Thisvolume is devoted to an historical lexical and conceptual analysis of poetological expressions in German medieval literature, expressions such as schrift (?script’, ?writing’), rede (?speech’), buoch (?book’), tihtaere (?poet’), vindaere (?purveyor’ [?of wild tales’]), hœren (?hear’), lesen (?read’), erniuwen (?renew’), voltihten (?compose’), etc. Despite individual studies, these terms, which are of central importance in medieval texts, yet are only vaguely defined in them, have largely been neglected by researchers and have hardly ever been presented as a connected system. However, these terms do open the way to an understanding of central aspects of medieval views of literature and of the historical conception of works and authors.
The volume presents a collection of papers by renowned medievalists on key terms and items in medieval poetics and historical semantics.