Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/167

UNIVERSITIES AND OTHER CENTRES OF LEARNING 155 of Hapsburg and the other German princely dynasties ; and also by imperial command Stabius and the Court physician and keeper of archives, Johann Spieshaimer, named Cuspinianus, edited the first edition of ' Otto von Freising,' and his successor, ' Eadevicus.' There was so much coherence and system in all these enterprises of the Emperor that one might almost say he had established a society for the promotion of the study of history and archseology, and had undertaken the presidency of it. But what was most gratifying in all this industry was the ultimate object for which it was carried on, viz. the encouragement of patriotism. Maximilian did not confine his zeal to the restora- tion of historical monuments : he also saved many literary treasures, popular poems, and folklore from being forgotten or lost. We are indebted to him for the preservation of one of the most exquisite pearls of mediaeval high German poetry, ' Die Gudrun,' which ranks with the ' Nibelungen ' as a star of the first mag- nitude, and which he ordered to be placed among the parchments of the Ambrasian collection of manuscripts. His own literary activity is best embodied in the ' Theuerdank ' and the ' Weisskunig.' The former, an allegorical poem, is taken from the incidents of his own life. He composed the greater number of the songs with which it is interspersed, and they were then worked up and ornamented by his secretary, Melchior Pfinzing, provost of St. Albans in Mentz. This work, the first edition of which belongs to the wonders of typographical art, met with the warmest reception from his contemporaries, who recognised in it the noblest characteristics of the Emperor. As a poem it is wanting in taste ; the language is grave and measured,