
This blog will display news about on-going research, discoveries and events related to the SFB Project F9200 ManMAX: “Managing Maximilian (1493-1519). Persona, Politics, and Personnel through the Lens of Digital Prosopography” undertaken at the Institute of Medieval Studies (IMAFO) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna, dir. PD Dr. Andreas Zajic).
Premodern rule deeply relied on personal relationships; rulership depended on interactions of formal rulers and those who implemented or influenced their intentions. The shaping of politics and dynastic ambitions, the exercise of rule, the consolidation of administration, the prince’s sense of his or her self and the staging of power cannot be disentangled. All those in charge of these tasks were key actors in the making of rulership.
By using a prosopographical approach, ManMAX intends to show that power, politics, and their staging, can only be interpreted through a profound investigation of personal relations and interactions. Inspired by a cultural history of politics and New Institutionalism, it aims at a new assessment of Maximilian’s reign by backing a qualitative interpretation with a large-scale dataset. Guided by an interdisciplinary perspective, ManMAX will raise our knowledge of this emperor’s rule to a new scale and increase our broader understanding of rule as a process of negotiation between a multitude of agents.
ManMAX connects eight integrative subprojects grounded in history, gender studies, art history, musicology, German and classical philology, and digital humanities. In order to achieve a comprehensive view of Maximilian’s rule and governance, his court and its cultural production, all of them will systematically contribute to a novel digital tool that offers structured data on the thousands of persons recorded in hitherto unedited sources. The creation of this prosopographical dataset is a primary goal of ManMAX. Once available online, it will reshape future international research on Maximilian and his world.
ManMAX will track the networks around Maximilian more broadly and deeply than ever before. It will systematically investigate not only counsellors, elite functionaries with close personal ties to the ruler, relatives and political intimates, but likewise all agents of both genders serving the emperor who appear in the sources generated by the chanceries, chambers, and the central government.
More information on ManMax is available here !
The ManMAX subprojects are
Armouring Maximilian – Chivalry, tournament, and the culture of the gift at the court of Maximilian
PI Stefan Krause | Kunsthistorisches Museum, Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer.
(Con)Textualising Maximilian – Interaction and intertextuality, visible and invisible networks in Latin literature from the circle of Maximilian
PI Elisabeth Klecker | Universität Wien, Institut für Klassische Philologie, Mittel- Neulatein.
Creating Maximilian – Cultural networks for the production of text and images around Maximilian
PI Stephan Müller | Universität Wien, Institut für Germanistik.
Depicting Maximilian – Collaborative structures behind the imagery of Maximilian
PI Christof Metzger | Albertina
Digitising Maximilian – Digital humanities and the prosopographical approach towards the reign of Maximilian
PI Georg Vogeler | Universität Graz, Zentrum für Informatiosmodellierung – Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities.
Gendering Maximilian – Gendered Dimensions of Court Organisation and Representation
PI Christina Lutter | Universität Wien, Institut für Geschichte/Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung.
Singing Maximilian – Musical and cultural networks at court and beyond
PI Birgit Lodes | Universität Wien, Institut für Musikwissenschaft.
Writing Maximilian – Prince, Pen and Penmanship – Uses of Writing at Court and in the Chancery
PI Andreas Zajic | Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Institut für Mittelalterforschung.
The ManMax project is funded by the FWF Der Wissenschaftsfonds

ManMax is also supported by





