BERNO OF REICHENAU (Berno Augiensis). - Called Bernard by some; a statesman, liturgist, musician, hagiographer, orator, and poet: he was one of the most distinguished figures of his time. Abbot of Reichenau from 1008 to 1048 and a friend of the Emperor St. Henry II, he accompanied him to Rome for his coronation (14 February 1014), and again on another occasion, when he took part in a conference of prelates to discuss certain particulars of the Roman liturgy.
Zealous for the good of the Church, he took an active part in the Cluniac reform movement, and kept in contact with the leading personalities of his time. He made his abbey, whose library he notably enriched, a cenacle of study and holiness. He died on 7 June 1048 and was buried in the choir of St. Mark in the church of Reichenau; his tomb and bones were discovered in December 1929.
His stature as a restorer stands out even more in the light of the literary activity he carried on. His works are: 1. De celebratione Adventus Domini, addressed to Aribo, Archbishop of Mainz, to settle the question then current about the length of Advent when Christmas falls on a Monday. 2. Dialogus de ieiunio Quattuor Temporum. 3. De officio Missae, in which he treats various questions concerning the additions made to the Mass. 4. De varia psalmorum atque cantuum modulatione, an interesting pamphlet of biblical-liturgical criticism concerning various texts intended for singing, both of the Breviary and of the Mass, with references to the Hebrew original and to the ancient versions. 5. Tonarius, preceded by an extensive Prologus: it is B.'s most famous work. 6. De consona Tonorum diversitate, a brief summary of the preceding work. He also wrote: Vita sancti Uldarici, an elegant reworking of the work of Gerard, but of little historical value. For St. Ulrich, B. also composed and set to music an Office. A Vita Sancti Mainardi has been attributed to him, seemingly wrongly: for Mainard, instead, he composed an Office. He is also the author of some Hymns and Sequences. A collection of B.'s Letters is preserved for us in codex Sangall. 898, of the 11th century. Other works of his, such as De instrumentis musicalibus, are lost. A. Duch, however, has rediscovered the pamphlet De nigromantia seu divinatione daemonum condemnanda and 16 Sermons.
In the absence of a critical edition of B.'s works, the best remains that of Migne: PL 142, 1047-1214. For B.'s correspondence with Aribo of Mainz, cf. Ph. Jaffé, Monum. Magantino, in Bibl. Rerum Germ., III, Berlin 1866, pp. 365-72. His musical works were published, in 1784, by Martin Gerbert, in Scriptores ecclesiastici de Musica Sacra, II, Leipzig 1905, pp. 61-122.
Bibliography9 works
Igino Cecchetti