Epica e storiografia nei codici miscellanei: Troia e Alessandro nella Basler Handschrift

Throughout the development of Middle High German literature, historical writings show a high degree of textual variability: old poetic corpora circulated within historical prose collections, and they were chronologically and typologically arranged in compliance with conceptual patterns, such as the translatio imperii and the alleged legendary descent of European ruling groups from Trojan refugees or Alexander’s soldiers. This analysis will address the re-use of poetic works in a prosimetrical historical setting, that is Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, Codex E VI 26 (fi fteenth century). This manuscript is ultimately focused on the very destiny of the city where it was produced, on the fringe between courtly Middle High German and Early Modern literature and society. Though being a witness of the prose Sächsische Weltchronik, the Basel manuscript opens on a mishmash of poetic spoils, such as Rudolf von Ems’s and Jans von Wien’s Weltchroniken, an anonymous Troy liet (Basler Trojanerkrieg), and the Basel redaction of Lambrecht’s Alexanderlied (Basler Alexander). This latter compiles the torso of Lambrecht’s poem with excerpts from Jans von Wien’s account of Alexander’s fantastic journeys and vernacular rendition(s) of the Historia de preliis. Through a textual analysis of both Troy and Alexander poems, this study aims at envisaging the purpose of the composition of this German prosimetrum in the light of current categories of genres