1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Notker

NOTKER, a name of frequent occurrence in the ecclesiastical history of the middle ages. Notker Balbulus (c. 840–912) was a native of northern Switzerland, and for many years magister in the school of St Gall. He compiled a martyrology and other works, but is famous for his services to church music and for the “sequences” of which he was the composer. He was canonized in 1513. His life is in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum, April 6th. Notker Labeo (d. June 29th, 1022) was also an instructor at St Gall. His numerous translations, including those of the Old Testament Psalms, the categories of Aristotle, the De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae of Martianus Capella, and the De consolatione of Boëthius, into Old High German, may possibly have been the work of his pupils. They possess considerable philological interest, and have been edited by E. G. Graff (Berlin, 1837–1847), and by P. Piper under the title Notkers und seiner Schule Schriften (1883–1884).

See J. Kelle, Die Sankt Galler deutschen Schriften und Notker Labeo (Munich, 1888); G. Meyer von Knonau, “Lebensbild des heiligen Notker,” in Mitteil. Antiq. Gesellschaft Zürich (1877).