Because most of what we have was written down by clerics, much of extant
medieval poetry is
religious. The chief exception is the work of the
troubadours and the
minnesänger, whose primary innovation was the ideal of
courtly love. Among the most famous of secular poetry is
Carmina Burana, a manuscript collection of 254 poems. Twenty-four poems of
Carmina Burana were later set to music by German composer
Carl Orff in 1936.