The Tale of Peter the Knight

A young knight on adventures, a beautiful fairy, an unsuspecting princess, and a dramatic wedding with an ominous ending – these fairy-tale ingredients form the base for the short verse novel about the knight Peter Diemringer of Staufenberg, written around 1300. It is the only surviving work by the Alsatian poet Egenolf von Staufenberg, whose style was strongly influenced by Konrad von Würzburg ( ca. 1225/1230–1287). Unfortunately, very little is known about Egenolf today, even though his work enjoyed great popularity in the Late Middle Ages. This is also evidenced by the incunable (a printed work from before 1500) from the Württemberg State Library. It is a copy of the edition of the chivalric novel published in Strasbourg in around 1483, which was illustrated with 18 half-page woodcut miniatures. The book's decoration is complemented by a large woodcut coat of arms at the beginning of the codex and a charmingly designed title page with a filigree foliate border and two decorated initials.