The view generally adopted in earlier German literary studies saw the 12th century as an undisputed age of ground-breaking innovation, whereas the 13th century was generally regarded as an age of 'decline', of political and literary 'downfall'. However, recent developments in literary theory and the history of tradition have increasingly queried this periodicity. In Germany there was in fact no appreciable upsurge of lay culture before 1170 and it was not until the 13th century that the vernacular found its way into almost all areas of literary communication. Foregrounding the innovative impetus of the 13th century over and against older periodicities was the aim of the Cambridge symposium. The papers given there are assembled in this volume.