EKKEHARD, ek'ke-hārt, OF AURA (Ekkehardus Uraugensis): Frankish Benedictine abbot of Aura (near Kissingen, 30 m, n.n.e. of Würzburg); b. in the eleventh century; d. Feb. 25 of some year after 1125. He was apparently a monk of the Bamberg monastery of Michelsberg, and in 1113 received benediction as abbot of Aura, which had been founded according to the rule of Hirschau, from Otto of Bamberg, who later became the apostle of the Pomeranians. He had previously lived in the monastery of Corvey, had visited Jerusalem as a pilgrim in 1101, and had attended the Lateran Council of April, 1102. He accompanied Otto of Bamberg on his visit to the pope in 1106, and was present at the Council of Guastalla. He apparently left his monastery in 1116, and attended the Lateran Council held in March. Ekkehard was the author of a universal chronicle, which he afterward revised four times. The original work extends to 1099, and is based on a similar work which originated in Würzburg, although he amplified it from other authors, such as Einhard, Widukind, Liutprand, and Richer, as well as from oral tradition and his own knowledge. He subsequently extended it to 1106, when he revised it twice, the last time on the basis of the chronicle of Sigibert of Gembloux, and carried it successively to 1114 and 1125. His work, which is not a mere compilation, is the most complete of all the medieval chronicles, although he is surpassed in depth and insight by Otto of Freising.

(WILHELM ALTMANN.)

 

Bibliography: Ekkehard's Chronicon and Hierosolimita, ed. G. Waits, are in MGH, vi (1844), 1-267. An excellent list of literature is given in Potthast, Wegweiser, pp. 400-401, cf. Wattenbach, DGQ, ii (1894), 189-198. Consult N. Reininger, in Archiv des historischen Vereins von Unterfranken und Aschaffenburg, xvi. 1-96. Würzburg, 1862; G. Buchholz, Ekkehard von Aura, Leipsic, 1888; J. Tessier, in Revue historique, xlvii (1891), 267-277.