RUDOLF OF EMS. - German epic poet, of Swiss origin, b. around 1200, d. around 1254 in Italy in the retinue of Conrad IV, the best among the imitators of Gottfried of Strasbourg.

Among his works, which are distinguished above all by a high degree of moral purity and by singular grace and elegance of form, worthy of mention are 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 wise Barlaam, the Weltchronik, a history of the world from the creation to the death of Solomon, in which the individual events are presented as the incarnation of the divine will in preparation for the coming 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.

Bibliography

BIBL.: G. Ehrnmann, Studien über R. v. E., in Sitzungsb. der Heidelberger Akad. der Wissenschaften, Heidelberg 1919.

Bruno Vignola

@incollection{ec10_rodolfo_di_ems, author = {Vignola, Bruno}, title = {Rodolfo di Ems}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {1080}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/rodolfo-di-ems} }

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Rudolf of Ems

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