Volume 17 of the “Jahrbuch der Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft” presents papers in a current area of Early Modern interest: “Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) and the court culture of his time”. Maximilian is considered the first ruler to have used ‘modern’ media – primarily printing – in developing traditional courtly art forms to serve the exercising of imperial power.
This groundbreaking change in media usage was the focus of an interdisciplinary symposium organized by the Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft which saw collaboration between around 40 researchers in the area from Europe and the USA.
The primary aim was to scrutinize Maximilian’s court culture and how it presented itself to the outside world, using recent methodological approaches such as techniques in medieval studies research developed for examining cross-media and text-image relationships, communication through symbols, and source-based historical procedures. Individual papers deal explicitly or implicitly with ways in which the court presented itself to the outside world through the holding of court, the exercising of power, and the self-portrayal of those in power.
A series of areas for investigation crystallizes out of these aspects, and these are elucidated by researchers from different disciplines: reconstructions of life at court; the court as a hub of decision-making in both domestic and external policy; Maximilian’s relationship to the history and establishment of a culture of memorial; Maximilian’s self-portrayal through images, texts and architecture; Maximilian as a (possible) author and collector of courtly literature; and Maximilian’s patronage of contemporary art, music, scholarship and humanistic literature in Latin. Maximilian’s ongoing legacy is also considered: his reception in literature, music theatre, exhibitions and museums in the modern age.
The result is a wide-ranging survey of how this first modern-style ruler presented himself to the outside world. The volume will therefore be of particular use to all who are interested in seeing the various facets of courtly culture and Maximilian I’s self-portrayal elucidated through scholarship in a wide range of disciplines. Thus the contributions also offer fresh starting points for a new discourse about the complex interactions between typically medieval elements related to a heroically glorified culture of memory, and a manner of exercising power within the culture of Maximilian’s court that aims at mass impact.

Sieglinde Hartmann
Ph.D. at the University of Frankfurt/Main, Professor of Medieval German Literature at the University of Würzburg, lectureships at the universities of Paris (Sorbonne), Frankfurt/Main, Mainz, Gießen, Kassel and Graz (Austria); publications on German, French, Spanish and Italian literature of the Middle Ages with special focus on Oswald von Wolkenstein. Member of the Programming Committee of the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds; President of the Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft; editor-in-chief of the “Jahrbuch der Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft”.

Freimut Löser is Professor of German Language and Literature of the Middle Ages at the University of Augsburg. His areas of research interest lie primarily in the Late Middle Ages: religious prose writings (especially the German Mystics and pre-Luther Bible translations), “Sangspruch” poetry, writings of the Teutonic Order, and sermons. Another field of interest is manuscript studies, incorporating editions and theories of editing. He is vice-president of the Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft as well as of the international Meister-Eckhart-Gesellschaft.