Leaf from Dietrich Von Bern or Das Heldenbuch

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Leaf from Dietrich Von Bern or Das Heldenbuch

Place of OriginGermany

Date15th century

DimensionsOverall: 7 1/16 x 10 1/2 in. (17.9 x 26.7 cm)

MediumHand colored woodcut

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineGift of Kennedy & Co.

Object number

1940.99

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Label TextThis leaf is interesting because in an age when most texts and woodcut illustrations were of religious subjects, this one is from a book about the heroic struggles and conquests of the German tribes during the great migrations, as recounted in the thirteenth-century German romantic poetry. Here we see Dietrich von Bern, the central figure and ideal type of German medieval hero, riding accompanied by a monk and his fellow compatriots, who are suited in armor. When the museum acquired this sheet, the information accompanying it was scant, efforts to pinpoint the precise book from which it came and its printer, have, thus far, been inconclusive.