The Jenaer Liederhandschrift is a 14th-century manuscript containing lyrics and melodies to songs in Middle High German. The majority of the lyrics belong to the genre of Spruchdichtung and, with 91 melodies, the manuscript is the single most important source for the music of this genre. It is currently held in the Thuringian :de:Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek|Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Jena, with the shelf-mark Ms. El. f. 101. In Minnesang scholarship it is referred to as Manuscript J. A further fragment, consisting of a single sheet, is in the in Dillingen.
Description
The manuscript comprises 133 folios and contains collections of lyrics by 31 named poets, along with an anonymous religious song, and the text of the Wartburgkrieg. The quality of the manuscript is exceptional:
The unusual size of the manuscript, 56 by 41 cm, the outstanding quality of the parchment, the careful, almost monumental execution of the penmanship in both text and music suggest an aristocratic patron who wished to own a song collection with melodies in a luxurious edition.
Of the melodies, Bernoulli notes, "On the whole we cannot imagine a more clearly written example of a document using square notation." For these reasons, it seems likely that the manuscript was commissioned for display rather than for use in musical performance.
History
The manuscript was compiled in about 1330 in Central Germany, possibly Thuringia for an unknown high-status patron, though it has been suggested it was for Frederick the Serious, Landgrave of Thuringia and Margrave of Meissen, or Rudolf I, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg. By 1540 it was located in Wittenberg, where it was bound, and in 1549 was transferred as part of the Wittenberg Bibliotheca Electoralis to the Collegium Jenense in Jena, which later became the University of Jena. The Dillingen fragment is a single sheet, half of a folio that was removed from J sometime before the latter was bound in 1541. It was used as a binding for a collection of religious tracts and was first discovered in 1917.
The manuscript contains songs by the following poets, who are mostly of Central German origin. Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of melodies for each poet.
