Mediaeval Love Poem Card

This card features a scene of lovers on horseback adapted from an illumination (folio 69r) in the Codex Manesse (UB Heidelberg, Cod. Pal. germ. 848), a compilation of mediaeval German love songs (Minnesang) made for the Manesse family in Zürich in the early 1300s. Why does the lady hold a falcon? Since at least the late Middle Ages, falconry has appeared frequently in the visual arts and literature in relation to the pursuit of love. The other side features an excerpt from an anonymous 10th-century love poem, translated from the original Latin by Helen Waddell (London, 1929), and set in East Anglia, a font by Bill Roach. Please note that while my designs are based on and inspired by mediaeval manuscript illuminations, they are not reproductions and they should not be taken as faithful representations of mediaeval art. While I follow the basic outlines, I make adjustments to gestures and postures and even replace whole items, animals, or figures. I also mix and match elements from different manuscripts and even different countries and centuries. Actually, that's the most mediaeval thing about them, their "hodge-podginess." If you'd like to see the original manuscript page, it's been digitised by the University of Heidelberg Library: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2222#0133.