Was there any notion of tolerance in medieval science and literature? And if so, waht were the prinicples of this tolerance? Which literary images could express tolerance? And what kind of tolerance is this? First the author defines the term „tolerance“ through the ages, then she examines the specific meanings of the medieval terns „patientia“ and „tolerantia“, the norms of tolerance and the „tolerance-room“, the extent to which deviations from the norms were allowed. After a brief overview of the conventional perception on non-Christians and foreigners in the 12th to 14th centuries, the author concentrates on Wolfram von Eschenbach’s „Willehalm“ as the main subject of this work. The analysis of 13 other Middle High German works of the 12th to 14th centuries, mostly epic poetry, as well as their French sources, helps to put Wolfram’s ideas into perspective. In addition this allows to investigate the influence of the period of origin, of genre and author-personality on the literary representation of non-Christians.

Das bewährte Philosophielexikon - auf den neuesten Stand gebracht