Formen der Zeit. Zur Erfindung der Zeitmatrix im Mittelalter

How can something as elusive as time be made visible? The project Formen der Zeit investigates how time was ordered and displayed on the manuscript page in the ninth and tenth centuries. At its center are diagrams: premodern matrices of time that do not represent sequences of historical events, but instead conceptualize time as a dimension in its own right. These diagrams appear in manuscripts in which cosmological and musical knowledge are closely intertwined. The project therefore asks how, within the framework of the quadrivium, the interaction between cosmological and musical models contributed to the emergence of new modes of visual representation—some of which continue to shape the ways in which temporal processes are notated and displayed today.

Methodologically, Formen der Zeit also addresses a broader question: what can digital technologies contribute to the visualization of premodern imaginaries of temporality? The project re-examines medieval diagrams of the quadrivium through digital methods. In collaboration with Zoltán Bereczki at the University of Debrecen, historical structures of time are systematically reconstructed through parametric modeling and translated into dynamic digital models. This approach makes the processual and procedural dimensions of the diagrams visually intelligible and experimentally accessible.

By combining foundational research in medieval studies with innovative tools for digital visualization and analysis, Formen der Zeit offers a new perspective on the historical entanglement between contemporary systems of notation and representation and premodern cultures of knowledge. Ultimately, the project seeks to describe how a visual metaphysics of time took shape in the Middle Ages.

The project is funded by the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung as part of its Elite Program for Postdocs (https://www.bwstiftung.de/de/programme/eliteprogramm-fuer-postdocs). It runs for three years, from January 2026 to December 2028.

Zoltán Bereczki studied at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (MSc in Architecture and Engineering, postgraduate specialisation in Preservation of the Built Heritage) and at the University of Pécs (PhD and habilitation in Architectural Sciences). His research focus is the Gothic period. His PhD thesis examined Gothic design and construction, and his habilitation project explored the procedural nature of Gothic architecture and organic urban forms. In this project, he translates medieval diagrams into operational systems through procedural algorithms. In his free time, he is a member of a punk rock band and goes rock climbing if possible.
 

Viviane Arnold studied Politics and German Studies (B.A.) in Tübingen und is currently doing her M.A. in German Literature. She is focusing on medieval literature with particular interest in vernacular manuscripts and early printings. Her M.A. thesis will focus on the depiction of genitals in medieval fiction. An important aspect of medieval studies is to admire books and their content as objects of and within time. Her work in the FdZ-project adds a further dimension to this perspective: early medieval concepts and depiction of time in multidimensional space. The manuscript thus becomes a record of the representation of time over time and thereby a reflection of a phenomenon that remains unexplained to this day.  In her free time, she enjoys swimming and horse riding.
 

Sarah Güzel-Leypold is a bachelor graduate of the University of Tübingen, where she discovered a particular interest in the diagrammatic art of the early Middle Ages. In her research, she adopts an interdisciplinary approach on Art History, continuously seeking to integrate computer scientific perspectives. This further manifested in her BA thesis which used digital visualization methods to deepen the understanding of the Plinian diagrams (also researched in this project). In her free time, she can usually be found hiking or exploring the cuisines of the world.
 

Joshua Landzaad studied an M.Sc. in Medieval Literatures and Cultures in the University of Edinburgh and is currently undertaking an M.A. in Medieval Archaeology in the University of Tübingen. He is particularly interested in cultural interpretation of Medieval materials, both physical and written, in their time and in the present. His M.Sc. dissertation focused on the roles played by Icelandic sagas and French chansons de geste in their respective cultures in time and place and how they both interpreted their own past as a means to process the events unfolding in their present. His M.A. thesis will cover the development of defensive strategies in architecture in southern Ireland in response to the development of firearm technologies from the 13th to the 16th centuries. In his free time, he keeps active on the rugby pitch and enjoys watching the same on the weekends. He can often be found on the couch with a book in hand and a pen in the other, underlining passages that strike him as interesting or that could be used in a future setting of Dungeons and Dragons, which he sometimes runs campaigns for.