596 German Studies
MEDIEVAL LITERATURE By Nigel W. Harris, University of Birmingham
1. General The two-volume Encyclopaedia of German Literature, ed. Matthias Konzett, Chicago–London, Fitzroy Dearborn, xxii + 1136 pp., includes up-to-date articles, with select bibliographies, on the follow- ing medieval authors: Sebastian Brant (N. Harris), Gottfried von Strassburg (W. McConnell), Hartmann von Aue (F. G. Gentry), Heinrich von Veldeke (R. Fisher), Hildegard von Bingen (A. Classen), Hrosvitha von Gandersheim (H. W. Kraft), Konrad von Regens- burg/Pfaffe Konrad (S. Calomino), Mechthild von Magdeburg (E. A. Andersen), Meister Eckhart (B. Morgan), Neidhart (G. Ehrstine), Oswald von Wolkenstein (N. Harris), Otfrid von Weissenburg (L. Archibald), Rudolf von Ems (S. Coxon), Walther von der Vogelweide (R. Fisher) and Wolfram von Eschenbach (M. E. Gibbs). Anonymous works dealt with are the Annolied (G. Dunphy), Ezzolied (R. E. Walker), Heliand (W. Hempel), Hildebrandslied (R. E. Walker), Ko¨nig Rother (S. Calomino), Ludwigslied and Merseburger Zauberspru¨che (both B. Murdoch), and the Nibelungenlied (W. McConnell). There are also entries on Arthurian romance (E. A. Andersen), biblical drama and Minnesang (both M. Chinca), Meistersang ( J. L. Flood), mystery plays ( J. E. Tailby) and Sangspruchdichtung (G. Dunphy); and separate articles are allotted to OHG and MHG (L. Archibald and W. Whob- rey), the Carolingian period (B. Murdoch), court culture ( J. Ashcroft), humanism (M. Reinhart), medieval manuscripts (W. Whobrey), mysticism (A. Classen), and indeed religion and literature (L. Archib- ald). Inevitably there are some puzzling omissions ( Johannes von Tepl, Konrad von Wu¨rzburg, Der Stricker, Kudrun), but the value of this massive encyclopaedia to the undergraduate and general reader is clear. Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon, ed. Kurt Ruh et al., reached the end of the alphabet in 1999, but has already spawned the first fascicle of a supplementary 11th volume (Berlin, de Gruyter, 320 cols). Many completely new articles are planned, along with corrected and updated versions of existing ones. The first fascicle stretches from Abbas to Christina, and includes important new author entries on Aesop (G. Dicke) and Avianus (M. Baldzuhn), as well as on Albert of Saxony (H. Berger), Georg Alt (H. Kugler) and Alexander de Villa Dei (C. Wulf ). Other new entries deal with the (relatively) recently discovered Budapester Liederhandschrift (G. Kornrumpf ), almanacs (F. Eisermann), breviaries (A. Ha¨ussling), legends of St Medieval Literature 597 Anne (F. Roolfs) and the Benediktbeurer Spiele (H. Linke). The achievement of the Verfasserlexikon as a whole is evaluated by K. Stackmann, ZDA, 129:378–87. There is also a new edition of DTV’s three-volume history of medieval German literature (see YWMLS, 52:595f.): Dieter Kartschoke, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur im fru¨hen Mittelalter (DTV, 30777), 412 pp.; Joachim Bumke, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur im hohen Mittelalter (DTV, 30778), 448 pp.; Thomas Cramer, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur im spa¨ten Mittelalter (DTV, 30779), 450 pp. In each case, however, the only new material included is of a bibliographical nature. The Katalog der deutschsprachigen illustrierten Handschriften des Mittelal- ters, vol. iii, fasc. 3, ed. Norbert H. Ott and Ulrike Bodemann, continues its survey of illustrated manuscripts and incunabula of vernacular chronicles. The latest fascicle covers chronicles about Augsburg (by Sigismund Meisterlin), Bavaria (Andreas von Regens- burg, Ulrich Fu¨etrer, Veit Arnpeck), the territory of the Teutonic Order (Nikolaus von Jeroschin), Frankenberg (Wigand Gerstenberg), Cologne (Heinrich von Beeck’s Agrippina), Constance (Gebhard Dacher), Magdeburg (the Magdeburger Scho¨ppenchronik), Mecklenburg (Ernst von Kirchberg, Nikolaus Marschalk) and Lower Saxony (Hermann Bote’s Niedersa¨chsische Weltchroniken). U. Peters, ZDP, 119:321–68, assesses the function of the portraits of authors which appear in German manuscripts of the 13th to 15th cs, paying particular attention to pictures of Rudolf von Ems. C. Bertelsmeier- Kierst, Wolfram-Studien, 16:157–74, analyses the quantity and con- tents of vernacular German manuscripts in the 12th c., demonstrating that these remained relatively few in number and continued to transmit primarily religious works. C. Glassner, ZDA, 129:202–09, introduces the invaluable website O¨ sterreichische Handschriften im Internet, maintained by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Appropriately, her article can also be accessed online, at