The Austrian Baroque Corpus (ABaC:us) is a digital collection of printed German language texts dating from the Baroque era, in particular the years from 1650 to 1750. The project group which established ABaC:us focused on the creation of a thematic research collection based on the prevalence of sacred literature during the Baroque Era. Books of religious instruction and works concerning death and dying were a focal point of Baroque culture. The best-selling genre was even marked by a number of reprinted editions. Therefore, the ABaC:us collection holds several texts specific to this genre including sermons, devotional books, and works related to the dance-of-death theme.
In the project Text-Technological Methods for the Analysis of Austrian Baroque Literature (2012–2014 supported by funds of the Österreichische Nationalbank, Anniversary Fund, project number 14738), the working group was mainly concerned with writings ascribed to the renowned Viennese theologian and Discalced Augustinian monk Abraham a Sancta Clara (1644-1709), an admired preacher and a widely-read author. The work group’s primary goal has been to provide improved access to this collection of texts through an innovative digital reader which combines a query control with a facsimile viewer. Furthermore, the ABaC:us work group insisted on high-quality linguistic and semantic annotation throughout the project.