Volume 135, Issue 1

This paper presents three case studies using a relational database to investigate the phonology and morphology of Old High German (OHG) nominal forms quantitatively. Results first show that the - iz -/- az -stem class was less clearly defined than handbooks suggest, and that - ir was not yet a general plural marker. Second, for feminine i -stem nouns, the frequency of primary umlaut does not increase over the OHG period, nor does its association with plurality. Third, the study charts the transition of dative plural marking from - um to - Vn during the OHG period.

In the first part of this article, a formerly unknown fragment from the early 14 th century is described and transliterated. The fragment contains several stanzas of ›Fürstenlob‹ and ›Zabulons Buch‹ − two poems from the set of texts usually called ›Wartburgkrieg‹. In the second part of the article, the author tries to position this new witness within the textual tradition of the two poems.

During the second half of the 15 th century, the German literary tradition is marked by the rebirth of Latin comedy. The presumably earliest product of this development is the so-called ›Dialogus de virgine et adolescente‹ composed by the famous wandering poet Samuel Karoch of Lichtenberg (d. after 1492). The short text is conserved in eight manuscripts of the 15 th and 16 th centuries and has been printed in 1507 at Leipzig as an anonymous ›Comedia eque scitu digna atque auditu iucundissima‹. The article presents a corrected edition of the text and shows that Karoch’s comedy is deeply influenced by Leonardo della Serrata’s ›Poliscena‹ (composed in 1432/1433).

The ›Catalogue of German Illustrated Manuscripts‹ is organized alphabetically into textual groups and their illustrations. This concept offers historians of literature as well as art historians a good basis for interdisciplinary research. Following a long silence new fascicles have once again been published since 2008. Modifications made to the fourth volume as well as its content will be presented in the following.