Taking the »Melusine« romance as an example, this study compares the conditions governing literary production and reception in late medieval France and Germany. In so doing, it also addresses fundamental questions pertaining to the linguistic, geographical, human, and institutional prerequisites for cultural transfer. The conclusion is that comprehensive culture-historical research into Franco-German literary relations in the Middle Ages requires not only a philological analysis of texts, but also a close historical study of the book forms that acted as agents of transmission.