Regesta Imperii (Sources for Imperial History)

The “Regesta Imperii” (RI) (Sources for Imperial History), founded already in 1831 by the Frankfurt city librarian and museum director Johann Friedrich Böhmer (1795–1863), lists in chronological order all documented or otherwise attested activities of the Roman‑German kings and emperors and of several popes from the Carolingian period to the beginning of the modern era (circa 751–1519) in the form of German‑language “regesta” (abstracts). Continued by numerous historians and enriched with source and research critical information, the RI has become an internationally respected source work for German and European history of the Middle Ages. 

In 1906 the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna assumed patronage; on its initiative the Deutsche Kommission für die Bearbeitung der Regesta Imperii (German Commission for the Editing of the Regesta Imperii) was established in 1967. Initially funded by the German Research Foundation, this registered association, which is recognised as a non-profit organisation, has overseen the fundamental work since 1980 as a project of the Mainz Academy, cooperating closely with partner institutions of the Austrian and the Berlin‑Brandenburg Academies and other bodies involved in fundamental historical research. 

The RI ranges from Volume I (Carolingians) to Volume XIV (Maximilian I, 1486/93–1519). The core structure includes the document registers of Louis of Bavaria (1314–1347), Sigismund (1410/11–1437) and Frederick III (1440–1493), which form special cases due to their archive-related publication. In addition to the actual RI, monographic volumes of the renowned "Forschungen zur Kaiser- und Papstgeschichte des Mittelalters ..." (Research on Imperial and Papal History of the Middle Ages...) are edited in Mainz and Vienna.

Because this enormous treasure trove of historical information should be easily accessible to anyone interested worldwide at any time, it has been gradually retro-digitised since 2001 in cooperation with the DFG and the Bavarian State Library. It is available as a fully searchable full-text database freely available on the internet, with the possibility of direct user feedback. 

With this fundamental democratisation of our research output, retro-digitisation has become ongoing digitisation. All sub-projects are committed to the principle of open access. All of their research results are entered into the online registers for free use by ‘everyone’ almost simultaneously with the new publications that continue to be printed. In addition to these, the Regest Commission offers one of the world's most powerful literature databases on its website, covering the entire thematic and subject spectrum of the Middle Ages with numerous title references and search options.