Millstatt handwriting
The Millstätter manuscript is an illustrated manuscript written in South Bavarian Early Middle High German. The time of origin is assumed to be around the year 1200, the place of origin is the southern Bavarian region, especially Carinthia . It is named after the Millstatt Benedictine Abbey , where the codex probably did not originate.
The Millstatt manuscript is one of the most important collective manuscripts in early Middle High German literature , alongside the Vorau manuscript and the Vienna manuscript 2721 . The manuscript passed into the possession of the Millstatt Societas Jesu in 1598 as part of the inventory of the Millstatt Benedictine monastery , as documented by an entry from the 17th century. After the abolition of the Jesuit order in 1773, the Codex came into the hands of a private citizen in Carinthia in 1845 and was bought by the Association for History and Regional Studies in Klagenfurt. It is still in the possession of the History Association for Carinthia and is stored in the Carinthian State Archives in Klagenfurt under the signature Cod. GV 6/19.
content
167 sheets of the manuscript are still preserved today; it comprises eight rhyming poems in 6062 verses. The first three parts of the composite manuscript take up the greatest extent:
- Millstätter Genesis (fol. 1–84): A rhymed free translation of Genesis into German ( Old German Genesis ) is the most important text in the collection in terms of literary history.
- Millstätter Physiologus (fol. 84v – 101): This medieval physiologus is a textbook of zoology and describes in rhyme the characteristics of 29 animals and is mixed with Christian allegories .
- Millstätter Exodus (fol. 101v – 135): This part ( Old German Exodus ) deals with the first 15 chapters of 2. Book of Moses , the fate of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery to the fall of the Egyptians in the Red Sea.
“Genesis” and “Physiologus” are illustrated with a total of 119 colored pen drawings, which are stylistically assigned to the Salzburg painting school of the 12th century.
The first three sections are followed by two sermons: “On the Right” (fol. 135v – 142) portrays loyalty, justice and truthfulness as the highest human duties and “The wedding” (fol. 142–154v) connects the subject of courtship with the motive of redemption. This is followed by the “(Millstätter) lament for sin” (fol. 154v – 164v), a confessional prayer, and in the “Paternoster” (fol. 164v – 167v) the interpretation of the seven petitions of the Our Father . On the last sheet of the Millstatt manuscript are the opening verses of the poem “Das himmlische Jerusalem” (fol. 167v), an interpretation of the heavenly city of the Apocalypse.
These vernacular religious poems were written for the nobility.
literature
- Alfred Kracher: Millstätter Genesis and Physiologus manuscript , complete facsimile edition of the collective manuscript. Codices Selecti X, Graz 1967, ISBN 3-201-00744-7
- Fidel Rädle : Millstätter Handschrift , in: The German literature of the Middle Ages . Author's Lexicon, Volume 6, 2nd Edition Berlin, New York 1987, Columns 531-534
- Christian Schröder: The Millstätter Physiologus. Text, translation, comment . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-2736-1
- Hella Frühmorgen-Voss: Studies on the illustrated Millstätter Genesis , (= Munich texts and studies on German literature of the Middle Ages; Volume 4) Beck, Munich 1962
Web links
- Manuscript census in the Marburg repertory (with literature)