This book deals with the spiritual identity of the nuns of the Heiningen Convent in Lower Saxony in the middle of the 15th century. It is based on a group of manuscripts written during the Windesheim reform of the convent which established the textual basis of spiritual care and the new liturgical practices. The novices' initiation liturgy and profession including the chants (with notations) is edited and illustrated here for the first time and studied in the context of the nuns' education and way of life.

In the primarily oral culture of the medieval court, authors of sophisticated literary texts still took into account forms of reception beyond the words themselves, including, for example, the role of performers, who they sometimes mentioned in paratexts. They also attempted at times to inscribe reception modes in the texts themselves. These modes enlisted discussions and explanations to activate the texts. The book's discussion includes epistolary poems for a sophisticated literary circle, texts intended to educate royal recipients, and the lyrical tradition of the 'Frauendienst.'

Allein die Zeugnisse der Wandmalerei sind unter den Erscheinungsformen der hoouml;fischen Kultur des Mittelalters in aller Regel dort uuuml;berliefert, wo sie erdacht, realisiert und gebraucht wurden - oder man kennt doch die Orte ihrer Uberlieferung. Sie fuhren daher unmittelbar an die Traauml;ger dieser Kultur heran und erlauben es, deren Lebenszusammenhange in die Deutung ihrer kulturellen Ambitionen einzubeziehen. Insofern sind die Aufsatze dieses Bandes auch interdisziplinar-mediavistische Beitrage zur Rekonstruktion von Verstehenshorizonten mittelalterlicher Literatur. Sie dokumentieren...