Literary topography of South West Germany in the later Middle Ages
Palaeography and codicology of the period 1100–1550
Nigel Fenton PalmerFBA (28 October 1946 – 8 May 2022) was a British
Germanist and Professor Emeritus at the
University of Oxford.
Career
Nigel F. Palmer went to Hyde Grammar School and then read Modern Languages at
Worcester College, Oxford where he graduated in 1969 with a first class degree after spending his year abroad in Vienna.[1] In 1970 he took up a position as lecturer in German at
Durham University. His DPhil thesis (1975) was on the German and Dutch versions of the
Visio Tnugdali. He was made a fellow of
Oriel College, Oxford in 1976 and Professor of Medieval German Literature and Language from 1992 to 2012 at
St Edmund Hall, Oxford as successor to
Peter Ganz.[2][3]
He worked on a wide range of topics in mediaeval German language and literature, among them the ‘Literary topography of South West Germany in the later Middle Ages’, an attempt to establish a literary history of this region on the basis of the manuscript sources and library history (Latin and German). Other areas of special interest were
blockbooks and their place in early printing history, the interface between Latin literature and German literature in the Middle Ages, and palaeography and codicology of the period 1100–1550. He was a member of the
British Academy since 1997. His work as editor of Oxford German Studies was featured in the celebratory volume 50/4.[4] In 2022, he was awarded the inaugural Meister-Eckhart-Forschungspreis.
Selected publications
Palmer, Nigel F. (1982). "Visio Tnugdali": the German and Dutch translations and their circulation in the later Middle Ages. Münchener Texte und Untersuchungen zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters. Vol. 76. München, Zürich: Artemis-Verlag.
ISBN3760833764(Diss., Oxford University, 1975){{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (
link)
——— (1992). "Das Buch als Bedeutungsträger bei Mechthild von Magdeburg". In Speckenbach, K; Harms, W. (eds.). Bildhafte Rede in Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit. Tübingen: Niemeyer. pp. 217–235.
ISBN9783484106697.
——— (1993). German Literary Culture in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. An Inaugural Lecture delivered before the University of Oxford on 4 March 1993. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
ISBN9780199522606.
——— (1998). Zisterzienser und ihre Bücher. Die mittelalterliche Bibliotheksgeschichte von Kloster Eberbach im Rheingau. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner.
ISBN3795411890.
——— (2007). Bibelübersetzung und Heilsgeschichte: Studien zur Freiburger Perikopenhandschrift von 1462 und zu den deutschsprachigen Lektionaren des 15. Jahrhunderts. Mit einem Anhang: Deutschsprachige Handschriften, Inkunabeln und Frühdrucke aus Freiburger Bibliotheksbesitz bis ca. 1600. Wolfgang Stammler Gastprofessur für Germanische Philologie. Vol. 9. Berlin: de Gruyter.
ISBN9783110918151(Curriculum Vitae, p. 225, and List of Publications 1973-2007){{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (
link)
——— (2009). "'In kaffin in got'. Zur Rezeption des 'Paradisus anime intelligentis' in der Oxforder Handschrift MS. Laud Misc. 479". In Hasebrink, Burkhard; Palmer, Nigel F.; Schiewer, Hans-Jochen (eds.). Paradisus anime intelligentis'. Studien zu einer dominikanischen Predigtsammlung aus dem Umkreis Meister Eckharts. Tübingen: Niemeyer. pp. 69–131.
ISBN9783484108158.
——— (2009). "Die Münchner Perikopenhandschrift Cgm 157 und die Handschriftenproduktion des Straßburger Reuerinnenklosters im späten 15. Jahrhundert". In Fleith, Barbara; Wetzel, René (eds.). Kulturtopographie des deutschsprachigen Südwestens im späteren Mittelalter. Studien und Texte. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter.
ISBN9783484895003.
——— (2017). "Medieval German Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries". Oxford German Studies. In Honour of Nigel F. Palmer. 47 (2): 126–140.
doi:
10.1080/00787191.2017.1326525.
S2CID164469383.
———; Lähnemann, Henrike, eds. (2008). Bildwelten. German Literature and Visual Culture. Oxford German Studies. Vol. 38.
doi:
10.1179/007871908x371667.
S2CID218692590.
———; Gerhardt, Christoph, eds. (2002). Das Münchner Gedicht von den 15 Zeichen vor dem Jüngsten Gericht. Edition und Kommentar. Texte des späten Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit. Berlin: Erich Schmidt.
ISBN9783503061310. The catalogue of medieval and early modern textual witnesses of German and Latin the '15 Zeichen des Jüngsten Gerichts' (
15 Signs Before Doomsday) is available via
https://handschriftencensus.de/forschungsliteratur/pdf/4224
Hamburger, Jeffrey F.; Palmer, Nigel F., eds. (2015). The Prayer Book of Ursula Begerin: Reproductions and critical edition. Zürich: Urs Graf.
ISBN9783859512801.