Taylor, Edgar [Hrsg.]; Austin, Sarah [Hrsg.]: Lays of the minnesingers or German troubadours of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: Illustr. by specimens of the contemporary lyric poetry of Provence and other parts of Europe ; With histor. and crit. notes, and engravings from the ms. of the minnesingers in the king's library at Paris, and from other sources (London, 1825)

GERMANY. 97

life,—he had roved through the fairy regions of the
East, and had held his court in the poetic lands of the
South of Europe; but while he admired the songs of
the Provencaux, he loved and cultivated the muse of
his native land; he rigidly enforced the use of its lan-
guage for all court and state purposes; and Germany
has to thank his patriotic hand for stimulating her
sons to a literary emulation of their cotemporaries.

His niece Richilda having married Raymond Be-
rengar III. count of Provence, Frederic became inti-
mately connected with that court; and Nostradamus
relates how, on the confirmation at Turin, in 1162, of
the investiture of Provence, "l'illustre Remond Be-
renguier, (diet le jeune Comte de Barcelonne, et de
Provence, fils de Berenguier Remond fils troisieme
de Doulce Comtesse de Provence,) accompagne d'une
grande trouppe d'orateurs et poetes Provensaux et
des gentils-hommes de sa cour, avec la princesse
Rixende ou Richilde sa femme, vint trouver l'Empe-
reur, qui lui feist une grande bien-venue pour la
bonne renommee de ses faits.—E le Comte Remond
Berenguier feist reciter plusieurs beaux chants en
langue Provensalle a ses poetes en la presence de
l'Empereur; lequel, du plaisir qu'il y print, estant
esbay de leurs belles et plaisantes inventions et facon
de rithmer, leur feist de beaux presens et feist une
epigramme en langue Provensalle a la louange des
toutes les nations qu'il avoit suyvies en ses victoires,

H