(20.)
Peter Suchenwirt. 1377.
Peter Suchenwirt, probably of Austrian parentage, flourished between the years 1356 and 1395, and left a collection of poems, which consist partly of historical relations, partly of allegorical and didactic poems. In the first we find several poems collected, for the most part, on the spot; short indeed, but for the period to which they belong very valuable relations respecting Russian countries and regions, and for the historical occurrences which they touch upon. On this account, Suchenwirt is here deserving of a place. Two manuscripts are known of the entire collection of his poems, one of which, the Palatine, was long preserved in the Vatican, and is now deposited at Heidelberg; the other is in the Imperial Library of Vienna. They were first published by the learned Primisser, at Vienna, in 1827, under the following title—
Peter Suchenwirt’s Werke, aus dem vierzehnten Jahrhunderte. Ein Beitrag zur Zeit-und Sittengeschichte, mit einer Einleitung, historischen Bemerkungen und Wörterbuche. Wien, 1827; 8vo.
In the historical poems, Suchenwirt touches on the history, exploits, etc., of the heroes of his time, but chiefly those of his own countrymen both at home and abroad. Some of these knights-errant, and among others more particularly Friedrich von Chreutzpeck and Hans von Traunn, proceed on their various and distant campaigns into Russian countries, and both
