Notker Labeo

. Notker III Notker Labeo called, Notker Notker the German or Teutonicus, (c. 950 in Thurgau, † June 29, 1022 in St. Gallen) was a Benedictine monk and head of the monastery school in St. Gallen. He was the first commentator on Aristotle in the Middle Ages and the most important translators before Luther.

Life

Notker translated individual works of ancient Latin literature that belonged to the early Middle Ages to the workload of the monastic schools, in Old High German. He developed in this context, a phonetically clear spelling of the German language, which is referred to by linguists as Notker cal Anlautgesetz. Especially important is his translation and commentary on the Psalter.

The translated from him Boethius and Martianus Capella authors include as well as the Book of Psalms and the Book of Job from the Old Testament. From Boethius he has translated Aristotle broadcasts and comments.

Notker died of an infectious disease which participants in the Italy campaign had introduced Emperor Henry II to St. Gallen.

Work

Notker's translation technique is not biased towards the understanding of the Latin text, rather it essentially aims also at an apt ( Old High ) German expression. This made him highly popular with his students. Notker has created de facto a new scientific language and interspersed with artistic sensibility German literary language. Also impressive is the graphematic system for the Alemannic - German, which he helped create in his translation work. This Notkersche system has made in the first place a thorough history of the German language possible. For this purpose, Notker expressed in a letter to Bishop Hugh of customs as follows:. " We need to know that the German words without accent - acute and circumflex - may be written with the exception of items that are pronounced alone without an accent "