Scroll Text for Mistress Elizabeth Lovell, OL

As the illumination from this scroll was taken from the Codex Manesse, a 14th century liederhandschrift (or medieval songbook) which features a great deal of German Minnesang poetry, I chose to write the scroll text in the form of a Minnesang poem. The scroll text is loosely based on the poem 'Tanzweise' by Walther von der Vogelweide, whose portrait appears on leaf 124r of the Codex. Although I cannot confirm that 'Tanzweise' is one of the poems preserved in the Codex, it is a work that would have been immediately familiar to the owners of this book.

Here's a link to the source (in English translation)

( 'Lady,' they said, 'this garland wear )