,Rabenschlacht'

In this eleven-volume complete transcription of the 'Ambraser Heldenbuch,' all texts appear in the original Early High German for the first time. A transcription that is faithful to individual characters used by the scribe is synoptically juxtaposed with the manuscript image. A second, diplomatic transcription is arranged by verses and numbered according to established editions. The lavishly illustrated manuscript of almost 250 parchment folios, commissioned by Emperor Maximilian I at the beginning of the sixteenth century, is one of the most important sources of German narrative literature of the Middle Ages. Volume 5 contains the heroic epic 'Rabenschlacht,' which, together with 'Dietrichs Flucht,' has survived as a complete text in three other manuscripts outside the 'Ambraser Heldenbuch.' The present transcription reproduces the youngest extant copy of the 'Rabenschlacht.'

Mario Klarer, University of Innsbruck, Austria.