Walafrid Strabo (c. 809–849)

Encyclopædia Orbis Latini

English: Walafrid the Squinter.

German scholar, b. Swabia. Educated at the abbey of Reichenau, he wrote, at 18, a Latin verse account of a journey to the hereafter, Visio Wettini. In 842 he returned to Reichenau as abbot. There he encouraged the production and exchange of manuscripts which made the library and scriptorium famous. Among Walafrid’s writings, renowned throughout the Middle Ages for their distinguished Latin, are Hortulus, a poem describing the monastery garden; a scriptural commentary; and notes on contemporary liturgy, still valuable as a source.