This chapter spans the period from the second half of the twelfth century to the beginning of the fourteenth century. The earliest recorded instances of exemplary comparisons in the German lyric, in Herger, Friedrich von Hausen, Heinrich von Veldeke and Bernger, belong to the second half of the twelfth century. Heinrich von Morungen (probably attested 1217 and 1218), and Walther von der Vogelweide, who is directly attested only in 1203, but who refers to events at the end of the twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth, were writing at the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Wolframvon Eschenbach also belongs to the same period, but the one example ascribed to him is not likely to be authentic andmust therefore be considered as of uncertain authorship and date. To the first half of the thirteenth century belong Reinmar von Zweter, Bruder Wernher, Otto von Botenlouben and Der Marner. The main body of exemplary comparisons, however, is attested in the work of poets of the second half of the thirteenth century: Ulrich von Liechtenstein, Konrad von Würzburg, Der von Gliers, Tannhäuser, Der wilde Alexander, Boppe, Der junge Meissner, Der Dürinc, Der Henneberger and Sigeher. Rudolf von Rotenburg, for whom there is no certain attestation, and the Leich ascribed by MS C to Ulrich von Gutenburg (see below) certainly also belong to the thirteenth century. The example from the Wartburgkrieg and MHG Anon. 1 are of uncertain date, but probably no earlier than the thirteenth century.