Codex Atlantia

The Codex Atlantia is a long term project for Mécène Etienne Le Mons d'Anjou. This concept is an Atlantian version of the Codex Manesse (AKA: Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift or Pariser Handschrift). This project will combine Etienne's interests of poetry, calligraphy, illumination, heraldry, and book-binding.

Inspiration

The Codex Manesse is an anthology of the works of a total of about 135 minnesingers of the mid 12th to early 14th century. For each poet, a portrait is shown, followed by the text of their works. The entries are ordered approximately by the social status of the poets, starting with the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, Kings Conradin and Wenceslaus II, down through dukes, counts and knights, to the commoners. Most of the poems are Minnesang, but there are also other genres, including fables and didactic poems. The oldest poets represented in the manuscript had been dead for more than a century at the time of its compilations, while others were contemporaries, the latest even late additions of poems written during the early 14th century.

In the portraits, some of the nobles are shown in full armor in their heraldic colors and devices (therefore with their faces hidden), often shown as taking part in a joust, or sometimes in single combat with sword and shield, and sometimes in actual battle. Some images are motivated by the biography of the person depicted, but some designs just draw their motif from the poet's name (thus, Dietmar is shown riding a mule, since his name can be interpreted as meaning people's horse), while others draw on imagery from their lyrics (Walther von der Vogelweide is shown in a thoughtful pose which exactly matches the description of himself in one of his most famous songs).

The compilation of the codex was patronized by the Manesse family of Zürich, presumably by Rüdiger II Manesse (born before 1252, died after 1304). The house of Manesse declined in the late 14th century, selling their castle in 1393. The fate of the codex during the 15th century is unknown, but by the 1590s it had passed into possession of baron Johann Philipp of Hohensax (two of whose forebears are portrayed in the codex, on foll. 48v and 59v). In 1604, Melchior Goldast published excerpts of its didactic texts. After 1657 it was in the French royal library, from which it passed to the Bibliothèque Nationale, where the manuscript was studied by Jacob Grimm in 1815. In 1888, after long bargaining, it was sold to the Bibliotheca Palatina of Heidelberg, following a public subscription headed by William I and Otto von Bismarck.

The first critical editions of the Codex Manesse appeared in the early nineteenth century. The codex is frequently referred to by Minnesang scholars and in editions simply by the abbreviation C, introduced by Karl Lachmann, who used A and B for the two main earlier Minnesang codices (the Kleine Heidelberger Liederhandschrift and the Weingartner Liederhandschrift respectively). Two leaves of a 15th-century copy of the manuscript, called the Troßsche Fragment (Tross Fragment), were held in the Berlin State Library, but went missing in 1945.

A facsimile copy can be found [here].

Project Overview

Etienne plans on first writing approximately 135 poems based on peers in Atlantia who have inspired him or taught him valuable lessons. The types of poetry will be a variety of different documentable pre-seventeenth century styles.

After the poetry is complete, Etienne plans on illuminating a page with each poem and including the individual's heraldry within the design. After the scribal portion is complete, the works will be bound into a book with the poems in the order of precedence of the individuals at the time of binding.

Completed Poems

As the poems are completed, they will be added here.

Codex Atlantia

Inspiration

Project Overview

Completed Poems

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