Books in the TEAMS Medieval German Texts in Bilingual Editions series

A remarkable product of an important period in German literature and indeed in medieval European culture; it may be argued with considerable justification that Der Welsche Gast is the most significant didactic work of the German High Middle Ages.

This sourcebook presents editions and translations of seven 14th- and 15th-century texts that advance our understanding of gender, sexuality, and class in the late medieval German-speaking world. Three of the translated texts are fiction. Additionally, there is a religious treatise, a religious legend, an inventory of books, and a legal document.

Ava is the first woman whose name we know who wrote in German. She wrote her poem - or poems - on the lives of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ sometime early in the twelfth century, no later than 1127.