Ekkehard from Aura

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Ekkehard von Aura , Latinized Ekkehardus Uraugiensis , (* no later than 1085; † on February 20 after 1125) was a German chronicler of the Middle Ages. He was the first abbot of the Aura Monastery and was best known as the author of a world chronicle that goes back to 1125.

Much information about Ekkehard's life is known from his chronicle, into which he incorporated information about himself. Ekkehard is mentioned in more detail in the notes of the Würzburg abbot Johannes Trithemius , but his statements are considered uncertain because of his generally low factual loyalty.

Live and act

Ekkehard's date of birth is unknown, but his participation in the 1101 crusade suggests that he was born no later than 1085 (rather earlier). The strikingly detailed account of the death of Count Sigehart von Burghausen could be due to the fact that Ekkehard also came from the von Burghausen family.

Ekkehard von Aura entered the Aura monastery between 1097 and 1108 as a Benedictine monk , which Bishop Otto von Bamberg founded in 1108 on the Franconian Saale near Kissingen , and in 1113 he became the monastery’s first abbot.

As a chronicler, he updated the world chronicle ( Chronica Ekehardi Uraugiensis ) of Frutolf von Michelsberg , which he added to German history from 1098 to 1125, i.e. the reign of Emperor Heinrich V, using the lost work of David Scholasticus . Ekkehard reworked it five times over the years. In doing so, he leaned sometimes towards the imperial and sometimes the papal side, as were his changing views.

Through his participation in the crusade of 1101 , he provided important source material for the First Crusade in his Hierosolymita .

Ekkehard's date of death (February 20) is known from necrologies that recorded the day and month of death, but no years of death. Therefore, Ekkehard's year of death can only be narrowed down. As a result, he died in 1126 at the earliest, since in 1125 he still reports in his chronicle of the deaths of Emperor Heinrich V (23 May 1125) and Bishop Udalrich II . The first reliable evidence of an Aura abbot according to Ekkehard comes from the year 1144, so that Ekkehard died in that year at the latest. However, the sudden end of the chronicle in 1125 indicates that Ekkehard died a short time later, especially since Otto von Bamberg's missionary trip, which Ekkehard would most likely not have left unmentioned, is missing in the chronicle. The chronicle closes with the mention of a devastating epidemic, of which Ekkehard, who was buried on the monastery grounds, was probably also the victim.

Sources (editions)

  • Georg Waitz (ed.): Ekkehardi Uraugensis chronica , in: Georg Heinrich Pertz u. a. (Ed.): Scriptores (in Folio) 6: Chronica et annales aevi Salici. Hanover 1844, pp. 1–267 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
  • Franz-Josef Schmale , Irene Schmale-Ott (Hrsg.): Frutolfs and Ekkehards chronicles and the anonymous imperial chronicle. = Frutolfi et Ekkehardi Chronica necnon Anonymi Chronica imperatorum (= Selected sources on German history in the Middle Ages. Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe. Vol. 15). Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1972, ISBN 3-534-01429-4 .
  • The Chronicle of Ekkehard of Aura . Translated from the edition of the Monumenta Germaniae by W. Pflüger. Leipzig 1879 ( e-copy ).

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Ekkehard from Aura
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ekkehardus urugiensis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Benedictine monk and chronicler
DATE OF BIRTH before 1085
DATE OF DEATH February 20 after 1125