The texts are written on 238 folios of parchment — 476 pages, each 460 x 360 mm in size, each folio numbered with Roman numerals in the top right-hand corner of the recto page. Before the texts are four folios containing a list of contents and a separate sheet with a full-page illustration on the verso page showing two armed men beneath the arms of Tirol. These five additional sheets were added after the texts were completed and have been numbered I*–V*. The table of contents provides cross-references to the folio numbers in the main body of the manuscript. The works are set out as prose in a three-column layout, with a punctus to mark the end of a line of verse, or, in many cases, a colon marking the end of a rhyming couplet. Decorated initial letters mark the start of a work or chapter of a work. Lombardic capitals, alternating red and blue, indicate the start of a new strophe or section. Many pages have illustrations on the outer and bottom margins. The right-hand margin of folio 215r shows a naked woman playing a fiddle beside a shield with the date 1517 and the initials VF, which are assumed to be those of the artist, variously identified as Ulrich Funk or Valentin/Veit Fiedler.
Contents
The works in the manuscript are grouped by genre: courtly narratives, heroic epics, and shorter narratives of a mainly didactic nature. The two final works, fragments of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Titurel and a German translation of the Latin Epistola presbiteri Johannis fall outside this scheme. The list of works below follows the order in the manuscript, giving the modern titles.
The language of the manuscript is Early New High German with some Bavarian features. Thornton characterises Ried's language as "Tirolean written dialect of the age of Luther". It is consistent with the language of the Habsburg Imperial Chancery, though there are some idiosyncratic spellings. In spite of the fact that Reid's texts must have come from a variety of sources, his orthography is relatively consistent between the individual works: variations between texts are minor, more likely reflecting gradual changes in his own orthography as the project progressed. This indicates that he must have made a conscious attempt to harmonise the spellings he found in his sources.
Editions
There is no complete edition of the Ambraser Heldenbuch, though the University of Innsbruck has an ongoing transcription project. In many editions of the individual texts the language of the 16th century manuscript has been adapted into the idealised classical Middle High German of the 13th century, as established by 19th century editors. Among the diplomatic editions of the texts are:
