ENRICO di LAUFENBERG. - Versatile poet of the High Middle Ages, Swiss by birth (c. 1300), priest at Friburgo (Brisgovia), he entered the Order of S. Giovanni in 1445; d. 31 March 1460.
A representative of a mystical-artistic tendency (symbolic and allegorical interpretation of Holy Scripture) dating back to the earliest times of Christian exegesis, he was the author of a Spiegel des menschlichen Heils (1437), in 1,500 verses, derived from the «Speculum humanae salvationis», which also found favour among the laity, given the period’s taste for the Christian history of Redemption and for symbolism. From 1413 to 1460 he wrote numerous religious compositions, mostly in praise of the Most Blessed Virgin (to whom the Buch von den Figuren [1441], of 25,370 verses, is also dedicated), or sometimes contrafactions of secular songs. About 100 of these poems are found in W. Wackernagel’s collection, Das deutsche Kirchenlied (II, Lipsia 1864-77, pp. 528-612.)