Würzburger Liederhandschrift

Würzburger Liederhandschrift

The Würzburger Liederhandschrift is the second volume of an extensive housebook commissioned by the Würzburg protonotary Michael de Leone (ca. 1300–1355). After studying at the University of Bologna, he moved back to Würzburg and acquired the Hof zum großen Löwen, which was once owned by the Knights Templar and from which he derived his byname. With his housebook, begun around 1345, he probably wanted to create a reference work for his descendants, with which he also immortalized himself in the family history.

A Housebook Full of Poetry

The Housebook of Michael de Leone is famous for the included works of Walter von der Vogelweide (around 1170 – around 1230) and Reinmar von Hagenau, two of the most renowned German-language poets of the High Middle Ages. The passages attributed to them also include several strophes by the equally gifted minnesinger Heinrich von Morungen († after August 17, 1218). All three are known and handed down to us today primarily from the Codex Manesse, the Weingarten Manuscript and the Kleine Heidelberger Liederhandschrift. What makes Michael de Leone's housebook unique is that it also contains the only surviving copies of poems by Lupold von Hornburg. The first double-page of the manuscript also bears the message about Walther von der Vogelweide's funeral.

Medieval Cuisine

The housebook is also the only preserved manuscript that contains the Bůch von gůter spîse or Buch von guter Speise – the oldest known German-language cookbook. It consists of a culinary collection of 101 recipes, ranging from simpler creations to fasting meals and elaborate show dishes. In particular, the mention of numerous costly imported spices such as pepper, saffron and cloves, as well as recipes with venison, testify to an aristocratic audience and fit in with the patrician patron.

A Mammoth Project of Many Hands

At least 12 different scribes realized the once two-volume housebook with a total of 33 chapters under the instruction and coordination of Gyselher, Michael de Leone's personal master scribe. While the second volume, the Würzburger Liederhandschrift, which alone comprises 568 pages, is preserved almost in its entirety in the Munich University Library, only a few fragments of the first volume have survived the test of time and are now kept in the Bavarian State Library under the shelfmark Cgm 195,1.
The large parchment pages of the mammoth work were written in two columns in neat textura formata, a particularly legible Gothic script, and structured with numerous red and blue initials and rubrics. Michael de Leone's hand is also repeatedly present in marginal notes, which speaks for his active involvement in the creation of the codex. After the preliminary completion of the housebook in 1350, it was continually expanded in the following years.

A Part of Würzburg (Family) History

Michael bequeathed the valuable compendium to his nephew Jakob de Leone (1336–1400), who also took over the Great Lion Court from his uncle in 1353. He was a member of the Lower Council of Würzburg and later Mayor of the city. After his death, the manuscript probably remained in Würzburg and was acquired in the 16th century by the Augsburg Bishop Johann Egolph von Knöringen (1537–1575). His library finally passed it on to the University Library of Ingolstadt in 1573, where the housebook was kept for the entire modern period.