Wolfger of Prüfening (c. 1100 – c. 1173) was a
German Benedictine
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
monk and writer. He is nowadays usually identified with the so-called Anonymous of Melk (''Anonymus Mellicensis'').
Born around 1100, Wolfger joined the
monastery of Prüfening around 1130. He served as its librarian, archivist, treasurer, and annalist. He compiled an inventory of the monastery's possessions and catalogued its library. He also commissioned
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...
copying and
decoration. A codex he commissioned contains a set of
Toledan Tables with one of the earliest examples of
Arabic numerals
The ten Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) are the most commonly used symbols for writing numbers. The term often also implies a positional notation number with a decimal base, in particular when contrasted with Roman numera ...
, including
zero
0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. Adding (or subtracting) 0 to any number leaves that number unchanged; in mathematical terminology, 0 is the additive identity of the integers, rational numbers, real numbers, and compl ...
, in Germany.
Wolfger was also an original author of historical and biographical works. He began the ''Annales Ratisponenses'' (annals of
Regensburg
Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...
) and compiled a biographical index of 118 ecclesiastical writers, ''De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis''. Most of his writers were from the 11th and 12th centuries. The latest is
Rupert of Deutz
Rupert of Deutz (; c. 1075/1080 – c. 1129) was an influential Benedictine theologian, exegete and writer on liturgical and musical topics.
Life
Rupert was most likely born in or around Liège in the years 1075-1080, and there, as was the ...
. Wolfger most likely wrote the incomplete ''Vita Theogeri'', a biography of
Theogerus of Metz. His authorship of the ''Vita Ottonis'', a biography of Bishop
Otto of Bamberg written between 1140 and 1146, is more debatable.
Wolfger died on 25 March in an unknown year.
[After 1173, according to , but before 1173, according to .]
Notes
Bibliography
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{{refend
1170s deaths
12th-century German historians
12th-century Christian monks
12th-century writers in Latin
12th-century biographers
Benedictine writers
1100s births
de:Wolfger von Prüfening