|
The Codex Manesse is the best-known manuscript of the poems and love songs of the Minnesingers. The Minnesingers are romantic figures in history. The word Minne is often translated as 'love' (for these were knightly minstrels who sang of fair damsels), but these were not mere songs of passion but of a courtly aristocratic wistful secret love for an often unattainable or inaccessible woman. There is an almost fairytale atmosphere about the wandering Minnesingers.
The miniature on folio 71v of the Manesse Codex shows the adventures of Kristan von Hamle to visit his lover.
| 
