The research project addresses the phenomenon of textual materiality and the material conditions of literature. It examines the significance of materiality for the handling and use of texts in a context of constantly changing and shifting techniques of cultural production, circulation and literary reception. Two aspects are of particular importance: (1) the relationship between stability and mobility, which posits texts not only as archival media whose purpose is to store and record but also as dynamic material objects subject to change and transformation; and (2) the question of scale and quantity, or the way in which the various historical processes of organizing, distributing and providing material abundance shed light on the epistemological structures of each respective era. Seen against this backdrop, the project is particularly suited to identifying analogies, recurrences and echoes between early modern forms of textual materiality following the invention of the printing press and the more recent developments of the digital age. Examples include reference systems and hypertextual procedures (topoi, indices, links, tables of contents), as well as reading practices and techniques of writing and inscription. 

One of the first results of the project will be a special issue of the journal Komparatistik Online, to be published in 2024.