Ambraser Heldenbuch

The Ambraser Heldenbuch ("The Ambras Castle Book of Heroes") is a 16th-century manuscript written in Early New High German, now held in the Austrian National Library (signature Cod. ser. nova 2663). It contains a collection of 25 Middle High German courtly and heroic narratives along with some shorter works, all dating from the 12th and 13th centuries.[1] For many of the texts it is the sole surviving source, which makes the manuscript highly significant for the history of German literature.[2] The manuscript also attests to an enduring taste for the poetry of the MHG classical period among the upper classes.[3]

Ambraser Heldenbuch
Austrian National Library, Cod. ser. nova 2663
Ambraser Heldenbuch, fol. 149r
Date1517
Language(s)Early New High German (South Bavarian)
Scribe(s)Hans Ried
Author(s)Various
Illuminated byUlrich Funk or Veit Fiedler
PatronMaximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
MaterialParchment
SizeV + 238 folios
Format460 x 360 mm, 3 columns
ScriptChancery script
Contents25 works of narrative verse
Illumination(s)Marginal decoration
Previously keptAmbras Castle; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

History

The manuscript was commissioned by the Emperor Maximilian I and written by Hans Ried in Bolzano over a period of years from 1504 to 1516.[1] It was originally kept in the Chamber of Art and Curiosities at Ambras Castle, near Innsbruck,[4] but in 1806, because of the uncertainty of the Napoleonic Wars, the Austrian Emperor Francis I had it moved to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. After the First World War it was transferred to the Vienna Hof-Bibliothek ("Court Library"), which in 1920 became the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek ("Austrian National Library").[2][5]

Description
The Ambraser Heldenbuch, folio V*v

The texts are written on 238 folios of parchment — 476 pages, each 460 x 360 mm in size,[6] each folio numbered with Roman numerals in the top right-hand corner of the recto page.

Before the texts are four folios containing a list of contents and a separate sheet with a full-page illustration on the verso page showing two armed men beneath the arms of Tirol. These five additional sheets were added after the texts were completed and have been numbered I*–V*.[2] The table of contents provides cross-references to the folio numbers in the main body of the manuscript.

The works (all are verse) are set out as prose in a three-column layout, with a punctus (•) to mark the end of a line of verse, or, in many cases, a colon marking the end of a rhyming couplet. Decorated initial letters mark the start of a work or chapter of a work.[2] Lombardic capitals, alternating red and blue, indicate the start of a new strophe or section.[7]

Many pages have illustrations on the outer and bottom margins. The right-hand margin of folio 215r shows a naked woman playing a fiddle beside a shield with the date 1517 and the initials VF, which are assumed to be those of the artist, variously identified as Ulrich Funk or Valentin/Veit Fiedler.[8]

Contents
The Ambraser Heldenbuch, folio 215r. The initials VF on the shield are assumed to be those of the artist.

The works in the manuscript are grouped by genre: courtly narratives (including all of Hartmann von Aue's secular narratives), heroic epics (including the Dietrich and Nibelungen legends), and shorter narratives of a mainly didactic nature. The two final works, fragments of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Titurel and a German translation of the Latin Epistola presbiteri Johannis fall outside this scheme.[9]

The list of works below follows the order in the manuscript, giving the modern titles.[6] (The headings in the manuscript are descriptions of the work and do not match modern titles or indicate authorship.)[10]

Courtly narratives
  • Der Stricker, Frauenehre (manuscript d)
  • Moritz von Craon (sole surviving manuscript)
  • Hartmann von Aue
    • Iwein (manuscript d)
    • Das Büchlein / Die Klage (sole surviving manuscript)
    • Das zweite Büchlein (sole surviving manuscript)
    • (Der Mantel)[11]
    • Erec (only more or less complete manuscript)

Heroic epics

Shorter narratives
  • Die böse Frau (sole surviving manuscript)
  • Herrand von Wildonie
    • Die getreue Ehefrau (sole surviving manuscript)
    • Der verkehrte Wirt (sole surviving manuscript)
    • Der nackte Kaiser (sole surviving manuscript)
    • Die Katze (sole surviving manuscript)
  • Ulrich von Liechtenstein, Frauenbuch (sole surviving manuscript)
  • Wernher der Gartenaere, Meier Helmbrecht (manuscript A)
  • Der Stricker, Pfaffe Amis (manuscript W)

Fragmentary texts
  • Wolfram von Eschenbach, Titurel (fragment, manuscript H)
  • Der Priester Johann (fragment, sole surviving manuscript)

Language

The language of the manuscript is Early New High German with some Bavarian features.[12] Thornton characterises Ried's language as "Tirolean written dialect of the age of Luther".[13] It is consistent with the language of the Habsburg Imperial Chancery, though there are some idiosyncratic spellings.[14]

In spite of the fact that Reid's texts must have come from a variety of sources, his orthography is relatively consistent between the individual works: variations between texts are minor, more likely reflecting gradual changes in his own orthography as the project progressed. This indicates that he must have made a conscious attempt to harmonise the spellings he found in his sources.[15]

Editions

There is no complete edition of the Ambraser Heldenbuch, though the University of Innsbruck has an ongoing transcription project.[16] In many editions of the individual texts the language of the 16th century manuscript has been adapted into the idealised classical Middle High German of the 13th century, as established by 19th century editors.[17]

Among the diplomatic editions of the texts are:

  • Pretzel, Ulrich, ed. (1973). Moriz von Craûn. Altdeutsche Textbibliothek, 45 (4th ed.). Tübingen: Niemeyer. ISBN 348420069-3. (parallel text with manuscript and normalised versions on facing pages)
  • Hartmann von Aue
  • Schnyder, André, ed. (1980). Biterolf und Dietleib. Sprache und Dichtung. Forschungen zur deutschen Sprache, Literatur und Volkskunde. 31. Bern, Stuttgart: Haupt.

Notes
  1. Janota 1989, p. 323.
  2. Menhardt 1961, p. 1477.
  3. Gärtner 2004, p. 3033.
  4. Schloss Ambras Innsbruck.
  5. Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.
  6. Handschriftencensus.
  7. Hammer, Millet & Reuvekamp-Felber 2017, pp. xxvi.
  8. Janota 1989, p. 324.
  9. Janota 1989, p. 325.
  10. Menhardt 1961, gives all the headings.
  11. Traditionally regarded as an independent work, possibly by Heinrich von dem Türlin, recent scholarship sees it as a prologue to Hartmann's Erec. The manuscript treats them as a single text under a single heading. (Reuvekamp-Felber (2016))
  12. Hammer, Millet & Reuvekamp-Felber 2017, p. xxix.
  13. Thornton 1962. "Tiroler Schriftdialekt der Lutherzeit"
  14. Tennant 1985, p. 170.
  15. Tennant 1985, p. 173.
  16. Universität Innsbruck.
  17. Hammer, Millet & Reuvekamp-Felber 2017, pp. x–xii.

References
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