Johann Gottfried Herder: Predigten.

Dominik Fugger and Jenny Lagaude (eds.)
with the collaboration of Christian Scherer
Johann Gottfried Herder: Predigten.
(Volume 1: Riga 1765–1769)
Berlin – Boston: De Gruyter 2023
ISBN-10: 3110764024
ISBN-13: 978-3110764024
1464 pages (in two volumes)
249 EUR

The Max-Weber-Kolleg of the University of Erfurt has produced the first stage of an edition of the pulpit speeches of the Weimar classicist Johann Gottfried Herder. It will be published by De Gruyter on 24 October 2023.

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) is undisputedly one of the greats of European intellectual history. He earned his living as a preacher; his first job after studying in Königsberg in East Prussia was in Riga. In Livonia he began a career in the pulpit that took him through several stations to Weimar.

This is the first complete edition of Herder's legacy of sermons for the earliest period of his work. It covers the period up to May 1769, edits all surviving sermons from the Riga period, traces lost texts and also takes into account the drafts from his school and study years. Introductory essays and a critical apparatus make the corpus accessible to non-specialists.

Of the sermons found here, two-thirds were previously unpublished and stored only in handwritten form in the archives. This is almost unique for a figure of Herder's stature and underlines the importance of the edition",

explains Dr Dominik Fugger, head of the Johann Gottfried Herder Research Unit at the University of Erfurt. "I would especially like to thank Dr Jenny Lagaude, who is in charge of the project, and Christian Scherer, who have thus done Herder research a great service."