Biography

Information concerning Hermann's life survives principally in three documents, and there may be some iconographic evidence as well. Some of this information is open to interpretation and even to question; nevertheless, we have a more detailed picture of him than for most if not all other musicians of his time. A very important source is Hermann himself: among his works is a chronicle of world history, in which he mentions himself and some of his family on several occasions. While the usual caveats concerning autobiographical data apply, Hermann's information is not contradicted in other sources (though little of it can be confirmed, either). The second principal source is a Vita of Hermann written by his fellow monk and pupil Berthold (d. 1088). This is fairly straightforward; it is largely firsthand observation on Berthold's part, and the remaining data come, ostensibly, from Hermann. This Vita, then, is also a valuable source; its biggest weakness is an obvious lack of objectivity, as Berthold clearly venerated Hermann. A third source is an account of certain legends concerning Hermann, particularly pertaining to his becoming crippled, which survives in a single source now in Cambridge. Finally, a drawing possibly of Hermann survives from the mid-thirteenth century, and a fourteenth-century fresco may also depict him. Appendix 1 gives English translations of selected passages from the Chronica, Berthold's Vita, and the Legend.

Hermann was born into a noble family on July 18, 1013. His parents, Graf (Count) Wolfrat (Wolfrad, Wolveredus, etc.) II von Altshausen (ca. 990–1065), and his consort Hiltrud (ca. 992–1052), about whom little further is known, were well connected in Germanic (Ottonian) nobility. The known family relationships are given in figure I.1. Altshausen is in the southeastern corner of the modern German Bundesland of Baden-Württemburg, in the area now known as Oberschwaben, about 39.5 kilometers/24.6 miles northeast of Konstanz as the crow flies and about 112.1 km/69.1 mi west-southwest of Augsburg. In the eleventh century, this region was known as Alamania (or sometimes as Swabia) and included most of modern Baden-Württemburg, Alsace, and much of what is now north-central Switzerland. (See figures I.2 and I.3.) The family holdings included not only an estate at Altshausen but also land near Veringen (or Vehringen, modern Vöhringen).