The Magnum Legendarium Austriacum of the late twelfth century has as a reading for June 30, the date of Otto of Bamberg's death, a three-book life of the important bishop and missionary who served the Bamberg church from 1102 to 1139. In this same collection, under June 30, there are also two other texts: A Passio of the Apostle Paul and a life of Martial of Limoges. Four Austrian manuscripts (Heiligenkreutz, late twelfth century; Vienna, ca. 1200; Zwettl, first quarter of the thirteenth century; Melk, mid-fifteenth century) transmit Otto's Life along with its companion pieces. There are four previous editions: By S. L. Endlicher in Neue Pommersche Provinzialblaetter, 4 (1929), 312-63; by Rudolf Koepke in MGH, Scriptores, vol. 12 (1856), pp. 883-903; by Adolf Hofmeister in Denkmaeler der Pommerschen Geschichte, vol. 1 (1924); by Ioannes Wikarjak and Casimir Liman, Monumentae Poloniae historica, series nova, vol. 7, fasc. 1 (1966). The earlier editions all used MS "C," (Heiligenkreuz, Niederoesterreich, Zisterzienerstift Hs. 12) as their base because it is the oldest. Petersohn uses "M" (Melk, Niederoesterreich, Benediktinerstift, MS 492) as his base because it is the fullest and contains the largest number of apparently good readings. No possibility exists to reconstruct the Ur-text. The Life was certainly written in something like its present form after 1140 because the Pomeranian bishop Adalbert is mentioned (3.8) and he was only consecrated on 14 October 1140. Various bits of internal evidence suggest, but do not conclusively prove, that the work was finished by 1146. There has long been a basic consensus that the work was written at the Benedictine monastery of Pruefening, an Eigenkloster of Bamberg founded by Otto just outside Regensburg in 1109. Petersohn cautiously accepts Heinrich von Fichtenau's fifty-year-old identification of the author as Wolfger, the monastery's librarian and archivist in the middle of the twelfth century.
Otto was an interesting character in many ways and he attracted a good deal of historical attention. He was the subject of two other biographies, one by Ebo (1151/59) and one by Herbord (1159). These books made use of the Pruefening Life and that text itself made use of the Relatio de piis operibus Ottonis episcopi Bambergensis, a compilation, it seems, of the year 1139 containing mainly a long listing of Otto's church and monastic foundations and pious benefactions. Sometime after the three lives were written, and before the case for Otto's canonization was taken up in 1189, he was the subject of a poem, Commendatio pii Ottonis, doubtless written in Pruefening, that called on all of the patron saints of Otto's foundations to intercede for him in heaven. This work contains fewer solid historical details than the Relatio but does point to the contemporary importance of Otto and to the lively interest in his memory. Not many of his twelfth-century contemporaries were the subject of so much attention.
The text itself is organized into three books of roughly equal length. Each book starts with a preface. The first is rather like what one would expect to find in a document: words to the effect that things need to be recorded now for fear that they will not be remembered later. The second comments on the need to be brief and to avoid fastidium. The third is a thankfully brief modesty topos. The author's Latin is said by Petersohn to be up to the standard of his times. One might dispute that. Wolfger's (?) syntax has a way of getting away from him, his powers of subordination are minimal, and his vocabulary is occasionally obtuse. The author could cite a good many texts, classical (Vergil, Sallust), patristic (especially Jerome and Gregory I), hagiographical (Sulpicius Severus on Martin, John the Deacon on Gregory I, and possibly the lives of Boniface and Willibrord), and such medieval classics as Einhard's Vita Karoli. The author viewed his work as history and constantly emphasized his personal knowledge, his conversations with others, and his consultation of written sources. Apart from one or two modest miracle tales at the end of Book Three, the Life avoids most of the conventions of hagiography.
Otto was a Swabian nobleman who, when he had grown to manhood, went off to Poland for unspecified reasons. There he learned the local customs and language so well that to hear him speak one would not know that he was German. He found special favor with Prince Boleslav and, after he returned home for a while, he also found great favor with Henry IV. Otto tried to arrange marriage of Boleslav with Henry's sister Judith and handled the negotiations so well that won himself a great deal of favorable attention. Henry made him his chancellor and granted him benefices. Eventually Henry invested Otto with the bishopric of Bamberg. The Relatio adds that Otto went to Rome and received the pallium from Paschal II. Otto was a keen and assiduous bishop. These details fill up the first eight chapters of Book One. Thereafter Book One turns to very detailed descriptions of Otto's ecclesiastical foundations. These chapters also note Otto's regular and cordial relations with Rome and also with the kings and emperors of Germany. Book One draws heavily on the Relatio. Book Two is almost entirely devoted to Otto's long missionary campaign in Pomerania which commenced in 1124 with his securing of papal permission. In some places he was successful immediately while in other places he was driven away. These chapters (esp. 2.21) contain a lot of interesting material on the social and religious practices of the Pomeranians and conclude with a very detailed account of Otto's list of do's and don't's for the newly converted. Book Three finds Otto returning to Bamberg for a while and then securing papal permission once more to go to Poland. This book shows him trying to consolidate his earlier ecclesiastical work and also running into jurisdictional disputes with other German bishops, particularly the Bishop of Magdeburg.
It is a shame that Petersohn elected to write a "slim" (his word) introduction and annotation to this important and interesting text. There is no modern monograph on Otto, who would, I believe, make an excellent subject for a dissertation. His Life can be explored more systematically than Petersohn does, for instance along the lines of Stephanie Coue's fine book on eleventh- and twelfth-century German episcopal biographies. Her central point is that each of these fascinating texts was written to score points in very specific political or ecclesiastical battles more than to hold up certain individuals as models of sanctity. Otto's life can be explored in those terms too. He lived through tumultuous times and was connected with the imperial and papal courts for decades. He served as a missionary and diplomat along and beyond Germany's tense eastern frontier. A careful study of his life and times would provide a clear window into a confusing but important time.