The Illustrations to the Munich Parzival (Cgm 19)

Summary

The Munich Parzival manuscript was made at a time when the reception of vernacular literary texts was shifting from oral presentation (someone reading the poem to others – a large group or small) to the possibility of a more visual and perhaps more private experience. Although the manuscript itself does not include any text stating where, when or for whom it was made, comparisons of the script and of the style of the illustrations with other works suggest that it was written in southern, probably south-western, Germany in the second quarter of the thirteenth century, perhaps around 1240. The presence of narrative illustrations indicates that the Munich manuscript was made to be seen – perhaps to be read or perused privately or in a very small group (two to three people?). Besides the illustrations, the manuscript also features initials spaced on the page so as to form decorative patterns. The use of gold presupposes a wealthy owner. This book was not just a repository for a text but was made to impress and to provide entertainment and edification.

The illustrations themselves are found on a bifolium – a single piece of parchment folded in half to form two leaves of the book – folios 49 and 50. Although the manuscript is currently bound so that the illuminated leaves are inserted in Book XII of the poem, they illustrate a series of events from the reconciliation of Gawan and Gramoflanz (just after Parzival’s combat with Gramoflanz) in Book XIV to the end of the poem, with Feirefiz’s conversion. Each page is divided into three registers, some of which contain more than one scene (see individual descriptions below). It is so unusual for illustrations to occur only at the end of a work that one can speculate that the manuscript originally included a number of similarly arranged full page illuminations inserted at appropriate intervals.

The illustrations, executed in opaque paint with some use of gold and silver, are characterised by strong colours in both the background and the richly patterned fabrics (as seen in the tents on fol. 49r). The overall impression is decorative and two-dimensional, with the figures placed as though in a frieze in front of the solid background.