Codex Manesse
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The Codex Manesse, Manesse Codex, or Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift[1] is an illuminated manuscript in codex 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[2] 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. It is the single most comprehensive source for the texts of love songs in Middle High German, representing 140 poets, several of whom were famous rulers. The term for these poets, Minnesänger, combines the words for "romantic love" and "singer", reflecting the content of the poetry, which adapted the Provençal troubadour tradition to German.
The manuscript is "the most beautifully illumined German manuscript in centuries;"[3] its 137 miniatures 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 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, Kings Conradin 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 published excerpts of its didactic texts. After 1657 it was in the French royal library, from which it passed to the Bibliothèque Nationale, where the manuscript was studied by Jacob Grimm in 1815. In 1888, after long bargaining, it was sold to the Bibliotheca Palatina of Heidelberg, following a public subscription headed by William I and Otto von Bismarck.
The first critical editions of the Codex Manesse appeared in the early nineteenth century.
[edit] External links
- COSTA, Ricardo da e GONÇALVES, Alyne dos Santos. " Codex Manesse: quatro iluminuras do Grande Livro de Canções manuscritas de Heidelberg (século XIII) - análise iconográfica. Primeira parte" (Codex Manesse: four illuminations by The Great Book of Heidelberg [XIII century - 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.]
- COSTA, Ricardo da. "Codex Manesse: três iluminuras do Grande Livro de Canções manuscritas de Heidelberg - (século XIII) - análise iconográfica. Segunda parte (Codex Manesse: three illuminations by The Great Book of Heidelberg [XIII century - iconographic analysis. Second part). In: Brathair 2 (2), 2002: p. 09-16 (ISSN 1519-9053).]
- COSTA, Ricardo da. "Codex Manesse: três iluminuras do Grande Livro de Canções manuscritas de Heidelberg (século XIII) - análise iconográfica. Terceira parte (Codex Manesse: three illuminations by The Great Book of Heidelberg [XIII century - iconographic analysis. Third part). In: Brathair 3 (1), 2003, p. 31-36 (ISSN 1519-9053).]
[edit] References
- ^ Heidelberg, University of Heidelberg Library, Codex Palatinus Germanicus 848
- ^ Koschorreck and Werner 1981 discern no fewer than eleven scribes, some working simultaneously, in the production.
- ^ Ingeborg Glier, reviewing Koschorreck and Werner 1981 in Speculum 59.1 (January 1984), p 169. The only other contemporary illuminated song book is the Weingartener Liederhandschrift, once thought to have been a model for the Codex Manesse.
- Walter Koschorreck and Wilfried Werner, editors, Kommentar zum Faksimile des Codex Manesse: Die grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Kassel: Ganymed) 1981. Commentary to the facsimile edition, with essays by Wilfried Werner, Ewald Vetter, Walter Koscharreck, Hugo Kuhn, Max Wehrli and Ewald Jammers.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911
