RODOLFO di EMS. - German epic poet, of Swiss origin, born about 1200, died around 1254 in Italy in the retinue of Corrado IV, the best among the imitators of Goffredo di Strasburgo.
Among his works, distinguished above all by a high degree of moral purity and by singular grace and elegance of form, mention should be made of the novella Der gute Gerhard, a glorification of Christian humility; the ascetic tale Barlaam und Josaphat, the story of the conversion to Christianity of the Indian prince Josaphat through the work of the sage Barlaam; the Weltchronik, a history of the world from the Creation to the death of Salomone, in which individual events are presented as the incarnation of the divine will in preparation for the advent of Christ, and which was one of the most widely circulated books of that time—indeed, until the Reformation, the principal source of knowledge of the Bible for the lay class.