensburg und Oberpfalz (2015), and Niedersachsen (2017); the third volume on stained glass in Nuremberg (Lorenzer Stadtseite, in two parts) will appear in fall 2019. A study volume on Nuremberg stained glass of the Dürer period was also published in 1991, a second one with sources and studies on the history of restoration in 1996, and a third one on High Gothic ornamental glazing in the regions along the Rhine in 2018. Two volumes of the planned three-volume overview work Deutsche Glasmalerei des Mittelalters have been published (1992, 1995). In December 2005, "Glasmalerei im Kontext. Bildprogramme und Raumfunktionen. Akten des XXII. Internationalen Kolloquium des CVMA, Nürnberg, 29. August - 1. September 2004" was published. In the meantime, eight volumes have been published in the series "Meisterwerke der Glasmalerei": 1. St. Peter in Cologne (2006), 2. St. Sebald in Nuremberg (2007). 3. the Altenberg Cathedral (2008), 4. the Elisabethkirche in Marburg (2009), 5. the Katharinenkirche in Oppenheim (2012), 6. St. Lorenz in Nuremberg (2016), 7. the Eichstätt Cathedral (2017), and 8. the Ulm Cathedral (2019).