ECCHEARDO di SAN GALLO. — Name borne by five celebrated monks of this monastery. The most famous is E. IV, born around 980 and died around 1060. His family and homeland are unknown; he became a monk at S. Gallo, where he studied under Notkero il Balbuziente. After Notkero’s death, he succeeded him as head of the school of the cathedral of Mainz, having been summoned there by Archbishop Aribo. In 1031 he returned to S. Gallo, where he died on 21 October, probably in the year 1060.
He composed various poetic works and the continuation of the chronicle of the monastery of S. Gallo. Among his poems are noteworthy: a brief dissertation on the words Iube domine benediceere; Versus ad picturas, that is, poetic inscriptions to be placed on the paintings of the cathedral of Mainz, together with a corresponding series of inscriptions for the pictures depicting the life of S. Gallo in the monastery of the same name; Liber benedictionum v Benedictinum ad mensas, poetic blessings for the use of superiors in choir and at table. He also corrected the poem Vito Waltherii nonus fortis by E. I; he collected poems for the feasts of the saints and of the Church from the unpublished writings of Notkero, which he published after his master’s death, adding explanatory notes. His poems are useful to the historian for the important information they report here and there. His principal work is Claus S. Galli (in MGH, Scriptores, II, 75–147), written in the years 1047–53, in which E. continues the monastery’s chronicle down to the year 971, the point at which Rapporto had left it in 883.
Diligent in the investigation and use of sources, E. is at times fanciful in his narrative, confusing names and falling into anachronisms. Nevertheless, the chronicle remains one of the principal sources for the history of the medieval German Church.