Wer war der Minnesänger Leutold von Seven?

Abstract

For about 170 years the minnesinger Leutold von Seven had been the topic of intense research. The results, however, with regard to his descent and period of activity differed a great deal. The lack of cooperation between philologists, historians of art and historians certainly was one of the reasons. Up to about 1970 for older philologists Leutold came from Säben in South Tyrol and was a contemporary of Walther von der Vogelweide about 1220, although Josef Schatz had found out in 1901 that Seven and Säben are not identic. Younger scholars of the 1970s analysed Leutold’s songs again and dated them about 1250 or later. Since 1976 Leutold is seen as a Styrian of Safenau on the river Hartberger Safen by the historian of art, Ingo F. Walther, according to a Styrian document of 1218, published by historians in 1903, but overseen for a long time by philologists. It was the Styrian historian Fritz Posch to identify the territory of the Lords of Safen (= Seven ) around Kaindorf and Hofkirchen on the river Pöllauer Safen west of Hartberg in Eastern Styria. But Posch neglected the existence of Leutold von Seven, not knowing that he was a minnesinger, and tried to show that his name is only another name for Leutold von Stadegg. In the paper the different aspects of research are discussed and attempts of acceptable solutions are given.