Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Carmina Burana: A Mirror of Latin and Vernacular Literary Traditions from a Cultural-Historical Perspective: Transgression is the Name of the Game

  • Published:
Neophilologus Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Carmina Burana have too easily fallen into stifling categories of interpretation, treating them as exclusively poems by students, by learned scholars, or by minstrels who demand our respect. In reality, as this paper illustrates, they represent a very dense corpus of songs in Latin and in a mixtures of Latin and Middle High German in which highly educated intellects reflect upon the wide range of everyday themes, interests, concerns, and desires common at that time, including sexuality, drinking, entertainment, and music. But at closer analysis we also discover a plethora of critical songs in which the loss of ethics, morality, and social norms both at court and in the church are sardonically attacked and ridiculed. Although the poets usually resort to the norms and models of ancient-classical and medieval courtly poetry, they regularly transgress those and present drastically opposite perspectives. In this process they also reveal the extent to which they actually closely interacted with vernacular literature. Laughter is often the name of the game, but it is not simply light and untroubled comic that finds expression here. This article demonstrates the extent to which the poets of the Carmina Burana actually interacted in a very intensive fashion with the learned literary traditions and the standard ideals of courtly love, undermining the common pretenses of a peaceful, harmonious, and honorable courtly society and of a reputable clergy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bayless, M. (1996). Parody in the middle ages: The Latin tradition. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beatie, B. A. (1967). Macaronic poetry in the Carmina Burana. Vivarium: An International Journal for the Philosophy and Intellectual Life of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 5, 16–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bec, P. (1984). Burlesque et obscénité chez les Troubadours: Pour une approche du contre-texte médiévale. Paris: Stock.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernt, G. (1978). “Carmina Burana,” Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon (2nd, K. Ruh, et al. completely rev. ed., Vol. 1, pp 1179–1186). Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.

  • Bischoff, B., & Burana, C. (1970). Vol. 1: Einführung; vol. 2: Faksimile (1967). Munich: Prestel.

  • Brunner, H. (1970). “Epenmelodien,” Formen mittelalterlicher Literatur: Festschrift Siegfried Beyschlag zu seinem 65. Geburtstag von Kollegen, Freunden und Schülern, ed. Otto Werner and Bernd Naumann. Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik (Vol. 25 pp. 149–178) Göppingen: Kümmerle.

  • Caesarius of Heisterbach. (1929). The dialogue on miracles (trans. H. von E. Scott & C. C. Swinton Bland), with an Introduction by G. G. Coulton. London: George Routledge.

  • Camille, M. (1997). “Manuscript illumination and the art of copulation”, constructing medieval sexuality. In K. Lochrie, P. McCracken, & J. A. Schultz (Eds.), Medieval cultures (Vol. 11, pp. 58–90). Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carmina Burana. (1930). Mit Benutzung der Vorarbeiten Wilhelm Meyers kritisch herausgegeben von Alfons Hilka und Otto Schumann. 2 vols. Heidelberg: Carl Winter’s Universitätsbuchhandlung.

  • Carmina Burana. (1987). Texte und Übersetzungen. Mit den Miniaturen aus der Handschrift und einem Aufsatz von Peter und Dorothee Diemer. Herausgegeben von Benedikt Korad Vollmer. Bibliothek des Mittelalters, 13. Frankfurt a. M.: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag.

  • Carruthers, M. J. (1990). The book of memory: A study of memory in medieval culture. Cambridge studies in medieval literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chess and Allegory in the Middle Ages. (2005). In O. Ferm & V. Honemann (Eds.), Scripta minora, 12. Stockholm: Sällskapet Runica et Mediaevalia.

  • Chess in the Middle Ages. (2010). In D. O’Sullivan (Ed.), Fundamentals of medieval and early modern culture, 5. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter (forthcoming).

  • Christoph, S. (2008). “The limits of reading innuendo in medieval literature”, Sexuality in the middle ages and early modern times: New approaches to a fundamental cultural-historical and literary-anthropological theme. In A. Classen (Ed.), Fundamentals of medieval and early modern culture (Vol. 3, pp. 279–292). Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Classen, A. (1989). Erotik als Spiel, Spiel als Leben, Leben als Erotik: Komparatistische Überlegungen zur Literatur des europäischen Mittelalters. Mediaevistik, 2, 7–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Classen, A. (1996). “Multilingualism in late-medieval poetry,” Komparatistik. Mitteilungen 1996. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft (pp. 44–69). Dresden: Dresden University Press.

  • Classen, A. (2000). The role of wealth and money in medieval and late-medieval German literature. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, CI(3), 415–428.

    Google Scholar 

  • Classen, A. (2001a). Deutsche Liederbücher des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts. Volksliedstudien, 1. Münster, New York: Waxmann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Classen, A. (2001b). Die Bedeutung von Geld in der Welt des hohen und späten Mittelalters. Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung von Zeugen der mittelhochdeutschen Literaturgeschichte: Walther von der Vogelweide bis Sebastian Brant und Fortunatus. Studi Medievali, XLII(II), 565–604.

    Google Scholar 

  • Classen, A. (2004). “Introduction: Love, marriage, and transgression in medieval and early modern literature: Discourse, communication, and social interaction,” discourses on love, marriage, and transgression in medieval and early modern literature, ed. id. Medieval and renaissance texts and studies (Vol. 278, pp. 1–51). Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

  • Classen, A. (2007). Liederrepertoire and Themenvielfalt: Vom didaktisch-religiösen Liedgut zum Liebes- und Trinklied. Die Begegnung zwischen dem hohen Mittelalter und dem sechzehnten Jahrhundert: die Carmina Burana und Georg Forsters Liederbücher. Jahrbuch des deutschen Volksliedarchivs: Lied und populäre Kultur, 52, 53–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Classen, A., & Dinzelbacher, P. (2010). Futilitates Germanicae Medii Aevi redivivae: Erotisches und Obszönes in der Literatur des deutschen Spätmittelalters. Edition, Übersetzung und Kommentar. Mediaevistik (in press).

  • Coleman, J. (1992). Ancient and medieval memories: Studies in the reconstruction of the past. Cambridge, New York, et al.: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Das Eckenlied: Sämtliche Fassungen. (1999). In F. B. Brévart (Ed.), 3 Vols. Altdeutsche Textbibliothek, 111 (Tübingen: Niemeyer).

  • Daub, S. (2006). Vergil wechselt das Medium. Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik, 38(1), 145–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dronke, P. (1996). The Medieval Lyric (1968). Cambridge: D. S. Bewer.

  • Dronke, P. (2000). Latin songs in the Carmina Burana: Profane love and satire,” the Carmina Burana: Four essays. In M. H. Jones (Ed.), (pp. 25–40). London: King’s College London Centre for Late Antique & Medieval Studies.

  • Eckhardt, J. M. (2005). The politics of anti-courtly love poetry: Gender, sexuality, and religion in early seventeenth-century manuscript verse miscellanies. Ph.D. dissertations, Urbana/Champaign.

  • Edwards, C. (2000). “The German texts in the Codex Buranus,” the Carmina Burana: Four essays. In M. H. Jones (Ed.) (pp. 41–70). London: King’s College London Centre for Late Antique & Medieval Studies.

  • Ehrismann, O., Classen, A., McConnell, W., et al. (1995). Ehre und Mut, Âventiure und Minne: Höfische Wortgeschichten aus dem Mittelalter. Munich: Beck.

    Google Scholar 

  • En quête d’Utopies. (2005). In C. Thomasset & D. James-Raoul (Eds.), Cultures et Civilisations Médiévales. Paris: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne.

  • Europäische Mentalitätsgeschichte. (2008). Hauptthemen in Einzeldarstellungen. In P. Dinzelbacher (Ed.), 2nd, rev. and expanded K. Taschenausgabe (Ed.), 469 (1993; Stuttgart: Kröner).

  • Gravdal, K. (1991). Ravishing maidens: Writing rape: Writing rape in medieval french literature and law. New cultural studies series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hatto, A. T. (1965). Eos: An enquiry into the theme of lovers’ meetings and partings at dawn in poetry. The Hague: Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haustein, J. (1990). “Dietrich, Ecke und der Würfelspieler: Zu ‘Carmina Burana’ Nr. 203 und 203 a ,” Ja muz ich sunder riuwe sîn: Festschrift Karl Stackmann zum 15. Februar 1990. In W. Höver (Ed.), (pp. 97–106). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

  • Heinen, H. (1989). “Walther’s ‘Under der linden,’ Its Function, Its Subtext, and Its Maltreated Maiden,” Medieval German Literature: Proceedings from the 23rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 5–8, 1988. In A. Classen (Ed.), Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik, 507 (pp. 51–73) (Göppingen: Kümmerle).

  • Heinzle, J. (1999). Einführung in die mittelhochdeutsche Dietrichepik. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, W. T. H. (1980). Interpretation of Carmina Burana 62, ‘Dum Diane vitrea’, the interpretation of medieval lyric poetry, ed. id (pp. 44–60). New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaeger, C. S. (1985). The origins of courtliness: Civilizing trends and the formation of courtly ideals 939–1210. The middle ages series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamp, H. (2005). Gutes Geld und böses Geld: Die Anfänge der Geldwirtschaft und der ‘Gabentausch’ im hohen Mittelalter. Geld im Mittelalter, pp. 91–112.

  • Klopsch, P. (1983). “Die mittellateinische Lyrik,” Lyrik des Mittelalters. In H. Bergner (Ed.), (Vol. I, pp. 19–189). Stuttgart: Reclam.

  • Knapp, F. P. (1996). “Carmina Burana: Europäische Lyrik in Südtirol,” Literatur und Sprache in Tirol: Von den Anfängen bis zum 16. Jahrhundert. Akten des 3. Symposiums der Sterzinger Osterspiele (10–12 April 1995). In M. Gebhardt & M. Siller (Eds.), Schlern-Schriften, 301 (pp. 129–140). Innsbruck: Universitätsverlag Wagner.

  • Kratz, D. M. (1994). “Carmina Burana,” German Writers and Works of the High Middle Ages: 1170–1280. In J. Hardin & W. Hasty (Eds.), Dictionary of literary biography, 138 (pp. 207–213). Detroit, Washington, DC, London: Gale Research.

  • Kühne, U. (2000). Deutsch und Latein als Sprachen der Lyrik in den ‘Carmina Burana’. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 122(1), 57–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lachgemeinschaften: Kulturelle Inszenierungen und soziale Wirkungen von Gelächter im Mittelalter und in der Frühen Neuzeit ed. id. (2005). Trends in Medieval Philology, 4. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.

  • Lea, A. E. (1999). The Nightingale in Medieval Latin Lyrics and the Gorhoffedd by Gwalchmai ap Meilyr. Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, 51, 160–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lehtonen, T. M. S. (1995). Fortuna, Money, and the Sublunar World: Twelfth Century Ethical Poetics and the Satirical Poetry of the Carmina Burana. Helsinki: Finnish Historical Society.

  • Manitius, M. (1931). Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters. Vol. 3, together with Paul Lehmann. Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft, 9, 2, 3. Munich: Beck.

    Google Scholar 

  • Map, W. (1983). De nugis curialum (trans. by M. R. James Ed.; Rev. by C. N. L. Brooke & R. A. B. Mynors). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

  • März, C. (1996). “Walthers Leich und das Carmen Buranum 60/60a: Überlegungen zu einer Kontrafaktur,” Lied im deutschen Mittelalter: Überlieferung, Typen, Gebrauch. Chiemsee-Colloquium 1991. In C. Edwards, E. Hellgardt, & N. H. Ott (Eds.) (pp. 43–56). TÜbingen: Niemeyer.

  • Mertens, V. (sub-chapter) (1983). “Carmina Burana,” Lexikon des Mittelalters (Vol. 2, 7, pp. 1515–1516). Munich and Zurich: Artemis.

  • Müller, U. (1989). “Neidharts Pastourellen der ‘Manessischen Handschrift’. Unechter ‘Schmutz’ oder die Kehrseite der Medaille?,” Entzauberung der Welt: Deutsche Literatur 1200-1500. J. F. Poag & T. C. Fox (Ed.) (pp. 73–88). Bern: Francke Verlag.

  • Neidhart-Lieder: Texte und Melodien sämtlicher Handschriften und Drucke. (2007) In U. Müller, I. Bennewitz & F. V. Spechtler (Eds.), 3 Vols. Salzburger Neidhart-Edition, 1–3. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.

  • Parlett, D. (1986). Selections from the Carmina Burana: A verse translation. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Payer, P. J. (2009) Sex and the new medieval literature of confession, 1150–1300. Mediaeval law and theology, 1. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.

  • Peterson, J. (1994). Writing flowers: Figuration and the feminine in Carmina Burana 177. Exemplaria, 6(1), 1–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saunders, C. (2001). Rape and ravishment in the literature of medieval England. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sayce, O. (1982). The medieval German lyrik 1150–1300: The development of its themes and forms in their European context. Oxford: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sayce, O. (1992). Plurilingualism in the Carmina Burana: A study of the linguistic and literary influences on the codex. Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik, 556. Göppingen: Kümmerle.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaller, D. (1983). “Carmina Burana,” Lexikon des Mittelalters (Vol. 2. 7, pp. 1513–1515). Munich and Zurich: Artemis.

  • Schneider, C. (2008). Hovezuht: Literarische Hofkultur und höfisches Lebensideal um Herzog Albrecht III. von österreich und Erzbischof Pilgrim II. von Salzburg (1365–1396). Beiträge zur älteren Literaturgeschichte. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schubert, E. (2006). Essen und Trinken im Mittelalter. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schultz, J. A. (2006). Courtly love, the love of courtliness, and the history of sexuality. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sigal, G. (1996). Erotic dawn-songs of the middle ages: Voicing the Lyric Lady. Gainesville, Tallahasse: University Press of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sprenger, B. (1991). Das Geld der Deutschen: Geldgeschichte Deutschlands von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Paderborn, Munich: Ferdinand Schöningh.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spufford, P. (1988). Money and its use in medieval Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Geld im Mittelalter: Wahrnehmung – Bewertung – Symbolik. (2005). In K. Grubmüller & M. Stock (Eds.), Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.

  • The Love Songs of the Carmina Burana. (1987). (trans. by E. D. Blodgett & Roy Arthur Swanson) Garland library of medieval literature, series B, 49. New York, London: Garland.

  • Tomasek, T. (1985). Die Utopie im ‘Tristan’ Gotfrids von Straßburg. Hermaea. Germanistische Forschungen, Neue Folge, 49. Tübingen: Niemeyer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Traill, D. A. (1994). Parody and original: The implications of the relationship between ‘Dum domus lapidea’ and ‘Dum Diane vitrea’. Medievalia et Humanistica, 20, 137–146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Über BÜrger, Stadt und städtische Literatur im Spätmittelalter: Bericht Über Kolloquien der Kommision zur Erforschung der Kultur des Spätmittelalters 1975–1977. (1980). In J. Fleckenstein & K. Stackmann (Eds.), Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen. Philologisch-historische Klasse. Dritte Folge, 121. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

  • Unger, R. W. (2004). Beer in the middle ages and the renaissance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Urban Space in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age. (2009). Albrecht Classen (Ed.), Fundamentals of medieval and early modern culture, 4. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.

  • Vagabond Verse: Secular Latin Poems of the Middle Ages. (1966). (trans. with an introduction and commentary by E. H. Zeydel). Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

  • Violence in Medieval Courtly Literature: A Casebook. (2004). Albrecht Classen (Ed.), Routledge Medieval Casebooks. New York and London: Routledge.

  • von der Vogelweide, W. (1996). Leich, Lieder, Sangsprüche. 14., völlig neubearbeitete Auflage der Ausgabe Karl Lachmanns mit Beiträgen von Thomas Bein und Horst Brunner, herausgegeben von Christoph Cormeau.Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1996).

  • Wachinger, B. (1977). Sprachmischung bei Oswald von Wolkenstein. Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 106, 277–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wachinger, B. (1984). “Deutsche und lateinische Liebeslieder: Zu den deutschen Strophen der Carmina Burana,” From Symbol to Mimesis: The Generation of Walther von der Vogelweide. In F. H. Bäuml (Ed.), Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik, 368 (pp. 1–34). Göppingen: Kümmerle.

  • Waddell, H. (1929). The wandering scholars. Boston, New York: Hougton Mifflin Company (1927).

  • Wetherbee, W. (2000). “The place of secular latin lyric,” Medieval lyric: Genres in historical context. In W. D. Paden (Ed.) (pp. 95–125). Urbana, Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

  • Zeyen, S. (1996). …daz tet der liebe dorn: Erotische Metaphorik in der deutschsprachigen Lyrik des (pp. 12–14. Jahrhunderts. Item mediävistische Studien, 5 (Essen: Item, 1996).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of German Studies, The University of Arizona, 301 Learning Services Building, 1512 E. First Street, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Albrecht Classen

Authors
  1. Albrecht Classen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Albrecht Classen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Classen, A. The Carmina Burana: A Mirror of Latin and Vernacular Literary Traditions from a Cultural-Historical Perspective: Transgression is the Name of the Game. Neophilologus 94, 477–497 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-009-9188-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-009-9188-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation