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 6 contains the epic Nibelungenlied, which has survived in a total of 37 textual sources, many of which, however, are only fragments of manuscripts. The present transcription reproduces 32 of 39 âventiures of the Nibelungenlied.

Mario Klarer, University of Innsbruck, Austria.