Williram of Ebersberg

[1] In the preface to his Expositio which he dedicated to Henry IV, Williram laments that, in Germany, grammar and dialectics are more popular than Biblical studies, praises Lanfranc devoting himself to the deeper study of the Bible and drawing many German scholars to France.

The pages of his work are divided into three columns: The first contains a Latin paraphrase in Leonine hexameters of the Vulgate followed for each of the 150 paragraphs of the Song of Songs by a paraphrase of the prose commentary on the right hand side column; the second, the Vulgate text; and the third, an Old High German prose translation followed by a commentary in Latin-German mixed prose exposition.

[2] Williram is believed also to be the author of the Chronicon Eberspergense, a set of monastic annals included in the Ebersberg cartulary, which he also compiled.

[3] Williram's commentary is the Old High German text with the highest number of surviving manuscripts, right up to the print tradition.

Merula omitted the prologue, though it was in the Leiden manuscript, so Martin Opitz printed this in his Annolied edition of 1639.