Wizlav (the boy), who was probably identical with Prince Wizlav III of Rügen († 1325), was not only a creator of original texts, but also a gifted melodist. Among the authors of Middle High German songs, he occupies a special position, since all the melodies not only to his songs but also to his minnesongs have been preserved in the Jena Song Manuscript (c. 1340/50); the minnesong melodies have otherwise been almost completely lost. The new edition takes the place of older attempts at editions. It offers not only the texts and melodies, but also translations into New High German as well as a detailed commentary on the stanzaic forms, the melodies, the text types and the sometimes difficult language of the author, plus a facsimile of the source.

Die St. Galler Handschrift 56 stellt in mehrfacher Hinsicht eine Besonderheit dar: Sie überliefert mit der harmonisierten Form der vier kanonischen Evangelien einen Text zum Leben Jesu, den es aus theologischer Sicht so gar nicht geben dürfte, und präsentiert diesen zugleich in einer aufwendig gestalteten lateinisch-althochdeutschen Bilingue. Die vorliegende Arbeit unternimmt eine Neubewertung der Konzeption dieser Handschrift, indem überlieferungsgeschichtliche, kodikologische und sprachwissenschaftliche Aspekte mit einer eingehenden Analyse zur Erzählweise der Harmonie verbunden werden.

Not before their successor, the “Beizbüchlein”, was published as the very first printed book on hunting in Europe, the so-called “Habichtslehren” (“goshawk-lore”) got to some publicity and made quite remarkable impact on the development of a widespread and highly relevant cultural technique of medieval society. The work at hand closes many gapes in research by editing the three known German manuscripts newly resp. for the first time, but also translating and extensively annotation them. Moreover the question asked since the 1960s on the origin of these texts in the German dialect´s landscape can be answered coherently. A comprehensive description of the guild-bound “falconer’s language” forms the third part of this volume.

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.

This volume brings together the research findings of a DFG network of Germanists and art historians. The focus is on processes of visualisation and vivification in the sister arts of painting and poetry. For Christian-influenced pre-modern art production, it was above all rhetoric and perception theory that offered mental patterns and techniques for an analogous interpretation of texts and images. Describing these procedures beyond the dichotomy of text and image is a declared aim of this volume, in order to open up new perspectives for deciphering linguistically and pictorially generated vividness and liveliness in the Middle Ages and early modern period.

Die hier publizierten Tagungsbeiträge bilanzieren und perspektivieren Aspekte der Forschung zum deutschen Spätmittelalter. Dabei kommen verschiedene Blickwinkel und methodische Ansätze zum Tragen, von der Literaturgeschichtsschreibung über die Gattungsperspektive bis hin zur weiterführenden, exemplarischen Analyse am Einzeltext. In der Summe ergeben die hier versammelten Beiträge in ihrer Kombination aus Global- und Gattungsperspektive sowie exemplarischer Einzeltextanalyse eine facettenreiche Sicht auf die deutsche Literatur des Spätmittelalters und die Methoden ihrer Erforschung.

Das Buch entwirft in elf Kapiteln ein Panorama der literarisch vermittelten Kriegsbilder im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. Gefragt wird nach den Mustern literarischer Kodierung und Stilisierung, nach dem spezifischen Realitätsbezug der evozierten Bilder, nach Gattungs- und Funktionsaspekten und nicht zuletzt nach Art und Ausmaß des Wandels der Kriegsbilder innerhalb des untersuchten Zeitraums und Textcorpus. So entsteht ein vielschichtiges, im außerliterarischen Umfeld vielfältig vernetztes Gesamtbild literarischer Darstellungsmöglichkeiten und Erinnerungsformen von Krieg in einer prägenden und folgenreichen Epoche europäischer Geschichte.

Reinmar von Zweter is the most important Sangspruch poet between Walther von der Vogelweide and Frauenlob. Within German poetry of the time, the transmission of his works is unique in two ways. A systematic collection of his Sangsprüche must have taken place during his lifetimes, and the fragments of his ‚Leich‘-poem, from the 13th century, are older than any other manuscript of the genre. In a detailed analysis of the manuscripts, changing attitudes towards this oeuvre can be perceived. Each manuscript creates a certain image of the poet. The author portrait in the ‘Codex Manesse’ and the fictional character 'Reinmar' in the 'Wartburg Contest' can be considered as further aspects of perception. The literary study of the main body of Reinmars Sangsprüche opens up new perspectives on the oeuvre and on the innovations within.

Only by the beginning of the 16th century, the „Meistergesang“ develops explicit poetics of rules. In the early anonymous “Meistergesang” of the 14th and 15th century, poetological contemplations are exclusively expressed by the singable scripts themselves. The present study edits and analyses “Bare”, that address poetizing and lead to the identification of generic, linguistic and metaphoric features of poetology.

Thomas Müntzer was the first among the reformers to not only hold Mass and the daily prayer in German, but to set these liturgical forms down in print, allowing them to be distributed around the city of Allstedt, Germany. In the years 1523 and 1524, several writings appeared in quick succession, including "Ordnung und Berechnung des Deutschen Amtes zu Allstedt" (Order and Calculation by the German Office of Allstedt), which introduced a German liturgy and sought to replace the Latin version. But in contrast to German Mass itself, the translation of German Mass texts do not stem from the impulses of the reformers, but find their roots in the late Middle Ages. This study focuses on the hand-written translations dating from the early 14th Century to 1516. This temporal restriction is necessary, as from the beginning of the reform movement the liturgy not only translated, but also changed and celebrated texts, thus distancing them more and more from their Latin originals. Mathias Henkel examines both the reception of the translations, as well as their form and function. An edition and a transcription of most texts round out the study.