ECCHIERADO of Saint Gall. — Name of five famous monks of this monastery. The most renowned is E. IV, born c. 980, died c. 1060. His family and homeland are unknown; he became a monk at Saint Gall, where he studied under Notker the Stammerer, whom he succeeded after his death as head of the school at Mainz Cathedral, summoned there by Archbishop Aribo. In 1031 he returned to Saint Gall and died there on 21 October, probably in the year 1060.
He composed several poetic works and continued the chronicle of the monastery of Saint Gall. Among his poems are noted: a brief dissertation on the words *Unbe donne benedicere*; *Versus ad picturas*, that is, poetic inscriptions to accompany the paintings in Mainz Cathedral, and numerous inscriptions for the paintings depicting the life of Saint Gall in the monastery of the same name; the *Liber benedictionum* and *Benedictiones ad mensas*, poetic blessings for use by superiors in choir and at table. He also revised the poem *Vita Waltharii monachi fortis* by E. I, collected poems for the feasts of the saints and of the Church from the unpublished writings of Notker, which he published after his master’s death, adding explanatory notes. His poems are useful to the scholar for the important information they contain. His principal work is *Cassis S. Galli* (in MGH, *Scriptores*, II, 75-147), written between 1047 and 1053, in which E. continues the monastery’s chronicle up to the year 971, left unfinished by Ratpert at the year 883.
Diligent in the search for and use of sources, E. in his narrative is at times fanciful, confusing names and falling into anachronisms. Nevertheless, the chronicle remains one of the principal sources for the history of the German Church in the Middle Ages.