Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Chapter One A Space of Its Own: Urban Literature from Cologne to Lübeck -- I.1 Language and Cultural Space -- I.2 Print Production in Middle Low German 1470-1517 -- I.3 Different Discourses: Modes of Distinction -- I.4 Names and Metaphors: Establishing Authority in Different Discourses -- Chapter Two The "real world": Social Groups in Normative and Legal Sources -- Chapter Three Tripartitions and Their Dissolution -- III.1 The Master Narrative: Functional and Moral Tripartitions -- III.2 The Terminology of Moral Tripartition -- Chapter Four The Nine Choirs of Angels -- Chapter Five The Good, the Bad and the Mighty: The Division of Society into Oppositions -- V.1 Binomials as Social Imagery -- V.2 The Good and the Evil -- V.3 Man and Woman -- V.4 Husband and Wife -- V.5 Lords and Servants -- V.6 Clergy and Laity -- V.7 Christians and Jews -- V.8 "Ioden unde heyden" -- V.9 Rich and Poor, Man and Woman, Jew and Pagan: The Combination of Binomials -- Chapter Six Revues des états -- Chapter Seven The Mystical Body of Christ -- Chapter Eight Exotics: Allegories -- VIII.1 Technological Imagery and Personification: The Boek van veleme rade -- VIII.2 The Chess Game -- Conclusion: A Science of (unacomplished) Possibilities -- Bibliography -- Appendix: Middle Low German Incunabula and Early Imprints -- Index.