No German poet of the second half of the thirteenth century enjoys a richer manuscript tradition than Konrad von Würzburg. The generic diversity of his poetic output is astonishing, ranging from relatively conventional Minnesang (courtly love poetry) to social and moral Sprüche (didactic poems), from somewhat plain saints' legends to the virtuosity and rhetorical force of Die goldene Schmiede (The Golden Smithies, circa 1275-1287"), and from small-scale Mären (stories) to a conception of the Trojan War so grandiose that he was ultimately unable to realize it. Such variety--of the major medieval genres only the Arthurian romance is missing--sets him apart from almost every other author of the German Middle Ages. He is virtually unique in writing both Sprüche and romances.

In comparison with information about other authors who lived before the end of the thirteenth century, modern knowledge of Konrad's...