He was born about the middle of the 12th century; died on 23 July 1223, at Sankt Blasien in the Black Forest, Baden (southwestern Germany).
His chronicles, written in the form of annals, Ad librum VII chronici Ottonis Frisingensis episcopi continuatae historiae appendix sive Continuatio Sanblasiana,[1] embrace the period from 1146 to 1209, that is the period from Conrad III to the murder of Philip of Swabia.
Since he was distant in time from the facts he narrates, his accounts are quite objective, even though he makes no concealment of his prejudice in favour of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, which in 1218 received the bailiwick of St. Blasien from the dukes of Zahringen.
It is only when he has to resort to oral reports that he becomes unreliable; this is especially the case in his chronology, though he is not to be reproached with intentional misrepresentation of facts for this reason.
304–34); they were translated into German by Horst Kohl in "Geschichtschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit" (12th century, volume VIII, Leipzig, 1881, 2nd ed., 1894).