Medieval literature

The Codex Gigas (English: Giant Book) is the largest extant medieval manuscript in the world.

The Codex Manesse, Manesse Codex, or Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift is a Liederhandschrift (book of songs/poetry), the single most comprehensive source of Middle High German Minnesang poetry, written and illustrated between ca.

Le Morte d'Arthur (originally spelled Le Morte Darthur, Middle French for “the death of Arthur”) is a reworking of traditional tales by Sir Thomas Malory about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table.

Carmina Burana (/ˈkɑːrmᵻnə bʊˈrɑːnə/, Latin for "Songs from Beuern"; "Beuern" is short for Benediktbeuern) is the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century.

Parzival is a medieval German romance written by the poet Wolfram von Eschenbach in Middle High German.

The Roman de Fauvel is a 14th-century French allegorical verse romance of satirical bent, generally attributed to Gervais de Bus, a clerk at the French royal chancery.

As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe.

The Gujin Tushu Jicheng (simplified Chinese: 古今图书集成; traditional Chinese: 古今圖書集成; pinyin: Gǔjīn Túshū Jíchéng; Wade–Giles: Ku-chin t'u-shu chi-ch'eng; literally: "Complete Collection of Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current Times"), also known as the Imperial Encyclopaedia, is a vast encyclopaedic work written in China during the reigns of the Qing Dynasty emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng.

The Yongle Encyclopedia or Yongle Dadian (simplified Chinese: 永乐大典; traditional Chinese: 永樂大典; pinyin: Yǒnglè Dàdiǎn; Wade–Giles: Yung-lo Ta-tien; literally: "Great Canon of Yongle") was a Chinese leishu encyclopedia commissioned by the Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty in 1403 and completed by 1408.

The Rök Runestone (Swedish: Rökstenen; Ög 136) is one of the most famous runestones, featuring the longest known runic inscription in stone.

In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal ornamental device to help indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme.

Heimskringla (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈheimsˌkʰriŋla]) is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas.

Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland) is a collection of poems and prose narratives that purports to be a history of Ireland and the Irish from the creation of the world to the Middle Ages.

A sequence (Latin: sequentia) is a chant or hymn sung or recited during the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, before the proclamation of the Gospel.

Translatio imperii (Latin for "transfer of rule") is a historiographical concept, originating in the Middle Ages, in which history is viewed as a linear succession of transfers of an imperium that invests supreme power in a singular ruler, an "emperor".

Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium is a Latin hymn written by Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) for the Feast of Corpus Christi.

The Parlement of Foules (also known as the Parliament of Foules, Parlement of Briddes, Assembly of Fowls, Assemble of Foules, or The Parliament of Birds) is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343?–1400) made up of approximately 700 lines.

The Carolingian Renaissance, the first of three medieval renaissances, was a period of cultural activity in the Carolingian Empire occurring from the late eighth century to the ninth century, taking inspiration from the Christian Roman Empire of the fourth century.

"Edda" (/ˈɛdə/; Old Norse Edda, plural Eddur) is an Old Norse term that has been attributed by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the Prose Edda and an older collection of poems without an original title now known as the Poetic Edda.

The Malleus Maleficarum (commonly rendered into English as "Hammer of [the] Witches"; Der Hexenhammer in German) is a treatise on the prosecution of witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, a German Catholic clergyman.

The neck, nicor, nixie or nokken (German: Nixe; Dutch: nikker, nekker; Norwegian: nøkk; Swedish: näck; Finnish: näkki; Estonian: näkk) are shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore who usually appeared in forms of other creatures.

The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda (Icelandic: Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as Edda, is an Old Norse work of literature written in Iceland in the early 13th century.

Barlaam and Josaphat (Latin: Barlamus et Iosaphatus) are two legendary Christian martyrs and saints, based ultimately on the life of the Buddha.

La Vita Nuova (pronounced [la ˈviːta ˈnwɔːva]; Italian for "The New Life") or Vita Nova (Latin title) is a text by Dante Alighieri published in 1295.

Ship of Fools (Modern German: Das Narrenschiff, Latin: Stultifera Navis, original medieval German title: Daß Narrenschyff ad Narragoniam) is a satyrical allegory in German verse published in 1494 in Basel, Switzerland, by the humanist and theologian Sebastian Brant.

The Romance of Alexander is any of several collections of legends concerning the mythical exploits of Alexander the Great.

De vulgari eloquentia (Ecclesiastical Latin: [de vulˈɡari eloˈkwentsi.a], Classical Latin: [deː wʊɫˈɡaːriː eːɫɔˈkᶣɛnti.aː]; Italian: [de vulˈɡaːri eloˈkwɛntsja]; On Eloquence in the vernacular) is the title of a Latin essay by Dante Alighieri.

Teseida (full title: Teseida delle Nozze d’Emilia, or The Theseid, Concerning the Nuptials of Emily) is a long epic poem written by Giovanni Boccaccio c.

A kenning (Modern Icelandic pronunciation: [cʰɛnːiŋk]; derived from Old Norse) is a type of circumlocution, in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun.

The Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum (English: Letters of Obscure Men) was a celebrated collection of satirical Latin letters which appeared 1515-1519 in Hagenau, Germany.

The Itinerarium Burdigalense ("Bordeaux Itinerary") — also known as the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum ("Jerusalem Itinerary") — is the oldest known Christian itinerarium.

The Gita Govinda (Odia: ଗୀତ ଗୋବିନ୍ଦ, Bengali:গীতগোবিন্দ, Devanagari: गीत गोविन्द) (Song of Govinda) is a work composed by the 12th-century poet, Jayadeva, born in either the village of Kenduli Sasan in Odisha or the village of Jayadeva Kenduli in Bengal are likely candidates though another Kenduli in Mithila is also a possibility.

Widsith is an Old English poem of 143 lines.

Floris and Blancheflour is the name of a popular romantic story that was told in the Middle Ages in many different vernacular languages and versions.

Hauksbók ('Book of Haukr'), Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar AM 371 4to, AM 544 4to and AM 675 4to, is an Icelandic manuscript, now in three parts but originally one, dating from the 14th century.

Roman de Brut or Brut is a verse literary history of Britain by the poet Wace.

Le Testament is a collection of poetry composed in 1461 by François Villon.

Lanzelet is a medieval romance written by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven after 1194.

The Western classical tradition is the reception of classical Greco-Roman antiquity by later cultures, especially the post-classical West, involving texts, imagery, objects, ideas, institutions, monuments, architecture, cultural artifacts, rituals, practices, and sayings.

The mirrors for princes (Latin: specula principum or rather, principum specula) are a genre – in the loose sense of the word – of political writing during the Early Middle Ages, Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Bibliotheca universalis (in four volumes, 1545–49) was the first truly comprehensive "universal" listing of all the books of the first century of printing.

Sophismata (from the Greek word σόφισμα, 'sophisma', which also gave rise to the related term "sophism") in medieval philosophy are difficult or puzzling sentences presenting difficulties of logical analysis that must be solved.