GOTTFRIED VON STRASSBURG. - The greatest representative of chivalric poetry in Germany, he lived at the end of the 12th century, and died between 1210 and 1220. He composed the finest epic poem of the German Middle Ages: Tristan and Isolde (about 20,000 lines, left unfinished), whose legend — already put into poetry by the French trouvères of the century almost everywhere in Europe and by Eilhart v. Oberge around 1190 in Germany — he drew from the French Thomas.
His principal quality was the deeper investigation to which he subjected the erotic element of the legend. His gifts are a most refined psychological analysis, a fluidity of thought, a melodious harmony of language and rhyme, and a masterly allegory (of which he gave the first example in Germany); but in him the glorification of love is unfortunately not divorced from pleasures of the senses. Ulrich von Türheim and, better, Heinrich von Freiberg continued the tale down to the burial of the heroes. Some lyrics by him also survive; a Lauda of the Virgin Mary, however, is not his.
The editio princeps is corrupt. Many followed; the New High German version of W. Hertz (4th ed., Stuttgart 1904) excels.
Bibliography5 worksEd. of the Tristan edited by Fr. Ranke, Berlin 1930. Studies: F. Piquet, L'originalité de Godfrey de S., Lille 1905; I. Kelemina, Geschichte
BIBL.: Ed. of the Tristan edited by Fr. Ranke, Berlin 1930. Studies: F. Piquet, L'originalité de Godfrey de S., Lille 1905; I. Kelemina, Geschichte der Tristan-Sage nach den Dichtungen des Mittelalters, Vienna 1923, p. 232 ff., (with an exhaustive bibliography); E. Nickel, Studien zum Liebesproblem bei G. v. S., Königsberg 1927; G. V. Amoretti, Il Tristano di G., Pisa 1934; H. Küpper, Bibliographie zur Trist. Sage, Jena 1941.
Guerra, Giovanni. “Goffredo di Strasburgo.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI, col. 899. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/goffredo-di-strasburgo.
MLA
Guerra, Giovanni. “Goffredo di Strasburgo.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, col. 899. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/goffredo-di-strasburgo.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec6_goffredo_di_strasburgo,
author = {Guerra, Giovanni},
title = {Goffredo di Strasburgo},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VI},
pages = {899},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1951},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/goffredo-di-strasburgo}
}
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