WALTER OF RHEINAU (Gualtiero of Rheinau). - German religious poet of the 13th century (?), b. at Bremgarten on the Reuss (in Aargau) from the poor branch of a noble family whose name is found near Zurich and Winterthur.

He certainly studied in a convent and wrote to earn his living. His poem, a Life of Mary in 1500 verses, written in the German of the 13th century, must be dated, on account of its mystical-passional tone, no earlier than 1300. He follows his model blindly, the Vita beatae Virginis of Philip the Carthusian, concealing, even more than the latter does, beneath a good literary culture, a lack of talent and imagination; in the exposition of spiritual matters, however, one notices a tendency toward psychological depth. The influences of courtly poetry and of Konrad von Würzburg are evident.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: edd.: from the manuscripts of Stuttgart (Cod. theol. no. 22) and Karlsruhe (no. 35); A. von Keller edited them at Tübingen 1849-55. Studies: A. Vöglin, W. von R., Strasbourg 1886; for further bibliographical indications cf. J. Körner, Bibliogr. Handbuch des deutschen Schriftums, Bern 1949, p. 107.

Alba Cori

@incollection{ec12_walter_von_rheinau_gualtiero_d, author = {Cori, Alba}, title = {Walter Von Rheinau (Gualtiero di Rheinau)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1648}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/walter-von-rheinau-gualtiero-di-rheinau} }

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Walter of Rheinau (Gualtiero of Rheinau)

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