differences between the Gallic and Roman Psalters (De
varia psalmorum); Berno’s authorship of these latter
two treatises has been questioned by modern scholars,
however. More than a dozen sermons and sermon frag-
ments are preserved, many of them on Marian topics,
as well as about twenty letters to emperors, bishops,
abbots, and other leaders. That numerous other works
of music theory, history, and poetry came to be attrib-
uted to Berno, often on weak grounds, testifi es to the
esteem in which he was held by later generations of
medieval scribes.
See also Conrad II; Guido d’Arezzo; Henry III
Further Reading
Gerbert, Martin. Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra po-
tissimum. Sankt-Blasien, 1784; Graecii, Styria, 1905; rpt.
Hildesheim: Olms, 1963, 1990.
Hiley, David. Western Plainchant: A Handbook. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1993.
Migne, Jacques-Paul. Patrologiae cursus completus. Series
Latina. Paris, 1844–1864; on CD-ROM: Arlington, Va: Chad-
wyck-Healey, 1995.
Oesch, Hans. Berno und Hermann von Reichenau als Musiktheo-
retiker. Publikationen der Schweizerischen Musikforschenden
Gesellschaft, ser. II, vol. 9. Bern: Haupt, 1961.
Rausch, Andreas. “Die Musiktraktate des Abtes Bern von
Reichenau.” Ph.D diss., Universität Wien, 1996.
Waesberghe, J. Smits van. Bernonis Augiensis Abbatis: De arte
musica disputationes traditae. Pars A. Bernonis Augiensis de
Mensurando Monochordo. Pars B. Quae ratio est inter tria
opera de arte musica Bernonis Augiensis. Divitiae Musicae
Artis ser. A, lib. VI. 2 vols. Buren: Knuf, 1979 [includes
facsimiles].
Michael R. Dodds
BERNWARD OF HILDESHEIM
(960–1022)
Bishop of Hildesheim and abbot of St. Michael’s,
Hildesheim (1007–1022), Bernward was a pivotal mem-
ber of the Ottonian court, and his patronage stimulated
the arts at Hildesheim. He was born in 960 into a noble
Saxon family that enjoyed the friendship of the Ottonian
emperors. By 977 he had joined the imperial chancellery
as a notary. He subsequently became court chaplain and
tutor to Otto III. As bishop of Hildesheim, Bernward
continued to advise and represent Otto III and Henry
II. His imperial service entailed considerable travel.
Under Otto II, during the regency, and under Otto III,
he was frequently in Italy, especially Rome. As Henry
II’s diplomatic representative to Robert II of France in
1007, he visited Paris, Saint-Denis, and Tours. The vari-
ous cultural sources to which Bernward was exposed on
these occasions were fundamental with respect to his
patronage of the arts at Hildesheim.
As bishop of Hildesheim, Bernward was responsible
for several major commissions. In addition to the Bene-
dictine monastery church of St. Michael’s, his patronage
is represented by a series of illuminated manuscripts and
several important works in metal, especially the hollow-
cast bronze column and doors now in the cathedral at
Hildesheim. The complex program of the doors, which
relates to the fall of man and his redemption through
Christ, depends on a typological reading of paired Old
and New Testament scenes and indicates the erudition
of the patron. Formally and iconographically, the doors
and the column derive from Carolingian sources from
Tours, Reims, and Metz, but the general concept as
well as the hollow-cast technique refl ect Bernward’s
acquaintance with classical and early Christian Roman
monuments.
See also Otto II, Otto IIIFurther Reading
Brandt, Michael, and Arne Eggebrecht, ed. Bernward von
Hildesheim und as Zeitalter der Ottonnen. Hildsheim: Dom-
und Diözesanmuseum, 1993.
Karen W. LoaizaBÉROUL (fl. late 12th c)
Nothing is known of Béroul other than that he was the
author of a late 12th-century Tristan verse romance.
He twice names himself in his surviving text. Owing
to certain stylistic inconsistencies and even factual
contradictions within the poem, some scholars have
concluded that his Tristan is the work of two authors,
or even more. Such suggestions remain unproved, how-
ever, and a good many scholars have argued the case
for single authorship.
Béroul clearly composed the poem during the second
half of the 12th century, but the date or even decade
remains in question; some have contended that it was
as early as 1165, while others, concluding that line
3,849 of the poem refers to an epidemic that attacked
the Crusaders at Acre in 1190–91, assign the poem to
the last decade of the century. The Tristan is preserved
in fragmentary form in a single manuscript (B.N. fr.
2171) that was copied during the second half of the
13th century. The beginning and end of the poem are
both missing, leaving a single long fragment of nearly
4,500 lines of octosyllabic narrative verse; in addition,
the manuscript contains a number of lacunae, and the
text is obviously defective in many passages.
The poem belongs to what is generally called the
primitive or common version (as opposed to the courtly
version) of the Tristan legend. That is, it is presumed that
this text derives from an earlier, noncourtly stage of the
legend, whereas that of Thomas d’Angleterre integrates
the work thoroughly into the current of courtly love.
Béroul’s extensive fragment begins with the famousBÉROUL