Illuminating the epic

by Joan A. Holladay

Illuminated for Heinrich II of Hesse in 1334, the Kassel Willehalm Codex differs from other secular manuscripts of the Gothic period by its lavish illumination cycle and the firm identification of its patron and date of execution. In spite of these distinguishing features, and the well-known epic text by Wolfram von Eschenbach and his epigones, the illuminations have been studied only in stylistic terms. In order to understand the meaning this manuscript held for its patron and the role of the codex in his Kunstpolitik, Joan A. Holladay examines the ways in which the illuminations interpret the text they accompany and places the codex in the larger contexts of the family's commissions and the patron's political actions and ambitions. After a review of the earlier scholarship, the epic's text, and its popularity and reception, Holladay looks at the notices of ownership that frame the text and the ways in which they link the patron intimately with both the book and its contents. She then