Charles IV and Learned Order: The Discourse on Knowledge in ‘Der meide kranz’
Charles IV and Learned Order: The Discourse on Knowledge in ‘Der meide kranz’

Summary/Abstract: By establishing the University of Prague, Emperor Charles IV pursued a synthesis of religion and knowledge, which itself helped to define his self-conception as a ruler. The vernacular poetry of the Prague Court in the fourteenth century also bears witness to intense contemporary interest in the natural sciences and the dynamic strategies of legitimation via Christian argument. A case in point is the poetry of Heinrich of Mügeln. Charles IV plays a special role in ‘Der meide kranz’ in which Heinrich of Mügeln presents him as a wise and venerable ruler. He builds on known models, such as Alan of Lille’s ‘Anticlaudianus’, and maps a court situation whose inherent and depicted order invites a specific evaluation of the ruler. I shall consider Heinrich’s definition of philosophy, which is expressed via an angel-motif, and how the text gives fresh insight into Charles’s image as a reformer of the empire.

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