Des Tüfels Segi

Title illustration of the Donaueschingen codex (Codex Donaueschingen 113, dated 1441, now at Baden State Library).

Des Tüfels Segi (des tuiffels segin "The Devil's Net", conventional Standard German title Des Teufels Netz[1]) is an Alemannic German satirical didactic poem of the early 15th century, most likely written during the years 1414–1420. The contents involve a long treatise on the estates (Stände) of traditional feudalism; the "devil's net" is an allegory for the various forms of vice affecting the various classes. The poem takes the form of a dialogue between a hermit and the devil. The theme of enumerating the various classes of society as all subject to sin and damnation is related to the Danse Macabre theme (enumerating them, somewhat less pessimistic, as all subject to death) which first developed at about the time of the poem's composition.

The text survives in divergent forms in four manuscripts; the longest version is in a Donaueschingen ms., extending to 13,657 verses, nearly twice as long as the shortest version[2] at a still appreciable 7,050 verses. A third ms. is both of intermediate length and age, Augsburg (formerly Maihingen) (1449, 9,979 verses).

See also

References

  1. ↑ sege(ne), segi being a Middle High German term for "net", in origin a loan of Latin sagena. Barack (1863:440, citing Pupikofer Thurgau, 1830) notes that during his time, segin was still a living word used by the fishermen of Lake Constance for the largest sort of net they used.
  2. ↑ Neustadt an der Aisch, mentioned 1782 by Schnizer, Der Kirchen-Bibliothek zu Neustadt an der Aysch Erste Anzeige, von den darinnen befindlichen Handschriften etc.

External links

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