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The Manesse Codex or Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Heidelberg, University of Heidelberg Library, Cod. Pal. germ. 848) is a book copied and illustrated between 1305-1340 in Zürich. It contains love songs in Middle High German by important poets, several of whom were famous rulers. The term for these poets, Minnesänger, combines the words for "romantic love" and "singer", reflecting the content of the poetry, which adapted the Provençal troubador tradition to German. This manuscript has 137 portraits of the authors which depict each poet as an idealized knight, dressed in his own heraldic colors and devices, making it possible for readers to identify them.
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