Kleine Heidelberger Liederhandschrift

The Kleine Heidelberger Liderhandschift ("Small Heidelberg Song-manuscript") is a collection of Middle High German Minnesang texts. In Minnesang scholarship it is referred to as MS. A. It is held by the Heidelberg University Library with the signature Cod.Pal.germ. 357 (Cpg 357).

Along with the Weingarten Manuscript (MS. B) and the Codex Manesse (MS. C), it is one of the major sources of Minnesang texts from the beginnings (around 1150) to the end of the "golden age" (around 1230).

Dating from 1270–1280, it is the oldest of the three Upper German Minnesang manuscripts. It was created in Alsace, possibly in Strassburg. There is no certainty about the patron, though Conrad of Lichtenberg, Bishop of Strassburg has been suggested.

It contains 45 parchment pages in small format (18.5 x 13.5cm), hence its name, which distinguishes it from the larger format Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift ("Great Heidelberg Song-manuscript"), as the Codex Manesse is often called, which is held in the same library.

The main part of the manuscript is written by a single scribe and the language is Low Alemannic. The appendix, the work of five different scribes, shows some Central German influence. The manuscript is written in Gothic minuscule. The songs are written in a single column, the beginnings indicated by paragraph marks. The individual strophes are indicated by blue and red initials, some of which are elaborate. Unlike the Codex Manesse it has no miniatures showing the poets.

The songs themselves date from the central period in the development of Minnesang. The earliest are probably those of Heinrich von Rugge (around 1180) while the latest, dating to around 1240, are the songs of Neidhart von Reuental and Bruder Wernher.

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