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Willeram

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(or Williram, also Walram and Waltramus) was a learned German monk, and native of Francohia. On his return from Paris, where he had been to study philosophy and belles-lettres under able masters, he was appointed prebendary at Bamberg; but ere long he assumed the garb of a monk and retired into the convent at Fulda. The report of his piety, his merits, and his learning reached the emperor Henry III, who gave to him the Abbey of Ebersberg, Bavaria, in 1048, where he passed the remainder of his days. Willeram died May 7, 1085. He seems to have been concerned to improve the material interests of his monastery, as a number of exchanges of property made by him are on record, among them the barter of several devotional books for a vineyard possessed by bishop Henry of Trident. He had the reputation of being a scholar and a poet. We are indebted to him for a double paraphrase of Solomon's Song, one in hexameter verse, in Latin, another in prose in the language of the ancient Franks. It was arranged in the form of a dialogue between bridegroom and bride. Several copies of this double work are preserved in manuscript in various libraries of Europe; the original is at the Abbey of Ebersberg. The Latin paraphrase had been brought out for the first time by Meenrad Molther of Augsburg, under the title Wilrami Abbatos in Cantica Salomonis Mystica Explanatio (Hagenau, 1528). Paul Mertula published the two texts, with notes and a Dutch translation, at Leyden, in 1598, entitled Willerami Parmaphrasis Geminu in Canticum Canticorum, prior Rhythmis Laiis; Aislteira, Veteri Lingua Francica. But, in spite of all his merit, his publication, after one poor manuscript was finished, remained incorrect and of little value. That which Marquard Freher had given in German from the, manuscript at Heidelberg is more highly estimated. It was published at Worms in 1631 under the title Uhralte Verdolmetschung des hohen Liedes Salomonis. Schiller, the author of Thesaurus Antiq. Teuton., formed a plan of reducing the work of Willeram, but he died before he had time to realize his project. His work was found among his papers, and Scherz took upon himself the task of completing it, and published it in Ulm in 1726. Through the efforts of M. de Fallersleben, an entire edition of the work was published by Hoffmann in German, at Breslau in .1827. See Oe'fele, Rerum Boicar. Script. 2, 1-46; Hirsch, Jahrb. d. deutschen Reichs unter Heinrich- 1I, 1, 150; Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen. im Mittelalter, p.. 217 sq.; Giesebrecht, Geschd. deutsch. Kaiserzeit (2d ed.), 2, 540; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. G neral, s.v.