[4] Notker's later biographer Ekkehard V claims he was born in Heiligau—now Elgg—in the Canton of Zürich, but this has been rejected by the historian Gerold Meyer von Knonau [de], who suggests a birthplace near Jonschwil.

[4] The German musicologist Stefan Morent [de] likened him to the partially blind Walafrid Strabo and Hermann of Reichenau, who had a limp, as three monks with physical impairments who achieved creative feats.

[8] The later book Casus monasterii Sancti Galli of Ekkehard IV "paints a lively picture of the monastery school", and notes that Notker was taught alongside Tuotilo and Ratpert; all three would become teachers and composers at the Abbey.

[11] Ekkehard IV lauded Notker as "delicate of body but not of mind, stuttering of tongue but not of intellect, pushing boldly forward in things Divine, a vessel of the Holy Spirit without equal in his time".

[5] Notker created the Liber Hymnorum ("Book of Hymns") during the late 9th century, an important early collection of Sequences dedicated to Liutward, the bishop of Vercelli.

[13] In the preface to his Liber Hymnorum, Notker claimed his musical work was inspired by an antiphoner that was brought to Gall from the Jumièges Abbey, soon after its destruction in 851.

[14][n 4] Notker was particularly inspired by the Jumièges chant book setting verses to the melodies, making them easier to remember; he goes on to discuss his childhood difficulties in recalling the melodiae longissimae.

[20] Numerous life details are shared between Notker and the unknown Monk, including their origin, education and long-term stay at Saint Gall.

[23] More sympathetically, the historian Matthew Innes has cited Notker's use of "humour and anecdotal style" as encouraging "a negative judgement [of] his abilities", noting that "Recent scholarship [on the Gesta Karoli Magni ] has stressed the underlying clarity of its intellectual vision and found coherent ideas about the correct ordering of society, church and politics.

[24] Written around 900, only a single incomplete copy survives, not including some saints born on June 13–17, July 3–6, August 19–26, October 27 and December 31.

The abbot Adomnán wrote that at one point Columba had—through clairvoyance—seen a city in Italy near Rome being destroyed by fiery sulphur as a divine punishment and that three thousand people had perished.

[27][28][n 6] Scholars vary on evaluating Notker's main legacy; the priest Alban Butler asserted that his sequences were his most important achievement,[9] while the historian Rosamond McKitterick states that he is best remembered for the Gesta Karoli Magni.

[33] According to the 16th-century historian Henricus Canisius, Notker' Sainthood was granted by Leo X in 1512 for Saint Gall and nearby churches, and in 1513 for the Diocese of Constance.

[6] In the mid-19th century the Swiss music scholar Anselm Schubiger [de] was the first to transcribe almost all of Notker's extant melodies into modern notation.