Jordanes’Getica – or as the title of the work reads in a ninth century manuscript, the origins and the deeds of the Goths - written in the mid-6th century, is one of the most important sources for understanding the history of the Migration Period. While Jordanes himself utilized an impressive range of sources to compose his text—most notably a now-lost work by Cassiodorus, as well as Orosius’ Historiae—the Getica subsequently became a foundational resource for numerous historiographical texts in the centuries that followed.

The Project

• traces the influence and legacy of the Getica in subsequent historiographical traditions.
• examines the manuscript tradition of the text.
• investigates the interest in specific passages and motifs from the Getica. (Getica as a repository of knowledge) 
• documents the techniques of appropriation, modification, and integration of Getica text segments with other sources.
• provides a synthesis of the constraints and liberties with which the authors utilized their historiographical sources, particularly the Getica.
• analyzes the specific impact of the Getica on the social vision of diverse communities constructed in the texts that drew upon it.
• explores the role of the Getica in constructions and perceptions of identity in the early and high Middle Ages.

 The project seeks to contribute to the history of historiography and historical thought within the framework of the Histories in Transition initiative.