The Monastery of Love
The Monastery of Love is a Minnerede or Minneallegorie from the 2nd quarter of the 14th century. The poem consists of up to 1890 rhyming couplets and was probably composed between 1330 and 1350 in southern Germany. The author is unknown.
The Monastery of Love is the story of a wanderer who is shown the way to a monastery by a messenger on horseback. In the monastery, whose headmistress is said to be Lady Love herself, he meets an acquaintance who shows him the building and with whom he watches a tournament before leaving the monastery again. Despite repeated requests, he has not met Lady Love in person, as she is only visible through her effect on the inhabitants of the monastery.
Due to the uncertain chronological classification and the anonymity of the author, The Monastery of Love has repeatedly become the focus of literary scholarship since the 19th century, for which it was of interest until the late 20th century, particularly in terms of its presumed relationship to the rules of the monastery of Ettal. In terms of content, the special feature of the work in comparison to other narrative Minnerede and Minneallegories is that it avoids personifications, meaning, for example, that Lady Love does not appear as a woman.
Tradition
Cod. Donaueschingen 104 ("Liedersaal manuscript")
The oldest known manuscript of The Monastery of Love is contained in Cod. Donaueschingen 104. The codex was created around 1433 and is written in Alemannic dialect. The manuscript probably came from Konstanz. The manuscript originally had 269 pages, and The Monastery of Love has a length of 1890 verses. Of all three surviving manuscripts, it is the oldest and most reliable version, which is also the best preserved. The Minnerede has no heading in the Donaueschingen manuscript. The Cod. Donaueschingen 104 is now kept in the Baden State Library.Joseph von Laßberg published the Donaueschingen manuscript between 1820 and 1825 under the title Lieder Saal. This is a collection of old German poems from unprinted sources. Laßberg gave the then untitled Minnerede the title The Monastery of Love. According to Laßberg, who considered The Monastery of Love to be the most beautiful work in his collection, Cod. Donaueschingen 104 is also known as the "Liedersaal manuscript".
Codex Dresden M 68
Codex Dresden M 68 comes from Augsburg and was written in 1447 by Peter Grienninger in the East Swabian dialect. The manuscript has a total of 79 pages and contains 35 smaller poetic texts, such as fairy tales, prayers, love letters and Minnereden, including the Minnelehre of Johann von Konstanz. The monastery of Love comprises 1866 verses in this manuscript. Of the surviving manuscripts, Codex Dresden M 68 is the most deficient. It contains numerous individual verses, some of which even impair the meaning, and has surplus plus verses, while at the same time rhyming couplets from the other manuscripts are missing. Peter Grienninger was not always sure of the spelling either: Grienninger gave the Minnerede the title De monte feneris agitur hit, which was corrected to De monte feneris agitur hic. The manuscript is now kept in the Saxon State and University Library Dresden.Cod. Pal. germ. 313
The most recent surviving manuscript of The Monastery of Love is kept in the Heidelberg University Library. The Cod. Pal. germ. 313 is 498 pages long and dates from 1478. It was written in the North Alemannic-South Franconian dialect, which is why today the Upper Rhine region is assumed to be the origin of the scribe. The Cod. Pal. germ. 313 contains not only The Monastery of Love, which is preserved on 63 pages and in 1884 verses, but also 55 other Minnereden by Heinrich der Teichner, Meister Altswert and Fröschel von Leidnitz, among others. The Minnerede ''The Monastery of Love is included in Johann von Konstanz's Minnelehre and Hermann von Sachsenheim's Mirror''.Manuscript relationship
None of the three paper manuscripts that preserve The Monastery of Love represents the original archetype. On the basis of the known manuscripts, it is possible to reconstruct two branches of The Monastery of Love. The Codex Donaueschingen forms one of the two branches, as it lacks four verses that are contained in both the Codex Dresden M 68 and the Cod. pal. germ. 313. Since both younger manuscripts lack a verse that the Codex Donaueschingen possesses, there must be a common model for these manuscripts that refers to the archetype. Furthermore, Codex Dresden M 68 cannot have served as a model for Cod. pal. germ. 313, because Cod. pal. germ. 313, together with the Donaueschingen manuscript, contains verses that are missing in Codex Dresden M 68. The age of the manuscripts also rules out a copy of Codex Dresden M 68 from Cod. pal. germ. 313.Content
Walk in the forest
The first-person narrator goes for a walk in May, leading him into a forest. He admires the flowers, the green treetops and the song of the nightingale and lark. He soon spots a woman on horseback among the trees. He hides from her until her horse is close to where he is hiding and only then reveals himself. He grabs the horse by the bridle and prevents the lady from riding on. Before he lets her go, he wants to know the purpose of her ride alone in the forest. The woman tells him she is traveling as a messenger of the werdi Minne who, as a noble queen, has power over all the lands of the earth. The narrator is not yet satisfied with this information and demands to know the purpose of her journey. The rider explains that she is looking for women, knights and servants to join Lady Love. After asking again, the rider reveals further details: a builder has created a unique, huge monastery in which Love lives. Anyone who enters the monastery will have a wonderful life and people from all social classes will go there: kings, dukes, counts, maids, knights and servants. All residents had to abide by a monastery rule according to which they were to be subject to Love. They were allowed to sing, read, make music and dance.The shape and nature of the monastery is unique: it is circular and unimaginably large. ez war kain pferd nie so snel, / das es in ainem gantzen jar / das closter umbe lüffe gar. The monastery has twelve gates, each representing a month. Theoretically, the inhabitants of the monastery therefore have the opportunity to live in their favorite month all the time. The narrator is fascinated by this world and longs to see the Monastery of Love with his own eyes. The rider describes the way to the monastery, which the narrator - choosing the right path at a fork in the road - will enter via the May gate. The narrator is satisfied with the answers and lets the rider move on. After a short time, he arrives at the Monastery of Love.
Arrival at the monastery
As he stands in front of the walls of the monastery, a group of men and women move out of the monastery gate into the open and gather for a round dance. They appear to be lovers who, after dancing, sit down in pairs in the shade of the trees in front of the monastery gate. The narrator notices rings on numerous fingers and feels miserable. Among the couples are numerous acquaintances from earlier days, but they do not recognize the narrator. Suddenly a bell is rung. A squire announces the arrival of 500 knights and servants who want to hold a tournament with the residents of the monastery. The best knight is promised the crest of a lion with a golden chain as a prize in the spear fight. The best servant is to receive the coat of arms of a leopard with a silver chain. The men return to the monastery to prepare for the tournament.Tour through the monastery
Among the women who stayed behind, the narrator discovers a good acquaintance. She tells him that she has been living in the convent for ten years and, accompanied by a few other women, shows him around the convent: the large courtyard is enclosed by a main building, with a door leading into it from each of the four walls. The building has balconies and bay windows and is made of different-colored, partially openwork marble. The walls shine like mirrors, making the whole building appear incomparably beautiful to the narrator. However, his companion points out that there are many of these buildings in the monastery.As the tournament is due to start soon, the other women say goodbye to the narrator. The acquaintance stays with him and talks about the nature of the order. Love rules over all the inhabitants of the monastery, but they are headed by an abbot and an abbess as well as a prior and a prioress. Anyone who fails to abide by the rules of the monastery will be punished. The nature of the punishments is shown during a tour of the monastery prison: a gossiper is tied up with a neck iron. He asks the narrator for bread as he is starving and begs him to ask the abbot for mercy as he has been imprisoned for three years for insulting a woman. The lady accompanying the narrator warns him that he would make himself unpopular if he went to the abbot on this matter. After the narrator has promised her not to stand up for the prisoners, the companion leads him to a braggart lying on old straw tied to a block. Originally he was a noble servant, but he bragged about his love affairs. Mockers, envious, fickle and cowardly people are also in the monastery prison, but the narrator decides to return with his companion to the other women and watch the tournament.