Wipo of Burgundy

[1] He was a chaplain to the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II and may have acted as a tutor to his son Henry III, to whom he dedicated a number of works.

[2] Volker Huth argues that the prologue of the Gesta Chuonradi shows philosophical affinities with the 9th-century theologian Helperic [de], who was based at the Abbey of Saint-Germain d'Auxerre in northwestern Burgundy.

[3] Present at the election of Conrad II as King of the Germans in 1024, he most likely followed the emperor on his campaigns into Burgundy (1033) and against the Slavs (1035), both of which he describes in detail in his writings.

Wipo's main source was his own memory and oral reports from other members of the court, but he also employed a chronicle written at the Reichenau Abbey.

The opening letter and prologue claim that the work was intended to provide an account of an exemplary contemporary Christian prince, as a counterpoint to the Biblical kings of the Old Testament and the pagan rulers known from Classical literature.

Karl F. Morrison characterises the work as "an honest if not penetrating annalistic account of a secular ruler in unecclesiastical, unsanctimonious terms.

Presented to Henry in 1041, the Tetralogus is a eulogy of the emperor mixed with earnest exhortations, emphasising that right and law are the real foundations of the throne.

11th-century miniature of Emperor Henry III , to whom Wipo dedicated most of his surviving works.
Miniature of Conrad II , subject of Wipo's Gesta Chuonradi II imperatoris