Although hardly anything is known of Freidank's life, his work exerted a profound impact far into the sixteenth century. The poet achieved a rank unparalleled by most of his lay contemporaries and found recognition even among the clergy. After his texts were translated into Latin, sometime before 1384-1385, they became reading material for the schools and important sources for sermons aimed at the general populace. A selection of his poems appeared in print in Leipzig around 1493 under the title Proverbia Fridanci; revised versions of the Middle High German texts were published by Sebastian Brant in 1508 and by an anonymous Protestant writer in 1538. The last edition seems to have appeared in Frankfurt in 1567. Many of his verses were quotable pieces of "wisdom literature" throughout the Middle Ages. In Alexander (circa 1230) Rudolf von Ems praises Freidank as the "sinnerîche Vrîgedanc" (insightful Freidank), and in Willehalm von...