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THE MANESSE CODEX (facsimile) The manuscript is one of the most well-known examples from the German tradition of popular music that was called Minnesang, literally “love song”. In addition to the traditional courtly love songs, this included songs written from the perspective of both men and women, dancing songs, and songs about the crusades. The Manesse Codex was written between 1300 and 1340 in Zurich and contains 137 illustrations. It is one of the largest collections of the vernacular poems surviving. Most of the images depict the composers of the poems in everyday scenes or in scenes from their works, such as romantic or knightly encounters. The page to which the facsimile is open portrays the German Emperor Otto IV playing chess. Chess was a popular pastime in the Middle Ages, but it was also represented, as here, as a metaphor for the game of courtship. |
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