This volume contains the critical edition of the complete inscriptional tradition of the city of Eisenach and Wartburg, as preserved in its known wording. The edition was compiled as part of the inter-academic research project "German Inscriptions of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period" and is published as Volume 125 of the project's own series, "Die Deutschen Inschriften". The tradition presented here begins around 1270, while the end of the period covered-as specified as a guideline for the entire project-is set at 1650. From this period of nearly 400 years, 205 objects or, in some cases, groups of objects bearing inscriptions were identified and are presented in chronological order in a catalog. The study took into account both inscriptions still preserved in their original form or as fragments, as well as the tradition of copies-that is, inscriptions that were recorded through transcriptions or photographs, but whose originals are now lost. This tradition of copies sometimes dates back as far as the 15th century. A major focus is on funerary inscriptions, but the collection also features house and building inscriptions, inscriptions on bells and cannons, inscriptions on paintings and other works of art, as well as on various everyday objects. In terms of content, the focus is primarily on the significance of the city of Eisenach and Wartburg Castle as the princely residence of the Ernestine Electorate and later Duchy. After the residence's status had initially declined beginning in the 14th century, the city and castle once again became the center of an independent Duchy of Eisenach in the late 16th century, which left clear traces in the epigraphic record. Furthermore, the collection is characterized by evidence of bourgeois society and its need for representation, as well as of the clergy from the pre-Reformation and post-Reformation periods. Although the record is very patchy for some inscription sites that were undoubtedly significant in their day, the edition nonetheless presents a broad panorama of the urban and sovereign structures of the late Middle Ages and the early modern period.
The edition of the inscriptions of the city of Eisenach and Wartburg Castle is the first volume to be compiled at the Thuringian branch of the research project. This branch, which is affiliated with the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, was founded in Jena in 2020. Nearly three decades after the publication of the inscriptions of the city and district of Jena (1993/95), the inscriptions of the Thuringian region are thus once again being brought to the forefront of research.