Codex Manesse

The "Codex Manesse", also known as the "Great Heidelberg Book of Songs", was created between around 1300 and around 1340
in Zurich and is the most comprehensive collection of ballads and epigrammatic poetry in Middle High German language.
The manuscript contains almost 6,000 verses from 140 poets, the poets are arranged in order of rank. Emperor Henry VI , son of Frederick I Barbarossa,
comes first followed by kings, dukes, margraves, counts, barons, ministerialis and lastly commoners..