Author Portrait of Rudolf von Fenis Neuenburg; Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cpg 848 (‘Codex Manesse’; around 1300), fol. 20r. Reproduced by courtesy of Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg: http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de
Since the second half of the 13th century, Minnesang has been compiled in large collections. The most famous collection in the German Middle Ages is the so called Codex Manesse. Like in the other collections of love poetry, the songs are organised by author. The Manesse manuscript is famous for its author pictures at the beginning of each oeuvre.
The illustration shows Count Rudolf of Neuenburg, a Swiss noble, living around 1200. It is not a portrait in a modern sense. Notice that the illumination marks him as a poet by showing him talking – most likely about love, since he is sitting in a rose garden.
Rudolf’s songs on the following space are transmitted without the music, which is either already lost a century after his time, or still so well known that it did not require a written record. Or were the later collectors simply not interested?
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