ABSTRACT
A German author who contributed to the emerging German culture at the Bohemian court in Prague of the House of the Premysl. Flourishing in the late twelfth/early thirteenth century, Ulrich von Zatzikhoven was author of the earliest German version of the Lancelot story, Lanzekt, a poem of over 9,444 lines in rhymed couplets. The university in German-speaking areas of the Middle Ages was a phenomenon that appeared relatively late. All medieval universities were small by modern standards, with perhaps a few hundred students enrolled. By the end of the fifteenth century only some three thousand students were matriculated annually in all of Germany. German universities developed faculties that sought to develop local reputations and student bodies, in competition with the older international universities such as Paris and Bologna. The German college system tended to be organized around the masters, or professors, and formed the locus for almost all lectures and readings.
