Codex Manesse

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Codex Manesse

The Codex Manesse, Manesse Codex, or Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift is an illuminated manuscript

Illuminated manuscript

An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the Writing is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and Miniature ....
in codex

Codex

A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with separate pages normally bound together and given a cover. It was a Roman invention that replaced the scroll, which was the first form of book in all Eurasian cultures....
form copied and illustrated between ca. 1304 when the main part was completed, and ca 1340 with the addenda; the codex was produced in Zürich

Zürich

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The Codex Manesse, Manesse Codex, or Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift is an illuminated manuscript

Illuminated manuscript

An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the Writing is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and Miniature ....
in codex

Codex

Zürich

Z?rich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Z?rich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne....
at the request of the Manesse family of Zürich. The possibility that the compiler was the Minnesänger Johannes Hadlaub provided the subject of a poetic novella, '"Hadlaub" (in the Züricher Novellen, 1878), by Gottfried Keller

Gottfried Keller

Gottfried Keller , a Switzerland writer of German literature, became arguably best-known for his novel Green Henry .Life and work ...
. It is the single most comprehensive source for the texts of love songs in Middle High German

Middle High German

Middle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German....
, representing 140 poets, several of whom were famous rulers. The term for these poets, Minnesänger
Minnesang

Minnesang was the tradition of lyric and song writing in Germany which flourished in the 12th century and continued into the 14th century. People who wrote and performed Minnesang are known as Minnesingers ....
, combines the words for "romantic love" and "singer", reflecting the content of the poetry, which adapted the Provençal

Occitan language

Occitan , known also as Lenga d'?c or Langue d'oc is a Romance languages spoken in Occitania, that is, Southern France, the Occitan Valleys of Italy, Monaco and in the Aran Valley of Spain....
troubadour

Troubadour

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages .The troubadour school or tradition began in the eleventh century in Occitania, but it subsequently spread into Italy, Spain, and even Greece....
tradition to German.

The manuscript is "the most beautifully illumined German manuscript in centuries;" its 137 miniatures

Miniature (illuminated manuscript)

The word miniature, derived from the Latin minium, red lead, is a picture in an ancient history or medieval illuminated manuscript; the simple decoration of the early codex having been miniated or delineated with that pigment....
are a series of "portraits" depicting each poet. A large number of the nobles are shown in full armour in their heraldic colors and devices (therefore with their faces hidden) taking part in tournament combats. Many designs draw their motifs from the names of the poets (Dietmar is shown riding a mule, since his name can be interpreted as meaning people's horse) or on imagery from their lyrics (Walther von der Vogelweide

Walther von der Vogelweide

Walther von der Vogelweide is the most celebrated of the Middle High German lyric poets....
is shown in a thoughtful pose which exactly matches the description of himself in one of his most famous songs). Since the manuscript was compiled up to 100 years after the deaths of some of the poets, neither the likenesses nor the heraldry can be regarded as authentic, though they have been widely reproduced.

The entries are ordered approximately by the social status of the poets, starting with the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI

Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry VI was King of Germany from 1190 to 1197, Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 to 1197 and King of Sicily from 1194 to 1197....
, Kings Conradin

Conradin

Conrad , called the Younger or the Boy, but usually known by the diminutive Conradin , was the Duke of Swabia , Kingdom of Jerusalem , and Kingdom of Sicily ....
and Wenceslaus II, down through dukes, counts and knights, to the commoners.

The codex had an obscure early history before it belonged to the Baron von Hohensax, when Melchior Goldast

Melchior Goldast

Melchior Goldast ab Haiminsfeld was a Swiss writer, an industrious though uncritical collector of documents relating to the Holy Roman Empire....
published excerpts of its didactic texts. After 1657 it was in the French royal library, from which it passed to the Bibliothèque Nationale

Bibliothèque nationale de France

The Biblioth?que nationale de France is the National library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France....
, where the manuscript was studied by Jacob Grimm

Jacob Grimm

Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm , German Confederation philologist, jurist and mythology, was born at Hanau, in Hesse-Kassel . He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's Law, the author of the monumental German Dictionary, his Deutsche Mythologie and more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm, as the editor of Grimm's Fairy Tales....
in 1815. In 1888, after long bargaining, it was sold to the Bibliotheca Palatina

Bibliotheca Palatina

The Bibliotheca Palatina of Heidelberg was the most important library of the German Renaissance, numbering approximately 5,000 printed books and 3,524 manuscripts....
of Heidelberg

Heidelberg

Heidelberg is a city in Baden-W?rttemberg, Germany. As of 2006, over 140,000 people live within the city's area. The town of Heidelberg is an administrative district of its own....
, following a public subscription headed by William I

William I, German Emperor

Wilhelm I, also known as Wilhelm the Great of the House of Hohenzollern was the monarch of Kingdom of Prussia and the first German Emperor ....
and Otto von Bismarck

Otto von Bismarck

Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Sch?nhausen, Duke of Lauenburg, Prince of Bismarck, , was a Kingdom of Prussia and Germany statesman and aristocrat of the 19th century....
.

The first critical editions of the Codex Manesse appeared in the early nineteenth century.

External links

- iconographic analysis. First part). In: LEÃO, Ângela, e BITTENCOURT, Vanda O. (orgs.). Anais do IV Encontro Internacional de Estudos Medievais - IV EIEM. Belo Horizonte: PUC Minas, 2003, p. 266-277.]

- iconographic analysis. Second part). In: Brathair 2 (2), 2002: p. 09-16 (ISSN 1519-9053).]

- iconographic analysis. Third part). In: Brathair 3 (1), 2003, p. 31-36 (ISSN 1519-9053).]