Hugo von Trimberg (born circa 1230/1235 in Wern(a), now either Ober- or Niederwerrn near

Schweinfurt Schweinfurt ( , ; ) is a town#Germany, city in the district of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the surrounding Schweinfurt (district), district (''Landkreis'') of Schweinfurt and a major industrial, cultur ...

– died after 1313 in

Bamberg Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia district in Bavaria, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main (river), Main. Bamberg had 79,000 inhabitants in ...

-Theuerstadt) was a German

didactic Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasises instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is a conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to explain. ...

author of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. Around 1260 he came to the religious foundation of St. Gangolf in the Bamberg suburb of Theuerstadt, where surviving documents mention him as a teacher .Emmerson,R.Key Figures in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia-Pg 336 He later became Rector, which he remained until 1309. Unusually for the role of rector, von Trimberg was married with wife and children. He was noted in his own day, and is now remembered for his didactic writing, much of which was primarily aimed at his own students.

Works

Hugo composed, by his own account, five works in Latin and seven in German, of which there survive only three and one respectively (a second German work, now lost, was entitled ''Der Sammler'' (''The Collector''): * ''Registrum multorum auctorum'': a Latin verse summary of 100 school Latin authors, with summaries of their lives and works * ''Laurea sanctorum'': a Latin poem on the saints of the calendar and their feast days * ''Solsequium'': also in Latin, this work was intended not for schoolboys but for preachers, and consists of 166 "exempla", or anecdotes, intended to be used as illustrations in sermons * ''Der Renner'': the epic poem ''Der Renner'' (''"The Runner"'' or ''"The Courier"'', so called because the author intended that it should run the length and breadth of Germany), comprising 24,600 verses, is the most comprehensive didactic poem in the

German language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...

. It has been transmitted in several manuscripts and many revisions, most of them by Hugo himself: although the poem first appeared in c1300, he continued to work on it until his death. The allegorical framework holding the encyclopaedic content together is based on the

Seven Deadly Sins The seven deadly sins (also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins) function as a grouping of major vices within the teachings of Christianity. In the standard list, the seven deadly sins according to the Catholic Church are pride, greed ...

and contains much social comment, most of it critical of the burgher, noble and clerical estates. In 1549 Cyriakus Jakob von Bock printed in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

Reformist Reformism is a political tendency advocating the reform of an existing system or institution – often a political or religious establishment – as opposed to its abolition and replacement via revolution. Within the socialist movement, ref ...

revision.

References

External links

*
Literature by and about Hugo von Trimberg
in the Deutsche Nationale Bibliothek * *
Der Renner
*
Hugo von Trimberg
in ''"Cimelia Heidelbergensia"'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Hugo OF Trimberg 1313 deaths People from Schweinfurt (district) German poets 14th-century German writers Medieval Latin-language poets 1230s births German male poets 13th-century German philosophers Married Roman Catholic clergy 13th-century German writers