Bibliotecha Palatina
Digitized illustrated manuscripts: "27 late medieval illustrated manuscripts originating from three of the most popular 15th-century German workshops."
"Among these seven codices are ascribed to the so-called "Elsässische Werkstatt von 1418", the "workshop of Diebold Lauber" at Hagenau is represented by eleven, and the "workshop of Ludwig Henfflin", which probably worked at Stuttgart, by nine manuscripts. All these workshops were commercial enterprises working with a variable number of scribes and illuminators at the request of patrons as well as offering their manuscripts on the market. It is characteristic for these manuscripts that most of them were written in German. More precisely: They were written in the dialect of the particular scribe or - if requested - in the dialect of the patron. Furthermore they were written in a well readable script (Bastarda) on paper folios, which was cheaper than the formerly used parchment.
Regarding the contents the manuscripts cover almost the whole formal spectrum of medieval literature. Religious and devotional works, chronicles, medieval callendars, epic literature, works on natural history and even legal literature was copied by these workshops. The clients of the workshops were clergymen as well as noble dukes, the higher and lower nobility, but also the prosperous higher middle classes.
The illustrated manuscripts came to Heidelberg University Library via Bibliotheca Palatina, the famous Library of the palatine duke electors."
