Receptaculum Amoris. Annäherung an den Topos Minne über das Konzept des mentalen Diagramms (Burkhard von Hohenfels, KLD XI–Konrad von Würzburg, Das Herzmære). Receptaculum Amoris

Abstract

This article traces the concept of ›mental diagram‹ back to medieval poetics (Galfred of Vinsauf) within the framework of the liberal arts and discusses its implications against the backdrop of diverse literary patterns of thought, such as abductive inference, the use of exempla, and allegory. It uncovers the implicit epistemological schemes governing the invention of motifs and plots which help to make the virtually unseizable phenomenon of courtly love (minne) accessible to imagination and ratiocination, memory and consentaneous judgement. In presenting a close reading of a canzone by Burkhard von Hohenfels (KLD XI) and of an exemplum by Konrad von Wurzburg (Herzmaere) the effects of mental diagrams are tracked down, as they operate implicitely in the lyrical or narrative adaptation of a given matter directing the topics, dynamics and the economy of each poem.