Created in Bavaria around 1225, the Aeneas Romance is a richly illuminated manuscript and the earliest surviving copy of Eneit, Heinrich von Veldeke's German adaptation of the French Roman d'Eneas. Veldeke framed the story of the ancient Trojan hero Aeneas for a medieval courtly audience, blending classical themes with medieval ideals of love and honor, brought to life through the manuscript's seventy-one full-page miniatures, many divided into two horizontal registers, with the actions of the pictured protagonists frequently enhanced by speech scrolls.
Towards the end of the 12th century, Heinrich von Veldeke adapted Virgil's Aeneid, thereby creating his own novel about Aeneas. It narrates the fall of Troy and Aeneas’s escape from the city, his stay with the Carthaginian queen Dido, his journey to the underworld, the battles he fought, and his marriage to the king's daughter Lavinia. Veldeke's work marks the beginning of the German courtly romance.
The manuscript MS germ. fol. 282 stands as the oldest nearly complete manuscript of this text, featuring the first cycle of illustrations of Aeneas created by an unknown artist. The text and images are artfully juxtaposed; of the manuscript's 148 pages, 75 are embellished with double miniatures. These illustrations reveal an artist who breaks away from traditional iconographic schemes, skillfully blending ancient themes with the courtly world and sacred imagery.
We have 1 facsimile edition of the manuscript "Aeneas Romance": Eneas-Roman facsimile edition, published by Reichert Verlag, 1992
Request Info / Price