epidat ─ Research Platform for Jewish Epigraphy

Epidat - The Database of Jewish epigraphy - provides the inventory, documentation, editions and presentation of epigraphical collections. Currently online are available 256 digital editions with 46800 epitaphs (83548 image files).

Since March 2019 epidat is jointly developed within the framework of a scientific cooperation between the Salomon-Ludwig-Steinheim-Institute, Essen and the Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz.

There are currently two ways to view headstones, inscriptions, personal data and the extensive image material edited in epidat. The first is via the present access, which has not changed significantly since 2006. At the same time, a epidat BETA version is being developed, which offers new functionalities, bilingual menu texts and is optimised for mobile devices.

Access options

There are several options for the screening of the files:

location-based - places, regions

• local - single file (in alphabetical order)
• regional - several files (6 countries [256 files])
  • Deutschland [237]
  • Lettland [5]
  • Niederlande [7]
  • Polen [1]
  • Spanien [1]
  • Tschechische Republik [5]
• nationwide - all files

time-based | chronological

• 1050-1519 Middle Ages
• 1520-1789 early Modern Age
• 1789-1945 Modern Age
• 1945-1952 post war
• #onthisday
• #yahrzeit
• also you can define and extract from all files your own period of study based on the dated inscriptions

index-based

• indices show all files organised by subject

full-text-search

• full-text-search in edition and translation

imagebased

• indices of images in chronological order
• In the medium term, the large number of digitized images will be transferred into the public TextGrid repository in the best resolution possible. Some image files (BETA) have already been ingested into and issued out of the repository in epidat by using the digital Image Library digiLib as a tool to help users view and edit (see TGRep as a media server) the data.

map-based

note: We are happy to receive any indications of missing or poorly listed content

• All corpora can be selected via a scalable map
• In several files it is possible to trace the position of the headstones via a static sitemap
• In several files it is possible to navigate from headstone to headstone via an interactive sitemap, e.g. Willich-Anrath
• Files are accessible via an index of stone masons and artists involved, showing a List of Works and their Places of Activity
• Three files ─ Bonn-Schwarzrheindorf, Hamburg-Altona and Dormagen ─ are accessible in the prototype of the Topographie-Visualizer (Hyperimage)