Thomasîn von Zerclære's renown as a poet rests solely on his long didactic work Der welsche Gast (The Italian Guest, 1215-1216). Over the course of the more than fifteen thousand lines of his poem Thomasîn sets forth a comprehensive set of societal norms for men and women living within the courtly world of the High Middle Ages.

Perhaps just as noteworthy as the content of this poem is the fact that it was composed in Middle High German. Thomasîn's native tongue was Italian--his real name was Tommasino dei Cerchiari--and Middle High German was for him a second language. Thomasîn says (line 681 in the Friedrich W. von Kries edition [1984-1985]) that he is a native of Friuli, a margravate in northeastern Italy not far from the present-day border with Slovenia. Since 1077 Friuli had been a part of the patriarchate...