Art, Literature, Manuscripts, Architecture – An Emperor Wants to be Remembered: Emperor Maximilian and the Ambraser Helden Buch, with a Focus on Mauritius Von Craûn

Memory and memoria are closely related to each other, but the latter constitutes the physical, mostly public manifestation of the self through art works, writing, musical compositions, buildings, and the like. After a reflection on the current research pertaining to both aspects, this article deals with the famous Ambraser Heldenbuch compiled by Hans Ried for Emperor Maximilian I (1504–1516) as a collection of major medieval German narratives. In particular, the focus rests on the most unique verse novella, Mauritius von Craûn (ca. 1220) where knighthood and courtly love seem to reach their apogee but then abruptly fail. In an odd way, even this rather deconstructive piece of literature, preserved only in this very late manuscript, obviously contributed to Maximilian’s great effort to secure his gedechtnus , the memory by posterity of his glory and accomplishments. However, there is also a great sense of the precarious nature of this goal, hence of memoria . To understand late medieval aristocratic culture, we can rely profoundly on the efforts by that social class to establish memory as a form of self-identity.


Introduction
It seems to be a universal need for human beings to remember and to be remembered, which provides, ultimately, some, if not the ultimate meaning of all existence.Even though a vast number of people throughout time have simply disappeared with their death, not leaving behind names, documents, records, or words, the desire to survive in perpetuity, at least spiritually, can be identified as a fundamental force in all of human culture.Cave drawings from the stone age, Roman tombs, Egyptian pyramids, medieval cathedrals, or Renaissance palaces serve memory, they all speak the same language, in fact, they are all signals of the same human need for material memory and representation in stone or other materials. 1There would not really be any need for cemeteries if people did not live by the basic hope for an afterlife and hence a bridge between their own death and the future.Funeral culture intimately mirrors life culture, and vice versa, so studying the art of death allows us, wherever we look throughout world history, to comprehend human culture more intimately.

Current Research Journal of Social Sciences
Curiously, however, throughout the Middle Ages, most artworks, poems, architecture, or scholarly treatises have been left behind without the name of the creator, or without much biographical information.Many of the major heroic epics, for instance, courtly romances, or love poetry have survived simply as anonymous texts; and if the poet shared his/her name, then we know virtually nothing about him/her in personal terms.Of course, things changed in the course of time, and since the late twelfth century or so, poets increasingly included references to themselves, talked about their own situation in ironic terms (Wolfram von Eschenbach), reflected on their writing process (Marie de France), or commented on their sources and on other role models (Gottfried von Straßburg). 2 Medieval art, by contrast, continued to leave out references to the individual creators; most Gothic paintings, sculptures, stained glass windows, or tapestry have survived only as anonymous works.
The situation began to change, however, in the fourteenth century, when individual architects, for instance, began to make sure that they would be remembered by posterity by means of their own busts, such as Peter Parler in the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague (since 1352), Hanns von Burghausen in St. Martin in Landshut (since 1389), and Conrad von Einbeck in St. Maurice in Halle a. d. S. (since ca.1410). 3We are also much more informed about the lives of late medieval poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer, Oswald von Wolkenstein, Christine de Pizan, or Giovanni Boccaccio.In parallel, a growing number of individuals, both aristocrats and urban citizens, left so-called 'egodocuments' in which they reflected on their own lives, their families, their businesses, their experiences, and worldviews. 4The same applies to the history of music, medicine, fencing, craftsmanship, etc. 5 Already a long time ago, Danielle Régnier-Bohler examined the growing paradigm shift regarding the projection of the self in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 6This was then complemented by Georges Duby and Philippe Braunstein with their study of the emergence of the individual in the late Middle Ages. 7Mary J. Carruthers and Janet Coleman have, each on her own, examined the phenomenon of memory as it was explored in the Middle Ages by philosophers and theologians, focusing on the actual mental process of memorization. 8Already in 1491, Petrus Ravenna elaborated on the art of memoria when he published his treatise Phoenix seuartificiosa memoria in Venice, which was later translated into various European languages. 9However, this treatise was focused on the mental capacity of memorizing and not on the public representation of an individual, which alerts us again to the slippery definition of both concepts so closely interrelated and yet being of different nature.
Other scholars have considered the role of death and the attitudes of the living, certainly a significant aspect of memory in the active materialization of this process. 10Most recently, a group of researchers has probed the relationship between memory and identity, 11 whereas others have discussed the written records in archives and cartularies as significant documents of self-representation, or forms of memory. 12ry similar to modern times, in the Middle Ages people took considerable care to create last wills and thus to be remembered by the next generation, as Joel T. Rosenthal has highlighted. 13It comes as no surprise that people have regularly resorted to epitaphs and monuments to inscribe their names or self-references, as the contributors to a recent volume with conference proceedings have unearthed. 14Medieval bishops are well known as patrons of the art, particularly if the artists could contribute to their own effort to leave something about themselves behind as part of their memoria. 15nd funerary art during antiquity already promoted memoria to a large extent, which continued throughout the following centuries, if not until the present. 16mory and memoria, to be sure, are not exactly the same, especially because the latter represents an individual's effort to leave a legacy behind and to be remembered for his/her deeds, works, activities, accomplishments, or words.Memory as such, by contrast, constitutes the operation of remembering itself.Memoria could thus be defined as the result of the former, being the physical, spiritual, and artistic manifestation of the psychological process of memory.Memoria, in other words, is primarily concerned with social, historical, and political aspects since an individual desires to be remembered beyond his/her death in order to establish meaning of the own existence beyond one's life here on earth.Funerary art, as already mentioned, has always constituted a major aspect of all art history, and this for good reasons because the survivors need concrete objects to commemorate the deceased person and hence to translate the transcendental experience into material forms. 17It might be impossible to identify any culture throughout time that would not have placed great value on memorialization and relevant sites where it could be practiced. 18

Medieval Manuscript Culture as a Form of Memoria
The entire world of aristocratic culture, above all, was deeply concerned with memoria, and this both in the Middle Ages and well beyond, if not until today. 19This can be particularly well demonstrated through a study of the Ambraser Heldenbuch, a major late medieval manuscript containing a large number of important Middle High German verse narratives, courtly romances, and heroic epics.It was commissioned by Emperor Maximilian I and compiled on his behalf by the South Tyrolean toll collector Hans Ried (Bozen) from ca. 1504 to ca. 1516 -he probably worked for him in Innsbruck to create this anthology.This unique manuscript appeared at a time when the printing press seemed to have taken over the public media and when medieval literature was almost completely dismissed or forgotten, as we have traditionally assumed. 20However, for Maximilian, both the handwritten literary text and the collection of medieval literary narratives in one manuscript seem to have encapsulated the apogee of the world of courtly culture and chivalry, and hence as the best medium for his own purposes to create memoria of himself as the last major representative of past aristocratic ideals.
We have known already for a long time that Maximilian I worked hard and through many different media to create a memory of himself after his death, most triumphantly in the huge cenotaph in the Hofkirche (Court Church) in Innsbruck.Jan-Dirk Müller has called this cumulative effort, combining printing of his own texts with splendid woodcuts, the creation of a literary anthology of medieval texts, architectural and artistic, and scientific and humanistic endeavors, "Gedechtnus," which proves to be a rather significant cultural-historical phenomenon shedding more light on late medieval culture at large. 21The term itself was frequently used by the emperor himself who obviously understood well that he was already oddly positioned at the juncture between the late Middle Ages and the early modern age and could barely hold on to his own ideals in a radically changing world.Through literary works, sculptures, and especially a monumental operation to memorialise himself as the so-called 'last knight,' Maximilian strove to secure his memory by posterity, so he can serve exceedingly well as a case study of how the highest representative of late medieval aristocracy endeavored to draw from a wide range of strategies to achieve the best effect concerning himself to be remembered.However, he was not at all the only individual deeply interested in establishing memoria of himself; instead, many other contemporary mighty, wealthy, and influential individuals aimed for more or less the same goal, as is perhaps best represented by buildings and paintings, often self-portraits, as we have them, for instance, from Oswald von Wolkenstein (1376/77-1445; poet) and Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528; artist and author), 22 not to speak of countless portraits of early modern rulers, such as the English King Henry VIII (1491-1547) or Queen Elizabeth I Emperor Maximilian I and the Ambraser Heldenbuch Maximilian was born in Wiener Neustadt in 1459 as the long-awaited heir to Emperor Frederick III and his wife Eleonore.In 1476, Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy promised Maximilian his daughter Maria as wife, so Maximilian embarked on a bridal quest in May 1477, arriving in Ghent in 1478, where the wedding took place.But his wife died already from a hunting accident in 1482, which caused her husband not only deep personal grief, but also created a host of major economic, political, and military conflicts, including a five-month imprisonment in 1489, after which he could return to his father in Innsbruck.Having been crowned king already in 1486, he ascended to the throne after his father's death in 1493.In 1508, he was proclaimed as emperor in Trento (not in Rome!).
In 1494, he married Bianca Maria Sforza, daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan, which widely opened his court to Italian administrators and courtiers, and Maximilian himself worked hard as a promoter of humanist studies, literature, and the arts.All this allowed him to strive personally for the goal of being remembered after his death.As he formulated it himself at the end of his autobiographical romance, Weisskunig (1505-1516): "Werime in seinem Leben kaingede chtnus macht, der hat nachseinemtodkaingedächtnus und denselben Menschen wirdmit dem glockendonvergessen, und darumb so wird das gelt, so ich auf die gedechtnusausgib, nit verloren" (He who does not create a memory of himself during his lifetime, will not be remembered after his death, and he will be forgotten as soon as the bell has rung [during the funeral].For that reason, the money that I am spending on my memorialization will not be wasted). 24As Maximilian then continued, reflecting on practical approaches to the creation of memoria, "aber das gelt, das erspart wird in meinemgedachtnus, das isteinundertruckungmeinekunftigengedächtnus, und was ich in meinem leben in meinergedächtnus nit volbing, das wirdnachmeinemtodwederdurch dich oderander nit erstat" (but the money that is saved in the name of my memoria is a repression of my future memoria, and what I do not accomplish during my life on behalf of my memoria, will not be achieved through you or anyone else after my death).Indeed, he spent a lot of money for this literary masterpiece, and achieved a lot as well, creating a wide range of artistic and literary monuments to glorify himself, drawing in that process, of course, on many aides and supporters at his court.
Maximilian "referred to these projects as Gedechtnus('memorial'), which included a series of stylised autobiographical works: the epic poems Theuerdank and Freydal, and the chivalric novel Weisskunig, both published in editions lavishly illustrated with woodcuts.In this vein, he commissioned a series of three monumental woodblock prints: The Triumphal Arch (1512-18, 192 woodcut panels, 295 cm wide and 357 cm high -approximately 9'8" by 11'8½"); and a Triumphal Procession (1516-18, 137 woodcut panels, 54 m long), which is led by a Large Triumphal Carriage (1522, 8 woodcut panels, 1½' high and 8' long), created by artists including Albrecht Dürer, Albrecht Altdorfer and Hans Burgkmair.His goals extended far beyond the emperor's own glorification too: com memoration also included the documentation in details of the presence and the restoration of source materials and precious artifacts." 25Maximilian also embarked on practical treatises dealing with hunting, forest animals, fishing, and the like, such as his Tiroler Jagdbuch (1500, Tyrolean Book of Hunting), the Gemeine Jagdbuch (ca.1502, General Book of Hunting), the Tiroler Fischereibuch (1504, Tyrolean Book of Fishing), and the Zeugbücher (ca.1507, Books on Arms).As a result of his extensive efforts to serve as patrons of the arts and humanities at large, many poets supported by him and others composed dazzling panegyrics on Maximilian, praising him as the ideal ruler of all times. 26However we might evaluate Maximilian's efforts and also failures, he certainly established an aura around his entire court, and thus achieved a unique charisma hardly paralleled by other medieval and early modern rulers. 27The emperor died in 1519, but the memory of him and his accomplishments did not fade quickly, if at all.Although Maximilian's cenotaph in the Hofkirche in Innsbruck was completed only long after his death, he himself had designed it and saw to the realization of the first steps.The church was built in 1553 by Emperor Ferdinand I (1503-1564) as a memorial to his grandfather Emperor Maximilian I. "The sarcophagus itself was completed in 1572, and the final embellishments -the kneeling emperor, the four virtues, and the iron grille -were added in 1584."It contains 24 reliefs depicting scenes in Maximilian's life from 1477 (first marriage) to 1516 (defense of Verona, 1516)."The cenotaph is surrounded by 28 large bronze statues (200-250 cm) of ancestors, relatives and heroes.Their creation took place between 1502 and 1555, and occupied a number of artists including Christian Amberger, Albrecht Dürer, Jörg Kölderer, Jörg Polhamer the elder, Gilg Sesselschreiber, Ulrich Tiefenbrunn, and sculptors Peter Vischer the Elder, Hans Leinberger, G. Löffler, Leonhart Magt, and VeitStoß.Three of the statues are based on designs by Dürer." 28st significantly, the Ambraser Heldenbuch attracts our attention as a masterpiece of medieval memoria although the emperor as the patron does not even appear anywhere either in a reference to him by name or through a prologue or epilogue.At a time when the printing press and the use of paper had become already standard on the early modern book market, here we face a resolute counter-effort to stay loyal to the principle values and traditions of the high Middle Ages.Hans Ried used only parchment to write down the many medieval literary texts (a total of twenty-five), and he compiled a collection which could not have been more anachronistic at that time, assembling primarily narratives or poems from the late twelfth through the late thirteenth centuries.While his Theuerdank and Weisskunig were already produced with the help of the printing press, the Ambraser Heldenbuch resorted to the traditional technique of copying texts by hand. 29wever, Ried did not put together chronicles or other types of historical material; instead, he resorted almost exclusively to literary texts, as diverse as they prove to be in terms of genre, content, or volume.Although the cover illustration shows two knights in full armor, the remainder of the ca.500 pages in the Ambraser Heldenbuch are illustrated flowers, angels, young women and men, insects, and the like, so none of them mirroring anything that might smack of the heroic element.
We face here, in other words, a fascinating literary enterprise carried out by Hans Ried for the emperor in which we find an odd collection of major or marginal literary texts from the high and late Middle Ages, which, as a collective, served in one way or the other to aggrandize Maximilian's memoria.Subsequently, I will focus on the first contribution, the anonymous verse narrative of Mauritius von Craûn (ca.1220-1240), in which we face a most curious reflection on the nature of courtly love, courtliness at large, and knighthood as values that are still appreciated but that seem to have failed under the new circumstance.

Mauritius von Craûn as a Literary Means of Memoria
The Ambraser Heldenbuch represents such an intriguing challenge for us today because Maximilian had commissioned its production with the explicit desire to have it serve for his gedechtnus, although the key concept was perhaps supposed to be the heroic element ("Heldenbuch," Book of heroes).With Dietrichs Flucht, Rabenschlacht, the Nibelungenlied, Kudrun,Biterolfund Dietleib, Ortnit, and Wolfdietrich A, there are included, indeed, major heroic epics justifying the general title as "Heldenbuch," but this impression is immediately undermined by the presence of a variety of other types of texts, all of them entertaining and also didactic, such as Wernher der Gartenaere's Meier Helmbrecht and The Stricker's Pfaffe Amís.We cannot easily determine what justified or motivated Maximilian or his scribe Ried to select those specific works, but Mario Klarer suggests at least that the driving force was, after all, to have texts available that reflect knighthood, heroism, and global government by means of the translatioimperii. 30In Mauritius von Craûn, the prologue, above all, might support this view, but the verse narrative itself casts considerable doubt on this perspective.
Only recently, the entire Ambraser Heldenbuch has been republished both as a facsimile and as diplomatic edition of the early modern German text, along with the parallel diplomatic edition of the medieval versions. 31This provides us now with the best possible access to this famous manuscript, perhaps one of the best literary representations of Maximilian's efforts at creating gedechtnus of himself, that is, as a patron of the arts and literature.However, in this specific case, a literary analysis is required to gain a better understanding of the verse narrative, Mauritius von Craûn, taking us beyond generic comments about the references to Troy and the origin of knighthood there.
Hans Ried copied this verse novella as the third text in his manuscript, which has survived quite curiously only in this manuscript.It has come down to us anonymously, and we cannot tell whether any other medieval German poet might have ever referred to it or engaged with it.This is surprisingly not an unusual phenomenon for the entire collection since fifteen of the twenty-five works contained in it are uniquely preserved here, which forces us to reflect on the ultimate purpose of this anthology.Ten other texts, however, constitute major contributions to Middle High German literature, such as the Nibelungenlied (ca.1200) or Hartmann von Aue's Arthurian romance, Iwein (ca.1190/1200), which are here recorded once again, but now very late.

Apart from a relatively short verse narrative by
The Stricker (ca.1220-1240), his Frauenehre (1ra-2rb), Mauritius von Craûn really represents the introductory piece and thus enjoyed a high profile (2va-5vc).But the initial verses describing the subsequent text do not focus on the actual story, but on the history of the Roman Emperor Nero: "Von Künig Nero ainemWüettrich der auchwieeinFrawSwangerwolt sein Vnd sein Mueterauf schneidenliesse von seins fürbitz" (title lines; On Emperor Nero who was a rabid and violent man who wanted to be pregnant like a woman and had his mother cut open to learn about the location of his origin).
The prologue actually pursues a much larger issue than Emperor Nero, who is identified as an insane individual.The poet explores, instead, the origin and history of knighthood which had developed first in Greece, especially during the Trojan war.After having dropped a number of famous names, the narrator refers to the earliest chronicler, Dâres, as his major source, and then reflects on the rapid decline of knighthood once Troy had fallen.Relying on an allegorizing strategy, the speaker then describes how both knighthood and honor had to turn their back to Greece and to look for a refuge, which they found in Rome, at least under Julius Cesar (115-17).However, as we already know from the title lines, as soon as Nero had assumed the throne, all values were quickly lost again, and escape was necessary one more time.The narrator narrows the focus and talks only about knighthood, which was well received in the Carolingian empire under Charlemagne.We are told a little about the emperor's paladins, Oliver and Roland (242), and then learn that knighthood had bloomed there well until the present time when the actual narrative about the knight Mauritius von Craûn sets in: Ez stêt dehein lant baz ze fröuden dâ ie man gesaz danne Karlingen tuot.wan diu ir ritterschaft ist guot.siu ist da wert und bekant . . . .si dienent harte schône den frouwen dâ nâch lône, wan man lônet in da baz dan iender anderswâ.

(251-62)
[There is no other country better off filled with joys, wherever people have existed, than where the Carolingians live.Their knighthood is good, it is valued and well-known. . . . .They serve with all their might the ladies in hope of being rewarded, better than anywhere else.]However, there are no references to Maximilian, to the Habsburgian court, to any contemporary events, and the like.Instead, the anonymous poet only projects general historiographical comments and outlines a historical process of progress and decline, which other authors had also dealt with, such as the chronicler Otto von Freising (1112-1158). 33However, the outcome of the story about the protagonist is everything but hopeful because Mauritius basically misunderstands the principles of courtly love, confuses the traditional wooing process with a mercantile contract which his lady at the end does not observe and actually breaks because he himself had failed in a slight matter.In order to secure his reward, Mauritius then breaks into the marital bedroom, scares the husband out of his wits, and lies down in the bed next to his lady, who then is basically forced to accept him as her sexual partner, certainly a form of rape. 34ter Mauritius has slept with his lady, he returns her ring and thus terminates their erotic relationship, abandoning her altogether and leaving the country, never to return.The narrator only emphasizes that he subsequently gained much fame and honor in distant lands, but the closure of the verse novella is reserved for the lady, the Countess of Beamunt, who bemoans her own failures, her stubbornness, her ungratefulness, and hence her loss of this lover.This does not mean, however, that blame falls entirely on her shoulders, as research has often observed since she had no real freedom to choose, was not protected enough from his violent sexual conquest, has a miserable husband who simply faints when he thinks that a ghost has come to take him down to hell, and is confronted by a pompous knight who does not take a 'no' for an answer and pursues his goal with extreme measures and pomp.We might call the final scene a form of domestic rape, although there are also good reasons to chastise her for a number of shortcomings in her relationship with Mauritius.The male protagonist constantly seems to overdo everything he undertakes, whether the artificial ship with which he arrives at his lady's castle, or the exorbitant tournament at which he wins every joust, as if the entire event had been orchestrated to make him shine forth as the best knight of them all. 35uld we perhaps identify Mauritius as a new Nero?Does knighthood in its traditional sense even survive the fracas of his ridiculous and violent behavior and performance?The narrator only comments curtly: "erkoufte lop und êre./ do gerouezsievilsêre" (1643-44; he purchased praise and honor; she regretted it very much).The outcome thus proves to be catastrophic for her since she is no longer enjoying Mauritius's love and yet is stuck in an unhappy marriage, as far as we can tell, considering her husband's unworthy role that he has played both publicly and privately. 36at would this verse novella hence contribute to Maximilian's efforts to work at his memoria?In a way, we might even argue that all of the ideals of knighthood and courtly love are deconstructed here and exposed as dubious, if not fake concepts that can easily be dismantled.However, there are references both to the ancient Greeks and Trojans, then to Cesar, and finally to Charlemagne, all worthy figures to whom Maximilian would have looked up or regarded as his role models. 37The glory of knighthood appears consistently as a dream which comes true at times and then disappears again because of human failure.The danger of the downfall and collapse of all courtly values is described as very real and imminent, so the individual has to realise its contingency, which was also the critical experience by Theuerdank in Maximilian's own eponymous novel. 38wever, it is also possible that the introductory lines regarding the high value of knighthood both in the past and in the future (3-4) might have satisfied the patron, Maximilian, and his scribe, Ried, to accept this short verse narrative as a representative piece in this miscellany.The narrator emphasizes, after all: "wirhoeren an den buochenlesen / wâ man ir von erste began / und war si sider bekam" (6-8; we hear how the books tell us where knighthood originated and where it developed later).
For a long time, the narrator seems to depict a worthy male protagonist, a marvel of a knightly wooer, and the poet might have intended to project a negative image of unreliable and untrustworthy courtly ladies who do not submit easily to their wooers' desires.Modern scholarship has, however, gained a very different impression, with many scholars voicing extensive criticism of the knightly figure who is ultimately not worth his own rank and appears to commit even rape after having faked tremendous successes at the tournament.But when we want to assess "Mauritius von Craûn" in the context of Maximilian's effort to establish his own "gedechtnus" for posterity, then we might have to take a different approach and acknowledge primarily the emperor's desire to collect literary antiquities, so to speak, and to embellish his own reputation as a patron of literature, apart from his own role as a poet, with this famous Ambraser Heldenbuch.
Ironically, despite the rather dark sides in Mauritius's character and his dubious performance as a lover, there is no doubt about the value of this verse novella as a representative literary work reflecting on a knight's struggles to win his lady's love, which can easily fail, and this without the man's fault, as the narrator wants to insinuate.We tend to see this quite differently today, as modern research has amply demonstrated, 39 but this would not undermine the public function of this verse novella as a worthy contribution to Maximilian's fame as an expert in matters of knighthood and connoisseur of the erotic discourse.
The emphasis on Nero as a monster of a ruler could not be taken as an indicator of Maximilian's selfdoubts and criticism.By contrast, the verse novella appears to serve as a complex literary mirror of the high value of knighthood and courtly love which could easily get lost.Since the emperor obviously knew only too well of the delicate situation he lived in, with the times changing rapidly also in his world, the precarious nature of Mauritius von Craûn underscored the tenuous nature of memoria and the great need to work hard and diligently to preserve one's respect and honor at court.The implied self-criticism strongly suggests Maximilian's awareness of the grave dangers he faced as the 'last knight' and as a patron of medieval art and literature.As disturbing as the verse novella easily proves to be, it certainly expressed in multiple fashions the vagaries of life and hence the particular need to work hard at establishing memory, or gedechtnus.