Research Catalog

Title

A courtier's mirror : cultivating elite identity in Thomasin Von Zerclaere's Welscher Gast / Kathryn Starkey.

Author

Starkey, Kathryn

Publication

Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, 2013.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xv, 455 pages : color illustrations; 23 cm

Summary

This book establishes the unique importance of Thomasin von Zerclaere's 'Welscher Gast' as a document of social practices and concerns in medieval German-speaking court society. This epic-length illustrated didactic poem enjoyed immense popularity in the Middle Ages, resulting in twenty-four redactions produced over two hundred and fifty years. Through a detailed study of word and image, Kathryn Starkey argues that this poem offered instruction, affirmation, and an evolving image cycle in which courtly behaviors were effectively conveyed. As the first book-length study in English, 'A Courtier's Mirror' not only provides a framework for understanding the 'Welscher Gast' and its images, but further explores the rich manuscript reception of the poem and the careful cultivation of a distinct elite identity.

Subject

• Thomasin, von Zerclaere, approximately 1186-approximately 1235
• Didactic literature, German > History and criticism
• Feudalism in literature
• Courts and courtiers in literature

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 411-437) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction: Thomasin von Zerclaere's Welscher Gast and its images -- Reading knowledge: format, empowerment, and the genesis of a reference book -- Vision, the viewing subject, and the power of narrative -- Models of gender: allegory, stereotype, and courtly motif -- Image and elite self-fashioning in the Gotha manuscript -- Visuality and (self) reflection in a courtier's mirror.

ISBN

• 9780268041441 (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 026804144X (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2013000478

OCLC

• 821025224
• SCSB-11982477

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library