The ‘Minnerede’ (Lyrical discourse of courtly love) is seen as the most widespread genre in late medieval German secular literature.In a multiplicity of ways it is a further development of the tradition of minnesong.The present volume presents the first collection of papers providing a systematic account of the genre of minnerede. In the light of their alleged ‘triviality’, a new cultural studies-based understanding is developed of textuality in the Late Middle Ages.