Name/TitleThe Hodoeporican of St. Willibald: Huneberc of Heidenheim

About this objectThis early 9th-century manuscript contains the lives of the 8th century English brothers Winibald and Willibald, including an account of the pilgrimage of the latter to Jeruslaem. It is from Eichstätt in Germany where Winibald was Bishop. The author of the text was not known until 1931 when a scholar, Bernhard Bischoff, deciphered a seemingly meaningless sentence in the middle of the manuscript which reads:
'Secundumgquartum quintumnprimum sprimumxquartumntertium cprimum nquartummtertiumnsecundum hquintumgsecundum bquintumrc quartumrdinando hsecundumc scrtertium bsecundumbprimumm'
He realised that the vowels had been replaced by ordinal numbers and that if he used vowels the sentence read (in Latin):
'Ego una Saxonica nomine Hugeburc ordinando hec scribebam':
Namely: 'I, a Saxon nun called Hugeburc, have written this.' Hugeburc was related to the brothers.

Date Made8th c.

PeriodFrankish

Place MadeGermany

Subject and Association KeywordsPilgrimage

Subject and Association DescriptionLearn More: ;

Medium and MaterialsInk on parchment

TechniqueManuscript

Credit LineBayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich

Object numberEXH93: CLM 1086