HENRY OF LAUFENBERG. - Versatile poet of the high Middle Ages, Swiss by birth (ca. 1300), priest at Freiburg (Brisgau), he entered the Order of St. John in 1445; d. 31 March 1460.

A representative of a mystical-artistic tendency (symbolic and allegorical interpretation of the Holy Scriptures) that goes back to the most ancient times of Christian exegesis, he is the author of a Spiegel des menschlichen Heils (1437) of 1500 verses, derived from the «Speculum humanae salvationis», which met with success also among the laity, given the taste of the era for the Christian history of the Redemption and for symbolism. From 1413 to 1460 he wrote numerous religious compositions, the most being in praise of the Most Holy Virgin (to whom is also dedicated the Buch von den Figuren [1441], of 25,370 verses), or contrafacta sometimes of profane songs. About 100 of these poems are found in the collection of W. Wackernagel, Das deutsche Kirchenlied (II, Leipzig 1864-77, pp. 528-612.)

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: E. R. Müller, Heinrich v. L., Berlin 1888; A. Jentsch, Regimen sanitatis von Heinrich v. L., Strasbourg 1908; L. Denecke, s. v. in Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters, verfaserlexikon, II, coll. 27-35 (with bibl.).

Giovanni Guerra

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Henry of Laufenberg

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