Codex Manesse


The Codex Manesse is a Liederhandschrift which is the single most comprehensive source of Middle High German Minnesang poetry. It was written and illustrated between when the main part was completed, and with the addenda.
The codex was produced in Zürich, for the Manesse family.
The manuscript is "the most beautifully illumined German manuscript in centuries"; its 137 miniatures are a series of "portraits" depicting each poet.
It is currently housed in the Heidelberg University Library.
In 2023, Codex Manesse was admitted to UNESCO's Memory of the World.

Contents

The Codex Manesse is an anthology of the works of a total of about 135 minnesingers of the mid 12th to early 14th century.
For each poet, a portrait is shown, followed by the text of their works.
The entries are ordered approximately by the social status of the poets, starting with the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, [Holy Roman Emperor|Henry VI], Kings Conradin and Wenceslaus II, down through dukes, counts and knights, to the commoners.
Most of the poems are Minnesang, but there are also other genres, including fables and Spruchdichtung.
The oldest poets represented in the manuscript had been dead for more than a century at the time of its compilations, while others were contemporaries, the latest even late additions of poems written during the early 14th century.
In the portraits, some of the nobles are shown in full armour in their heraldic colors and devices, often shown as taking part in a joust, or sometimes in single combat with sword and shield, and sometimes in actual battle.
Some images are motivated by the biography of the person depicted, but some designs just draw their motif from the poet's name, while others draw on imagery from their lyrics.

List of poets

  1. 6r: Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor
  2. 7r: Conradin
  3. 8r:
  4. 10r: King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia
  5. 11v: Duke Henryk IV Probus of Breslau
  6. 13r: Margrave Otto von Brandenburg
  7. 14v: Margrave Heinrich von Meißen
  8. 17r: Henry I, Count of Anhalt
  9. 18r: John I, Duke of Brabant
  10. 20r: Count Rudolf von Neuenburg
  11. 22v: Count Kraft von Toggenburg
  12. 24r: Count Konrad von Kirchberg
  13. 26r: Count
  14. 27r: Count Otto von Botenlauben
  15. 29r: Margrave of .
  16. 30r: Herr Heinrich von Veldeke
  17. 32v: Herr Gottfried von Neifen
  18. 42r: Count Albrecht von Haigerloch, count of Hohenberg
  19. 43v: Count Wernher von Homberg
  20. 46v: Herr
  21. 48v: Brother
  22. 52r: Herr Walther von Klingen
  23. 54r: Herr Rudolf von Rotenburg
  24. 59v: Herr Heinrich von Sax
  25. 61v: Herr
  26. 63r: Der von Kürenberg
  27. 64r: Herr Dietmar von Aist
  28. 66v: Der von Gliers
  29. 69r: Herr Wernher von Teufen
  30. 70v: Herr
  31. 71v: Herr Kristan von Hamle
  32. 73r: Herr Ulrich von Gutenburg
  33. 75v: Herr
  34. 76v: Herr Heinrich von Morungen
  35. 82v: Der
  36. 84v: Schenk Ulrich von Winterstetten
  37. 98r: Herr Reinmar der Alte
  38. 110r: Herr
  39. 113v: Herr Hesso von Reinach
  40. 115r: Der
  41. 116v: Herr Friedrich von Hausen
  42. 119v: Burgrave von Rietenburg
  43. 120v: Herr Meinloh von Sevelingen
  44. 122r: Herr
  45. 124r: Herr Walther von der Vogelweide )
  46. 146r: Herr
  47. 149v: Herr Wolfram von Eschenbach
  48. 151r: Von Singenberg, Seneschal of St Gallen
  49. 158r: Der von Sachsendorf
  50. 160v:
  51. 162v: Herr Wilhelm von Heinzenburg
  52. 164v: Herr
  53. 166v: Herr Walther von Metze
  54. 169v: Herr Rubin
  55. 178r: Herr Bernger von Horheim
  56. 179v: Der von Johansdorf
  57. 181v: Herr Engelhardt von Adelnburg
  58. 182v: Herr Bligger von Steinach
  59. 183v: Herr Wachsmut von Mühlhausen
  60. 184v: Herr Hartmann von Aue
  61. 188r: Herr Reinmar von Brennenberg
  62. 190v: Johann von Ringgenberg
  63. 192v: Albrecht Marschall von Rapperswil
  64. 194r: Herr Otto vom Turne
  65. 197v: Herr Goesli von Ehenhein
  66. 201r: Der von Wildonie
  67. 202v: Von Suonegge
  68. 204r: Von Scharpfenberg
  69. 205r: Herr Konrad, der Schenk von Landeck
  70. 213r: "Der Winsbeke"
  71. 217r: "Die Winsbekin"
  72. 219v: "Klingsor of Hungary"
  73. 226v: Kristan von Luppin of Thuringia
  74. 228r: Herr
  75. 229v: Der Düring
  76. 231r: Winli
  77. 237r: Herr Ulrich von Liechtenstein
  78. 247v: Von Munegiur
  79. 248v: Von Raute
  80. 249v: Herr Konrad von Altstetten
  81. 251r: Herr Bruno von Hornberg
  82. 252r: Herr Hug von Werbenwag
  83. 253v: Der Püller
  84. 255r: Von Trostberg
  85. 256v: Hartmann von Starkenberg
  86. 257v: Von Stadegge
  87. 258v: Herr Brunwart von Augheim
  88. 261r: Von Stamheim
  89. 262v: Herr Goeli
  90. 264r: Der Tannhäuser
  91. 271r: Von Buchheim
  92. 273r: Herr Neidhart
  93. 281v: Meister Heinrich Teschler
  94. 285r: Rost, Kirchherr zu Sarnen
  95. 290r: Der Hardegger
  96. 292v: Der Schulmeister von Eßlingen
  97. 295r: Walther von Breisach
  98. 299r: Von Wissenlo
  99. 300r: Von Wengen
  100. 302r: Herr Pfeffel
  101. 303r: Der Taler
  102. 305r: Der tugendhafte Schreiber
  103. 308v: Steinmar
  104. 311r: Herr Alram von Gresten
  105. 312r: Herr Reinmar der Fiedler
  106. 313r: Herr Hawart
  107. 314v: Herr Günther von dem Vorste
  108. 316v: Herr Friedrich der Knecht
  109. 318r: Der Burggraf von Regensburg
  110. 319r: Herr Niune
  111. 320v: Herr Geltar
  112. 321v: Herr Dietmar der Setzer
  113. 323r: Herr Reinmar von Zweter
  114. 339r: Der Junge Meißner
  115. 342r: Der Alte Meißner
  116. 342v: Von Obernburg
  117. 344v: Bruder Wernher
  118. 349r: Der Marner
  119. 355r: Süßkind, der Jude von Trimberg
  120. 358r:
  121. 359r: Von Buwenburg
  122. 361r: Heinrich von Dettingen
  123. 362r: Rudolf der Schreiber
  124. 364r: Meister Gottfried von Straßburg
  125. 371r: Meister Johannes Hadlaub
  126. 381r:
  127. 383r: Meister Konrad von Würzburg
  128. 394r: Kunz von Rosenheim
  129. 395r: Rubin von Rüdeger
  130. 396r: Der Kol von Nüssen
  131. 397v: Der Dürner
  132. 399r: Meister Heinrich Frauenlob
  133. 407r: Meister Friedrich von Sonnenburg
  134. 410r: Meister Sigeher
  135. 412r: Der wilde Alexander
  136. 413v: Meister Rumslant
  137. 415v: Spervogel
  138. 418r: Boppe
  139. 422r: Der Litschauer
  140. 423v: Der Kanzler

Manuscript history

The compilation of the codex was patronized by the Manesse family of Zürich, presumably by Rüdiger II Manesse. The house of Manesse declined in the late 14th century, selling their castle in 1393. The fate of the codex during the 15th century is unknown, but by the 1590s it had passed into possession of baron Johann Philipp of Hohensax . In 1604, 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. The codex is frequently referred to by Minnesang scholars and in editions simply by the abbreviation C, introduced by Karl Lachmann, who used A and B for the two main earlier Minnesang codices .
Two leaves of a 15th-century copy of the manuscript, called the Troßsche Fragment, which were held in the Berlin State Library but went missing in 1945, are now in the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków.

Modern reception

The possibility that the compiler was the Minnesinger Johannes Hadlaub provided the subject of a poetic novella, Hadlaub, by Gottfried Keller.