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

Abstract

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.