The Beta version of the website 'Religious Tales (RKE) digital' offers a selection of the first edited texts. The long-term aim is to publish text-critical editions of a total of 181 German-language religious tales from the 13th to 16th centuries. The selection is based on a representative corpus of 55 guiding manuscripts (Leithandschriften) as well as over 600 other parallel manuscripts and prints. Comprehension is aided by a detailed commentary which also provides access to manuscript variants documenting the texts' historical development. High-resolution digital copies and detailed transcriptions give an idea of historical writing and printing practices and their philological interpretation. Translations into English allow the works to be received beyond German-speaking countries.

The Beta version consists of the following edited works: No. 4a 'The three friends', No. 25 'Why God bows his head', No. 28 'Dispute of the four daughters of God', No. 42 'The pilgrims of Saint James', No. 61 'Franciscans', No. 89 'Saint Sophia', and No. 98 'Legend of St. Ellin the footless'. This selection features texts which are transmitted in a single manuscript (Nos 61, 89) and those which survive in multiple manuscripts (Nos 4a, 25, 28, 42, 98); it features verse texts (Nos 4a, 25, 28, 61) and prose texts (Nos 89, 98), as well as one work found in several different recensions (verse and prose) (No. 42).

Some website navigation menu items are visible in the Beta version, which cannot yet be used or can only be used to a limited extent. This applies in particular to the catalogues (literature, keywords, people, places, biblical passages, motifs). The sections 'Edition standards', 'Latest news', 'Extra-corpus manuscripts and prints', 'Usage notes' and the text-recognition model for the transcription software ‘Transkribus’ are not yet available in the Beta version.