Literature: Philipp Colin and Claus Wisse

Between 1331 and 1336, they translated and adapted two of the French continuators of Chrétien's Perceval, Wauchier de Denain and Manessier, into German. Helping them in the translation was a Strassburg Jew, Sampson Pine. The result of their efforts, Der nüwe Parzefal (36,426 lines), was inserted between Books 14 and 15 of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, which also was revised in many places and received a specific dialect coloring (Alsatian).

Colin and Wisse were both from Strassburg goldsmith families that are attested in Strassburg documents from 1265 and 1148, respectively. In his epilogue, Colin reports that Lady Love and Lady Generosity have chosen his patrin, Ulrich von Rappoltstein, to provide for the production of this work of literature. Ulrich, a member of the high nobility, was indeed touched by Lady Generosity and paid 200 pounds for the task.

The episode nature of the Nüwe Parzefal is its most striking characteristic. It is a bourgeois work by bourgeois authors, and as a result the adventurous and the fantastic are given great play. Parzefal must cede equal time and space - indeed sometimes more - to Gawan, whose adventures are narrated in great detail. In this work, both Gawan and Parzefal achieve entry into the Grail castle, and on the third occasion Parzefal is offered the crown, which he refuses in order to ride out on more adventures.

The original concept of the hero is found in Wolfram's work - that only the best knight, who has conquered his own deficiencies, is worthy of the Grail - is lost. Further, the inner integrity and value of the courtly-chivalric world, which is the key element in Wolfram's Parzival, disappears behind the bourgeois coating of the Colin-Wisse version. Der nüwe Parzefal is found in the Donaueschingen Hs. 97, from the fourteenth century and is presumed to be the original.

A copy, likewise from the fourteenth century is found in the Bibliotheca Casanatensis in Rome.