Funeral Sermons of the Early Modern Period

The Research Centre for Personal Writings (Forschungsstelle für Personalschriften) at the Philipps University in Marburg has been identifying and cataloguing funeral sermons since 1976 and is unique in Europe. These biographical sources, written between 1530 and 1750, are of great importance for research into the Early Modern period. 

The research results of the centre's work are published in two series: the first series “Leichenpredigten als Quelle historischer Wissenschaften” (Funeral Sermons as a Source of Historical Science) contains five volumes of lectures given at the “Marburger Personalschriften-Symposien” (Marburg Personal Writings Symposia) held in 1974, 1977, 1983, 2002 and 2012.

The research centre's second series, “Marburger Personalschriften-Forschungen” (Marburg Personal Writings Research), is intended for the publication of lists of abbreviations, bibliographies, monographs and, last but not least, catalogues of funeral sermon collections.

In addition, several databases are available online:

• the complete “Gesamtkatalog deutschsprachiger Leichenpredigten“ (GESA) (Catalogue of German-Language Funeral Sermons)
• the title page catalogue of funeral sermons and other mourning writings in the University Library of Wrocław/Breslau
• the bibliography of funeral sermon literature
• he results of the survey of funeral sermon collections in the new federal states (the former East‑German states)
• the Thesaurus Locorum (THELO)
• the Thesaurus Professionum (THEPRO)
• the catalogue of selected German-language old holdings of the University Library of Breslau (SIBRES) that have been microfilmed for preservation