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 2 contains Hartmanns von Aue Arthurian courtly romance Iwein, which has survived as a complete text in 15 other manuscripts outside the Ambraser Heldenbuch. The present transcription reproduces the youngest extant copy of Iwein.

Mario Klarer, University of Innsbruck, Austria.