The ‘Electronic Hêliand Project’: theoretical and practical updates

In this paper I will address three main topics: firstly, I will provide an overview of the often disregarded differences amongst the witnesses of the Hêliand, an early ninth-century Old Saxon alliterative reworking of the Gospel with a missionizing intent; secondly, I will show how, as against a printed edition which offers us a static text, an electronic edition presents the text in a variety of forms, and permits users to choose between visualizing only one text scenario or several; finally, I will critically consider the process and progress of manuscript digitization within the ‘Electronic Hêliand Project’, which was started at the University of Venice in 2006.