Minnesänger

Where the fathers and husbands were is not known. Perhaps they were lingering in the Holy Land. In Provence, Sicily, the Rhineland, ladies and young knights invented a new custom, a new lifestyle. From a certain point of view, it must have been a great fashion among young people. But then it influenced Europe for centuries. This book presents a selection from one of the most precious codices that exist, the Palatinus Germanicus 848 of the University Library of Heidelberg, also called the Codex Manesse. Here even the woes of love have a laughing aura, because there is something cheerful in the transformation of feudal homage and service into homage and service to a lady; the suits of armour themselves are liveries of love over delicate, blond-downed skins prone to blushing. The fact that European literature is so rife with adolescent heroes and tender heroines is perhaps due first and foremost to the springtimes, dawns and sighs of the courtly civilisation. Se la letteratura europea è così ricca di eroi adolescenti e di tenere eroine lo dobbiamo, forse soprattutto alle primavere, alle albe e ai sospiri della civiltà cortese.