Ambras book of heroes

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Page from the Ambras book of heroes

The Ambraser Heldenbuch is a handwritten collection of medieval heroic epics and smaller courtly stories from the 12th and 13th centuries ; it contains u. a. the Nibelungen song , the Kudrun song , Hartmanns von Aue Erec , Biterolf and Dietleib and the lament booklet and Meier Helmbrecht . Numerous items in the collection have not survived anywhere else - hence the paramount importance of the Codex for the history of German literature.

The huge codex of 46 × 33.5 cm comprises 243 parchment leaves , each of which is written in three columns and adorned with floral decorations on the edges. The collection was compiled on behalf of Emperor Maximilian I in 1504–1516 / 17 by the customs clerk Hans Ried in Bozen ( South Tyrol ) and written down by calligraphy. At first the splendor code was kept at Ambras Castle in Tyrol ; Since 1806 the manuscript has been in the Austrian National Library in Vienna (signature Cod. Ser. nova 2663).

Content of the hero book

The list is based on the actual order in the book of heroes; the classification of the texts by genre should also be clarified.

Courtly texts

  • The knitter , women's honor (handwriting d)
  • Moritz von Craon (only surviving manuscript)
  • Hartmann von Aue, Iwein (handwriting d)
  • Hartmann von Aue, Das (1st) booklet / Die Klage (only surviving manuscript)
  • The so-called second booklet (only surviving manuscript)
  • Heinrich von dem Türlin (?), Der Mantel (only surviving manuscript)
  • Hartmann von Aue, Erec (only largely completely preserved manuscript)

Heroic epics

Kleinepiksammlung (except for 'Pfaffe Amis')

The language of the book of heroes

At the beginning of the 16th century, the writer of the Ambraser Heldenbuch, Hans Ried, translated this collection of medieval texts from sometimes different language regions of German into a uniform, contemporary form of language. It is a South Bavarian Early New High German, very close to the Maximilian chancellery language , if not identical with it. It used to be assumed that Hans Ried often misunderstood his Middle High German templates and made mistakes in the linguistic implementation. In the meantime, however, it is becoming increasingly clear that he copied the texts very precisely and carefully and that he was able to acquire a very good knowledge of Middle High German of the 12th and 13th centuries in the course of many years of work on the manuscript. From some works (e.g. 'Helmbrecht', Nibelungenlied) he may have had copies in Bavarian-Austrian writing language, which were less difficult to understand. In the southern Bavarian region, the writing language had not changed as much from the Middle Ages to the early 16th century as in more northern regions, and even the Maximilian chancellery language still contained many elements reminiscent of Middle High German.

The Ambraser Heldenbuch represents a challenge for the edition philology, since 15 of the poems it contains have only survived in essential parts here and older manuscripts do not exist at all or only exist in fragments.

literature

  • Ambras book of heroes. Complete facsimile edition in the original format of the Codex Vindobonensis Series Nova 2663 of the Austrian National Library , commentary by Franz Unterkircher (= Codices selecti, 43), Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Publishing house 1973
  • Hans Wierschin: Maximilians I's book of heroes from Ambras , 3 parts, Bozen: Athesia 1976
  • Johannes Janota: Article 'Ambraser Heldenbuch'. In: Author's Lexicon, 2nd edition, Vol. 1, Sp. 323–327.
  • Waltraud Fritsch-Rößler (Ed.): Cristallîn wort. Hartmann studies 1st general topic: The Ambras book of heroes. Vienna, Berlin: Lit-Verlag 2008.
  • Catalog of the German-language illustrated manuscripts of the Middle Ages , started by Hella Frühmorgen-Voss and Norbert H. Ott, ed. by Ulrike Bodemann, Kristina Freienhagen-Baumgardt, Pia Rudolph and Nicola Zotz, Vol. 6/5 (Heiltumsbücher - 'Herzog Ernst'), Munich 2015, pp. 381–389.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Helmut Weinacht: Archives and comments on Hans Ried, the writer of the Ambraser Heldenbuch . In: Deutsche Heldenepik in Tirol. King Laurin and Dietrich von Bern in the poetry of the Middle Ages , ed. by Egon Kühebacher , Bozen: Athesia 1979, pp. 466-489.
  2. Manuscript description : Wien, Österr. Nationalbibl., Cod. Ser. nova 2663 ( Memento from April 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  3. Digitized version of the Codex Vienna, Austria. Nationalbibl., Cod. Ser. nova 2663