This database provides access to bibliographical information on a total of several hundred epic verse poems published in the German cultural area during the 'long' 17th century (1570–1740). It includes versified narrative Texts both from the German-speaking as well as the Neo-Latin tradition, heroic and biblical epics as well as didactic and translated literature dating from the end of the Late Middle Ages to the Early Enlightenment. Combined with a literary-historical repertory to be published in 2022, offering synoptic articles on eighty selected texts, the database serves as an essential contribution to the philological indexing of the carmen heroicum, a genre that was considered the most important in Early Modern poetics, yet whose historical relevance has not been considered extensively in research and literary historiography so far.

The structure, appearance and user interface of the database enable comprehensive as well as targeted searches of early modern epic poetry by title, author, year of publication, place of printing, printers and source-languages. Furthermore, the options of limiting the publication period as well as carrying out searches by keyword offer additional opportunities for a broader, thematically oriented access to the genre spectrum. Finally, if available, links to freely accessible digital copies of the historical prints are also provided.

Funded by the German Research Association (DFG), the database and repertory are the result of the research project “Epische Versdichtungen des ‚langen‘ 17. Jahrhunderts (1570–1740) im deutschen Kulturraum. Literaturhistorisches Repertorium und bibliographische Datenbank [Epic Verse Poems of the ‘Long’ 17th Century (1570–1740) in the German Cultural Area. Literary-historical repertory and bibliographic database]”, which is being carried out at the Department of German Studies at Heidelberg University from 2019 to 2022. Designed from the beginning as a continuous work in progress, the database is meant to receive further expansion and improvement through input from both interested users as well as members of the professional community of Literary Studies. For this reason, we kindly ask you to send any additions, notes and suggestions for further expansion to Uwe Maximilian Korn.

Due to identical names, some authors may be linked incorrectly with Wikipedia. Unfortunately this is currently beyond our control.