Freydal - Medieval Games

The Book of Tournaments of Emperor Maximilian I

From 1512 to 1515 Emperor Maximilian commissioned Freydal a massive, exquisitely detailed and illustrated manuscript of 64 tournaments which is now part of the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Freydal is an allegorical epic telling the story of an intrepid hero, a knight errant who is no other than Maximilian himself. In the guise of his literary alter ego “Freydal”, the Emperor jousted to prove his love for a noble lady. The story ends with the lady agreeing to marry him—she is no other than Mary of Burgundy, whom Maximilian wed in 1477 at Ghent.

Freydal is the largest extant tournament book of the Late Middle Ages, inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World program. This publication memorates the 500th anniversary of Maximilian’s death, combining for the first time all 255 gold- and silver-heightened miniatures with an introductory essay and explanatory texts.